Re: netiquette on other lists
On Wed, Apr 16, 2003 at 07:43:21PM +0100, Karsten M. Self wrote:
>
> You don't mention whether or not the lists are officially (or
> implicitly) supported by you, or by the school. Or what your
> alternatives are.
Well, I maintain the mailman installation. The lists are hosted by
the university LUG. But it is only a service towards univesity
members. Our LUG subcribe the freshman the first year, and if they
want they can go though the other lists for each year.
The only altervative is a (stupid) forum somebody else set up (because
he thinks a forum is easier than a mailinglist)
> I've subscribed to several nontechnical lists in which the clash of
> cultures was too great and I simply left. Clue migration is always an
> option. If you can't change the list, try setting up a clueful one,
> often under the guise of a moderated and/or invitation-only list.
When I would try this the list wouldnt reach the most of the
students. And thus would it mean a fragmentation of information.
Like we now have with that forum a couple of people use.
> It's also useful to enforce rules uniformly and from the start. And to
> be fair about it. Gentle reminders are the best policy, as are widely
> established rules (unless the list caters to and embraces eccentricity).
> I've had some particularly bad encounters myself with the list-Nazi at
> LUGoD, Peter Jay Salzman. The problem being a combination of unusual
> rules, misapplied rules, arbitrary enforcement, censorious intent, and
> ham-handed interventions. A light touch is best.
You have a point that I should have layed out some general rules in
the beginning, but I didn't do that. Mostly because the third (now)
year list didn't need this, and I thought they wouldn't too.
<about teaching the others to follow the widely know rules>
> See above and ask yourself if you're being reasonable and appropriate in
> your approach. It might also help to find if there are others who
> appreciate your efforts. Most rules of (n)ettiquette are a concensus
> reality, and if the concensus is against you, so be it.
Well the only thing that they could blame me of (I think) is that I
sometimes try to convince some Windows maniac about the power of
GNU/Linux. But hey, it a mailinglist for computer science students...
And ofcourse that I always say that they should follow the rules. But
mostly I only do this if I see someone constently breaking the rules.
Hmm, the once called me the "mailinglist police" :)
> Ultimately you either have the right to ban people from a list or not.
> If you don't, then there's the "clue migration factor", being largely
> that the s/n of an unmanaged list falls over time until the high value
> participants cease and move elsewhere. You end up with noise, shouting,
> cacophony, and spam.
Well I don't want to ban them, or can't ban them. They know me
personnaly.
I see them boycotting me. E.g. we have to do project in groups etc.
...
> Then don't. If you don't need to provide the service, walk away from
> it, and/or set up an alternative, which you do control, elsewhere.
Thanks for your enlightening view on this. I think I'll try to look
for another list moderator. Maybe I'll ask the one who hates me the
most, just to look what will happen to the list.
Rudy
--
Rudy Gevaert rudy@zeus.ugent.be
Web page http://www.webworm.org
GNU/Linux user and Savannah hacker http://savannah.gnu.org
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built
the ark; professionals built the Titanic.
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