On 4/28/05, ultrablue@gmail.com ultrablue@gmail.com wrote:
In an effort to pre-empt situations like this, I inserted the followin text on the Mailing List information page (http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l): "There are no formal rules for the mailing list. However, users are generally expected to follow good practice similar to Wikiquette. That is, users should assume good faith and be polite and constructive. Users who are extremely disruptive or uncivil may be banned from the mailing list by the administrators." For more about Wikiquette, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikiquette.
Sounds sensible to me.
I know it's probably a bad thing making up policy like this, but as I'm sure you'll agree, John, it's better to have some policy rather than none at all, as you had been complaining. Since I unilaterally made up this guideline, I welcome input from the mailing list and other administrators to help shape it into a practical policy that is acceptable to everyone.
Actively controlling the list membership is something to be avoided except in egregious cases (e.g. when someone abusive keeps rejoining to continue being abusive), because it resembles work and work is bad, as is [[m:Instruction creep]]. But this sounds obviously sensible.
- d.