Re: Wishing for an off-topic mail list with debian-user participants (or most of them)
On 19-08-2021 16:23, Jonathan Dowland wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 01:34:24AM -0400, Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside wrote:
>>What if ? What if there wasn't any *bad* user ? You are the one bringing
>>over old subject that you consider off-topic. You seem really touched by
>>giving your self a role as governor of a mailing list or policing what's
>>acceptable and not. But don't seem to understand that the community
>>itself made the choice of having this list un-moderated.
>
> I can't speak for Brian but I've been subscribed to this list for a long
> time and I've seen a change in how it is being used, which I think is
> harmful to its core purpose, and so I (and others) are trying to find a
> way to fix that. With respect, you've only been active here for a very
> short while, so you don't have the perspective that others do on the
> problem.
>
> People posting off-topic and going off on tangents has always happened.
Correct!
> What has changed is the frequency and duration of those tangents, which
> are now drowning out everything else.
Do you really think it's that bad?
I can remember back when I would wake up in the morning to have over 300
list messages on screen.
And, many of those were Off-Topic but, usually, people were reasonably
active in labelling them as such.
On the other hand, the majority, as it is now, would be on topic.
Some _technically_ productive content would be there, and often, once
that purpose had been served, many of those would become off-topic,
also.
But, as I have recently stated, interaction, within a community, is
important, whether the content is on or off-topic.
Within reason.
When carried to the extreme, it's not productive.
And, further, those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to
repeat it.
We've had an off-topic mailing list in the past.
I actually signed up for it and spent a little time there.
It was a ghost town.
It simply didn't work.
Cheers!
Harry.
--
`Unthinking respect for authority is
the greatest enemy of truth'.
-- Albert Einstein
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