[ExI] Moderation on the ExiCh list

[Giulio Prisco (2nd email)]

I agree with Stefano. in particular on his list of sins.

Moderation is one of the many tools that help maintaining a mailing
list. It should be exercised with great care and not very frequently.

On the lsts that I moderate, I use these simple rules:
a) Spammers in the conventional sense are out at the first offense,
without warning.
b) Single issue trolls and those who always insult others receive one,
maximum two polite warnings, and then they are out.

G.

On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 12:58 PM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/12/5 Robert Bradbury <robert.bradbury at gmail.com>:
>> But as a person of conviction, I happen to believe in the first article of
>> the Bill of Rights, e.g. "Congress shall make no law respecting an an
>> establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise thereof [1]; OR
>> ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH [2], .." should be taken very seriously.
>
> Interesting. I am myself a moderator of a few lists, and in turn
> happened at least once to be the victim of the moderation (or rather
> the owner) of a list at that time managed by one of my couple of
> personal trolls/poltergeists, who interpreted such role as the ability
> to engage in, by no means "moderate", attacks and flames where the
> ability of the other party to reply is by definition restricted.
> Unsurprisingly, the list members eventually migrated elsewhere,
> including those who had not directly suffered such behaviours...
>
> I think that both the moderation when in doubt should err on the side
> of the freedom of speech (and be very vigilant with regard to its own
> personal and ideological biases) AND that a moderation should exist.
> This not only as a matter of ideological or aesthetical taste, but for
> very practical reasons which have to do with its continuing viability
> and success.
>
>> The point of a moderated list would presumably be to minimize the exposure
>> of the list to defamation lawsuits, and in some cases "accuracy" statements
>> (say the Raelians were to start auto-cross-posting their fluff.
>
> No. The real point of moderation and the real (and only) cardinal sin
> in mailing lists is IMHO Off-Topic. Flames are off-topic. Spam is
> off-topic. Ad hominem are off-topic. Tireless single-issue evangelism
> is off-topic. Bilateral chit-chat is off-topic. Off-topic is what
> reduce the signal-to-noise ratio, annoys and ultimately keep away
> other participants. Cut the OT, but only the OT, and you have nothing
> else that you need (or should) do.
>
> --
> Stefano Vaj
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>



-- 
Giulio Prisco
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Giulio_Prisco
aka Eschatoon Magic
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Eschatoon