Re: META: re: Improving the Extropians list

Mike Linksvayer (ml@justintime.com)
Wed, 16 Jun 1999 11:39:14 -0700

Elizabeth Childs wrote:
> > 1) There should be a limit of three posts per day per subscriber.
>
> Gina Miller posts more than three times a day, and it's all signal. If
> for some reason people decide this is a good idea, I suggest tacking on
> the end "except nanogirl".

I strongly disagree. Most of Gina Miller's posts are forwards of news items with no added commentary or contextualization. I can and do get interesting science news elsewhere. On this list for me simple forwards of news items just add to the noise.

If a poster wants to provide some value to the list in forwarding news items, they should take some time to explain why the news is important to extropian concerns, point out potential problems with the news, and draw potential connections to other recent (or not so recent) happenings. The best semi-regular example of this would be Anders' occasional summaries of interesting things he has read in journals.

Whether it is posting news or engaging in debate, I don't see how anyone could have time to make more than three well thought out posts a day.

Each post will be considered by several hundred people for anywhere from a split second (to delete on sight) to several minutes. By putting some of their own time into making quality posts, posters show respect other subscribers' time.

I support a three post/day/subscriber limit. I do not support a 5k/post limit, as sometimes a well thought out post requires more than 5k.

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