On 9/7/07, Rich Holton <richholton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
All of us that are not list moderators suffer from
ignorance. We don't
know what is prevented from reaching the list. We don't know how much
We don't filter much out. Less than 1% of messages, probably. And
because we don't want to be accused of being the Cabal, we err on the
side of inclusion.
Of course there is a huge amount of actual spam sent to this list, but
that's a separate problem.
junk is filtered out. We don't know how many
messages from moderated
users are filtered out, nor do we know the nature of those moderated
messages.
It's not very exciting. It's mostly just a continuation of rants which
started on the list, but that everyone eventually tired of. You know,
3 months later and someone's still complaining about having been
blocked.
If we're in a suspicious mood, we might imagine
that the moderators are
suppressing opinions they don't agree with. Let me rush to say that I
don't tend towards suspiciousness, at least with the moderators of this
list. I'm just pointing out that lack of knowledge can breed suspicion
and fear.
If this was the case, it wouldn't be hard for aggrieved parties to
complain, perhaps by personally emailing other contributors on the
list. If they thought only one moderator was at fault, they could
email wikien-l-owner, so we could all see what was going on.
Just dreaming for a moment, without thought as to
implementation
details, it would be instructive to have a place where any list members
(only) could go and see what is *not* published to the list. This would
give information to those that desire it, provide a sort of "check" for
the moderators, and still keep the list free from garbage.
Yeah, but you'd still be trusting the moderators to set that up,
wouldn't you? Besides, most of that junk is somewhat abusive, if not
downright libellous.
Steve