OT: Handling Politics the plug-discuss way?

[Ryan Rix]

Alan Dayley wrote:

> #3 would be very bad.  This minimizes the ability to provide immediate
> and timely tech support when it is needed.  I don't like this idea at
> all unless someone were moderating the list 24/7 so that there is zero
> delay on the messages that need to go quick.  Otherwise we have cut a
> significant part of the value of the list.  And I don't see 24/7
> moderation as realistic, even if a team of people volunteered

Thing is, mailman can already filter based on subject. We could just mark 
all OT: threads as needing-moderation and it would NOT hurt the normal 
discussions at all -- normal threads are delivered in a timely fashion. 
Sorry if I did not make that clear.
At this point, it could be a matter of monitoring the list, and if, in 
normal usage, a person could simply label their reply as OT-Poltical when 
the topic is becoming OT-Political, and at that point, all replies would be 
stuck in the moderation queue.

The reason that this is the best option, imo, is that it gives the best of 
both worlds (moderated v. unmoderated) I think that #2 is a viable option 
only if it is technologically feasible. I'm not sure how/if mailman supports 
inter-list communications and how it could route them (the user will default 
to mailing plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us by default, based on their 
mailing client) I see no way to do it if mailman doesn't support it. The 
problem is that, by default, users will no move their discussion to this 
list without being asked, and even then, the question of whether it happens 
is largely up in the air.