OT - Re: Off topic kills value of the list and group

[Joshua Zeidner]

On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 4:11 PM, Alex Dean <alex at crackpot.org> wrote:

>
> On Nov 5, 2008, at 3:56 PM, Alan Dayley wrote:
>
>> I agree that off-topic stuff will happen from time to time.  It cannot
>> be fully prevented unless someone is tightly moderating.  Tightly
>> moderating is not what I want to do or experience on this list!
>>
>
> Sorry to pile on, but I'd just like to add some observations.
>
> We've had one major blowup a day after the biggest election in a
> generation.  We were pretty free of political OT stuff during the 2 years
> (wow!) of the campaign, and I sense (hope?) that this particular thread is
> all drawing to a close.
>
> These are exceptional circumstances, and if this is the worst that comes of
> it, I think we're doing fine.  This is self-regulation at work, just takes a
> while to put the brakes on a runaway garbage truck.



  I agree, these threads would be far less bothersome if they didn't result
it 'OT recursion' as I'll call it.

  Secondly, I find reading about the politics and other aspects of linux
users lives to be informative.  Everyone's always complaining about the
horror of OT threads, but what are the 'on topic' threads?  If you're
looking for reading material such as 'Jim's misadventures in Shell
programming', or 'Best Disto EVAR by Bob', thats fine, but perhaps some get
other usage out of this list, and the way I see it until you introduce
moderation its something you're going to have to deal with.  Don't forget,
there are such options available, but for reasons we can only speculate on,
people only like to come here.

  -jmz
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