Re: rampant offtopic and offensive posts to debian-user

[Ben Finney <bignose+hates-spam@benfinney.id.au>]

andreimpopescu@gmail.com (Andrei Popescu) writes:

> On Sat, May 19, 2007 at 12:26:59AM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote:
>  
> > If you want to be off topic yet marginally related to Debian, use
> > -curiosa. If it has nothing to do with Debian at all, pick from
> > the multitude of fora where it would be on topic.
>  
> [qoute Joey Hess] To be clear, I am not suggesting a rigid adherence
> to on-topic discussion. Offtopic discussions can help as social
> lubrication and can help a community come together.  [/quote]

Joey is, I believe, referring to a healthy level of off-topic
discussions on *any* list, not to creating a specific area for
"off-topic" messages. For the messages to be "social lubricant", they
need to be *interspersed* with the on-topic discussions in a way that
doesn't detract from the discussions.

If the volume of messages in an off-topic thread is large enough that
an entire separate list is being considered, the off-topic diversion
is already beyond the level Joey describes as "social lubricant" and
into the level of disruptive noise.

-- 
 \       "I'm having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time. I feel like |
  `\           I've forgotten this before sometime."  -- Steven Wright |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney