Martoni ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) scribbled: > On Apr 8, 2005 1:07 PM, Jason Cooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Martoni ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) scribbled: > > > Yeah, rules might be fine. > > > Will everyone follow them I wonder. > > > The risk with introducing strict rules for a discussion group (or list) > > > is > > > that, IMHO, increases the risk of starting flamewars. > > > People not expecting one or more, more or less polite pointers to > > > Google, > > > f.g.o and whatnot, might easily misunderstand those mails. > > > > Please qoute the relevant portions of messages you are replying to. Now > > I'm left with a sudden tightness in my chest at the thought of a control > > freak trying to place a bunch of unenforceable rules on the > > mailinglists. :) > > Oh - not to worry. Just people wanting some structure in their lives :) > > I suppose I meant to quote this: > >I think that we should make some rules for the list. > > But never got round to it. > > My experience is that strictish rules on forums/lists are seen by a number > of people "to be meant to be violated" - perhaps I've just been on all the > wrong lists (except Gentoo-users which I've found to be extremely civil in > comparison to too many).They also tend to bring forth the controll freaks > raving about enforcment of more or less intelligent rules. :( > All leading to bandwidth vasting flamewars.
agreed. Some folks spend too much time inside the computer bubble (where control is absolute and results are black and white). They then think the same strict solution-set can be applied to a group of people from all over the world with different personality types. Isn't it "When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail"? :) There's something to be said for law & order, especially pertaining to maintenance of a civilized society. However, the assumed caveat is that the laws (rules, here) are enforceable. If there are no means to effectively enforce a rule, then the presence of the rule (and half-assed attempts to enforce it) are worse than no rule. Say there were rules on this list, and someone broke one (eg I said "ass" above, oops, I did it again :) ). What could we do? blacklist the email address? Anyone got a gmail invite? We haven't stopped the _person_ from posting, just forced them to use a different account. And now they want to make a point. Well, that's just peachy. We just made the problem worse. With the current setup, annoyances pop up, are mostly ignored, then fade out. Effective deployment of the delete key is the best defense, IMO. An MUA (like mutt) that threads mail and allows for the deletion of entire threads with one keystroke is even better. </soapbox> just my $0.02 Cooper. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
