David Gerard wrote:
http://original-research.blogspot.com/2007/11/wikien-l.html
Others have been saying this and I'm increasingly convinced. Time to
write some harsher content rules, then start over with no-one joined
until they expressly join.
Thoughts?
I'm all for trying something different. Of the dozen or so lists I
actually follow, this one definitely has the worst signal-to-noise ratio.
We can't get away with hot-tubbing[1] here, alas. So I'd suggest we come
up with a few different lists, at least some of which are very strict in
purpose, with charters ruthlessly enforced.
Off the top of my head, I'd suggest these:
* wikien-interesting: A maximum of few posts a day of interesting
things about or on Wikipedia. Heavily moderated, with the
assumption that most posts are rejected. It would include
interesting press mentions, new research, major activity on the
site, or links to especially interesting blog posts about
Wikipedia. No discussion, ever. Kinda like a Wikipedia-specific
Boing Boing.
* wikien-forum: A heavily moderated (or perhaps better put, curated)
discussion list. Slow-paced, thoughtful discussion, limited in
volume, and with a strong bias against rejecting rants,
windmill-tilting, person-to-person argument, repetition, and
points unlikely to lead anywhere interesting, and a mild bias
against posts from frequent contributors.
* wikien-open: The relatively open discussion that takes up much of
the list now, with a bit more behavior-based moderation.
In some community contexts I'd lean toward something even more open,
something like "wikien-open-sewer". But although it would be good to
channel that energy away from the main lists, I suspect we're better off
letting that happen somewhere else on the Internet.
I could also see a place for some topic-specific lists, but none come to
mind right away.
William
I agree, a nice theory. I'd support
Phoenix-wiki