How to handle OT & spam on a mail list

[Dennis Kibbe]

>On 27 Mar 2008 21:50:58 -0700, Dennis Kibbe <dennisk at member.fsf.org> wrote:
> Mail clients, like Evolution & T'bird are not designed to handle mail
>lists where you receive a large volume of mail that can clog your inbox
>and which is often off topic.

>  Dennis,  Herein lies the problem- the sematics of 'off topic'.  'Off
>topic' has an entirely subjective use.  For those who subscribe to
>this list to trade System Administration tips, this thread is *Off
>Topic*.

And that's exactly my point isn't it? "Mod" my posts down if they are of
no interest to you and mod other up that you are interested in. A news
reader can do that for you a mail client can't.

>
>  One way to get around this problem is to read the list with a
newsreader like pan or gnus (Emacs). You can do this at www.gmane.org
by subscribing to gmane.org.user-groups.linux.phoenix.

>  There are lots of tools available for mitigating the problems you,
>and many others before you, have identified.  Blogging, Digg, Social
>Networking and many more are established methods of managing the
>problem of signal-to-noise ratios on internet based communications
>media.  While I am not really that familiar with gmane, it is hardly
>the dominant solution for this class of problems.

Since this is an unmoderated mail list the social tools don't come into
play here. You can't "digg" post up and have the "good stuff" rise to the
top.

Gmane gives a lot of flexibility in reading a mail list. One of the
problems newbies have with mail lists is that they feel overwhelmed with
the volume and soon unsubscribe.

>   What confuses the hell out of me is why have all this legal
>overhead when these usage scenarios can be enforced with technology
>rather than stipulating acceptable behavior guidelines such as you
>have just done.  I mean, this is a group for computer programmers
>right?

legal overhead? I don't understand what you mean here. This isn't a
moderated list so there is no way to enforce any kind of behavior.

How have I stipulated any behavior guidelines? Is it in reminding people
that administrative tasks are handled outside of the mail list proper?

And no, this isn't a group of computer programmers, it's a list for Linux
users of all levels from Linux graybeards to Ubuntu newbies. One thing
that PLUG can't afford is to alienate is new users.

>  "NO TOP POSTING!!!!!"

Ah, now that's an acceptable behavior guideline I agree with!

>  Best,

>   Joshua Zeidner
>
>   - http://www.joshuazeidner.com/

Dennisk

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