Off topic kills value of the list and group

[Craig White]

On Wed, 2008-11-05 at 15:56 -0700, Alan Dayley wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 3:44 PM, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
> > ----
> > sounds reasonable but doesn't fly...mail lists always have their
> > off-topic dalliances and learning to cope, delete, respond or whatever
> > is just part and parcel of the medium. Perhaps we need another round of
> > top or bottom posting, html mail suitability or just go for one of the
> > tried and true pointless discussions such as vi or emacs/gnome or
> > kde/which distro is best just to satisfy the notion that it isn't always
> > politics.
> >
> > Yes, it has useless stuff...in fact, I would point out that the OP of
> > the 'We are screwed' thread has a noise to signal ratio of about 90%. I
> > do not ask that he or anyone be removed from the list and support his
> > right to post as much as anyone's because I too can filter or just
> > delete his nonsense as I see fit.
> >
> > While I appreciate that on its face, there seems little to be served by
> > having a political discussion on list, it is encouraging to see a
> > diverse point of view by the list members and while I have a tough time
> > finding respect for low quality, unsubstantiated opinions typically
> > expressed by Mike Havens, I do enjoy vigorous discussions for those I do
> > disagree and it does help all of us recognize that there are disparate
> > opinions. This is not a one-off type of commentary from Mike Havens and
> > I'm quite sure that many are aware of that.
> >
> > My own personal disappointment stems from the apparent lack of interest
> > in topics such as the H1B visas, the release of the white space
> > bandwidth by the FEC and end up getting swamped by traffic about Obama
> > being a Socialist which is about as stupid as political discourse can
> > get these days.
> >
> > The easy solution is that people who sign up for mail lists learn how to
> > use their delete key or better yet, the combination of 'threads' and the
> > delete key can just kill an entire thread in a single click.
> 
> 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!
> 
> I, however, disagree that the answer is just to use the delete key.
> The community must express it's "rules" and put down detours before
> they even approach extreme.  Else, the reason for the list ceases to
> be.  It would be personally painful for me to leave this list but if
> the off-topic stuff grew too much, I would loose interest in the
> signal because of the noise.
> 
> We are now at well over 80 messages is in the "screwed" thread with
> more in the "had to do it" thread.  That's far enough off the defined
> boundaries to just tell people to use the delete key, IMO.  For
> unplanned reasons I am working from home today.  The web interface to
> my work email does not provide threads or a good search feature.  I
> had to select each message one by one to delete them from around the
> work emails I needed to see.  Not everyone has the knowledge or
> ability to apply a filter and be done with it.
----
comments such as the ones put forth by Keith Smith just now MUST be
challenged...sorry

Craig