From: Max M (maxm@mail.tele.dk)
Date: Tue Aug 19 2003 - 04:01:28 MDT
I just have a few comments about the recent expulsions and exits of the
list.
Somehow this is a very personal issue, but I really don't feel
comfortable about discussing personal issues as it very easy becomes ad
hominem. So I will try to keep it general.
As far as I can see, the problem with certain posters is not their
political views. One side or the other.
The problem has allways been about skewing the direction of the list.
There is an infinite amount of subjects that can be discussed on a
mailing list. But for it to be an Extropian mailing list, the subjects
need some kind of extropian content.
Some subjetcs are clearly extropian some are clearly not extropian. And
in between are subjects that are only sligtly extropian.
Some of these "fringe" subjects are of great interrest to some extropians.
As far as I see, some posters has a tendency to skew the comments they
read, and lead them in the direction of their special interrest. So they
reply to a posting on another subject and make it into a thread about
their favourite subject.
Sort of "If you got a hammer everything looks like a nail."
Also they have a tendency to reply more often to other postings in these
their favourite subject areas.
This has the effect that they kind of hi-jack the list and make it into
a kind of special interrest group for something that is only slightly
extropian.
So the list gets skewed.
And it is hard to put a finger on exactly what the problem is, as the
subjects are somewhat extropian. But their "fringenes" and the amount of
skewed subjects makes it into a general problem for the list.
Wich makes other people on the list frustrated.
Personally I saved several months of messages in an inbox. Then I sorted
them by sender and evaluated who had made to many skewed postings in
those months. My mailfilter then puts them into a special folder that i
only view occationally.
The funny thing is that there was many entire threads that ended up in
my "fringe" folder. Because some "groups" mostly comunicated with each
other about the fringe subjects.
But I don't think that is the best solution. The fringe subjects DO
belong on the list, just not in the volume that it can sometime be.
So I am all in favour of list moderation to keep the discussions in the
center of the gaussian normal distribution of relevant subjects.
regards Max M Rasmussen, Denmark
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Aug 19 2003 - 04:10:40 MDT