[Sigia-l] moderation (of various sorts)

[Peter Merholz]

> Ziya writes:
> > This list has seen far worse exchanges in the past and somehow seems to
have
> > survived. I'm not entirely sure what the current emergency is about that
> > requires such a drastic measure that could potentially sap the vibrancy
of
> > the list and pave way for its demise.
>
> Go figure...seems not to have hurt the CHI-WEB folks.

I disagree, with both of you!

CHI-Web has suffered terribly because of moderation. There's little real
"discussion" on the list. There's usually requests for information, and
posted summaries. Which, I suppose, is fine, but the quality of discussion
has, in my perception, suffered.

In general, I'm against list moderation for the reasons Ziya mentions.
However, I also recognize that SIGIA is suffering, that people are leaving,
that I'm not paying as much attention, etc.

There are ways to deal with it. The one I'm most in favor of is "the silent
treatment." Just ignore those whose agenda are clearly one of provocation
without any real value. Don't reply to their idiocy. Let it slide. After a
while, that person will stop posting or change their tone.

Another way, which is probably unacceptable, is what on another list is
called "hot tubbing." In this scenario, the list is closed down, flushed
out, and reopened. The thing being, you can only join the list by
invitation... A current list member would "sponsor" new members. This will
encourage the maintenance of civility on the list. While it seems that it
would also create an echo chamber where everyone agrees with each other, my
experience suggests no... People will disagree, often disagree vociferously,
but they'll disagree respectfully.

--peter