Many apologies if there have been list admin duties to attend to; I've
been tied up with many other things and have not had time to keep up
with the flood of messages to this list.
Glancing briefly through my inbox I seem to have noticed a couple of
issues (one issue? whatever) regarding a disruptive/distracting/
unwelcome/unwholesome list member which have sparked an extended
debate.
I have little to say about the incident in question, since I haven't
read all the discussion. However, some general pointers:
1. It always helps to have a list charter, especially if there is
pressure to be demonstrably open and non-exclusive in membership. If
a list member persists in posting messages which are contrary to the
list charter, then there is every justification in ejecting that user.
I mention this, fully realising that debating a list charter may not
be a trivial task :) Perhaps something simple to start with, along the
lines that personal attacks and extended off-topic postings are not
appropriate -- the charter can always be modified as the list matures.
2. Mechanics. It is within my awesome power (as list co-dictator :) to
throw various switches to control the way the list functions. Here are
some examples:
+ private -- the idno list is already private, which means you need
to be subscribed in order to post. This generally acts as a spam filter
and I threw this switch for that reason.
+ moderated -- every submission to the list needs to be approved by
a nominated moderator (or one of several moderators). This will
dramatically slow down the flow of debate on any list. The idno
list is currently un-moderated; the idno-announce list is moderated.
+ invite-only -- people cannot subscribe to this list; they need to
be invited.
+ sub-approve -- subscription requests need to be approved by a list owner
before they are allowed to be completed.
+ probation -- users need to be subscribed for a certain length of time
before they are allowed to post; if they attempt to post before the
probation period is up, their posting is sent to a list owner for
approval (just like a moderated list).
It doesn't look to me like any of these necessarily need to be changed.
However, at the risk of sparking further off-topic debate, I thought
I'd bring them up in case some of them seem useful. [There are more
options available too -- ask if you'd like some kind of behaviour
implemented].
3. List archive.
The idno and idno-announce lists started their lives un-archived, but
I started archiving around [IDNO:89]. These archives are not currently
published on the web, but it is trivial for me to do so should this be
desirable. See http://www.patho.gen.nz/list/ape-discuss/ to see what
kind of thing is available.
That's all! Feel free to return to your previous threads now -- and
if there is anything I can do (along the lines mentioned above, or
otherwise) please mail me directly.
Joe
--
Join the constituency for Individual Domain Name Owners
http://www.democracy.org.nz/idno/
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