[HPforGrownups] Re: Factual Errors (was Voldemort's choice of Harry)

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 77403

Hello, Everyone,

I'm a bit leery of posting this to the main list, as I fear it's not on
topic. However, I think some important stuff is being addressed here, and I
want to add my comments. And if it ends up on OT, most of the people to
whom I'm speaking probably wouldn't see it. I'm not a moderator, and have
absolutely no official authority to say these things. But I've been a
member of this list for a while now, and I enjoy it, and it's important to
me that it remains a pleasant place for us to discuss all things Potter.
So, I apologise to the Mods if this is inappropriate, but here goes:

James wrote:
> 
> Too right.  Am I the only one who's sick of telling people things 
> like this?  I think the admins should start making a list of facts 
> people keep screwing up and list them in the database somewhere.  
> For instance:

<snip>
 
> James Redmont, who feels that getting the facts straight will allow 
> these discussions to be more enjoyable!
 
To which Geoff responded:

"Bear in mind that we all feel the same way at times. I have answered 
queries on several occasions lately only to find someone asking the 
same thing a day or so later. We just have to remember that there are 
a huge number of posts coming in; I don't think I've been in a Usenet 
group or a Yahoo! group with such a heavy post before. "

Now me (Wendy):

I'm with James on this one. I see your point Geoff, but the fact is that we
have rules on this list, and lately, IMHO, there are lots and lots of
posters who haven't been following them. I know there are TONS of new
people on this list in the past couple of months, and that they need a bit
of time to get up to speed with how the list works. But when I joined, I
made a point of carefully reading through all the posting guidelines and
following them to the best of my ability, and I don't think it's too much
to expect for others to do the same. In my own case, I went back and read
some of the things that had been posted in the past, and I lurked for a
while before posting, so I could get a feel for the tone of the discussions
on the board. I'm not suggesting everyone else should do this, but I do
think that it's not too much to expect for someone to do a bit of research
of their own before submitting something to the list. Of course discussion
topics are going to come up again and again here. That's part of the fun.
But I get really annoyed to read a first time poster starting out with, "I
haven't seen this discussed on the list. I joined yesterday," and then
continue on with a post about something that had been discussed in depth
the week before (sometimes, literally, even the day before). There is a
search function on the message board, and no matter how much we joke about
Yahoomort, I've always had pretty good luck searching. It's at least worth
a try. Reading through all the messages in a thread before making a
response is also a good idea. If everyone did that, we could avoid having
twelve different people repeating the same answers to one-line questions.
And I don't see it as being the job of the Mods to create yet another FAQ.
There already is an impressive FAQ on this list. It's up to each list
member to take the time to read it before posting messages to the list.

Moving on to a slightly different subject, I have also been really annoyed
lately with the number of posts which have just not been following the
basic posting rules. There's even been one on this thread - a "Me Too" post
in which the poster then blithely admitted she had nothing else to say. Not
to pick on this person in partcular, but that post should have been seent
privately to James. I'm totally in favour of the "Me Too" post to the
author - it's great to hear from someone that they enjoyed something you
wrote. But that is supposed to happen off-list if there's nothing new being
added to the discussion. Of course, I'm much angrier about it when I've had
to scroll down six pages of unsnipped material to find the one line of
non-info. Snipping seems to have become a bit of a problem here, even with
people who are adding something new to the discussion. My understanding of
the posting guidelines is that we should be trying to leave only the
*minimum* information from past messages in our responses, just to put our
comments into context. If someone wants to read the first poster's comments
in their entirety, that message can be found by going upthread, or by
looking around a bit on the message board.

I love this list, and I've been a member for about a year and a half now,
and in that time I have done my best to follow the posting rules (although
I'm probably breaking several with this post). We're all grownups here, so
I expect other posters to do the same. Of course, it's the job of the
moderators to make sure things run smoothly, and I think they do a great
job. I can't even imagine how much work it must be to keep up with the
volume of posts now that list membership is up over 10,000. And in general,
the rules and the current system DO work. Very well, in fact. I'm amazed
now to go out onto other lists and be utterly shocked by the low-quality of
messages that float around out there. This list is not like that at all -
our discussions are conducted at a very high level, and I really appreciate
that. Having said that, I have also found that in recent weeks, there are a
huge number of posts which have been a waste of my time, purely because of
carelessness on the part of the poster, and failing to follow list
guidelines. I would humbly suggest that maybe some regular reminders go out
about how we are supposed to be posting on this list. I agree that
discussions here will be a lot more enjoyable for everyone if we are all
following the rules, or at least making a conscious effort to do so - we
all make mistakes now and again. (I made one myself yesterday, off-list
thankfully). But if we're all aware of the guidelines and doing our best to
follow them, this group will continue to be a fantastic place for us to
discuss these books that we all love so very much.

Respectfully,

Wendy St. John