[Sigia-l] moderation (of various sorts)

[George Olsen]

I agree with Peter. CHI-Web lacks the vibrancy we have here. What disturbs
me is we've lost the respectfulness that characterized earlier fairly
intense debates.

I've run mailing lists before and unfortunately they do tend to attract
the ocassional attention-getter, whose presence can be quite disruptive
(and even brought down a mailing list or two as people decided they didn't
want to deal with the hassles).

The question is how to best deal with it.

Moderation is a pain and in my experience tends to hurt the list
discussions. Banning members who repeatedly violate list rules can be
effective but brings on charges of censorship.

Consequently, I agree with Peter and Ziya that the silent treatment is
usually the most effective. Afterall, it takes two to flame.

If you find someone disruptive, just set up a mail filter to screen out
their posts. Someone throwing a tantrum to an empty house will eventually
get bored and leave.