On 11/22/05, SJ 2.718281828@gmail.com wrote:
I'm not sure exactly what you were responding to above. My suggestion, at least, was not for the new mailing lists to produce consensus -- this would come about on the main mailing list once a more heated and detailed discussion has been played out on the topic-specific list. I am suggesting that topics which tend to a) be quite heated and b) involve the same small set of people over and over, should be given their own list for the standard argument-cycle to play out; and then can post summaries of that cycle to the main mailing list. When consensus needs to be reached, the whole discussion could move to the main list, or better yet a suitable wiki.
SJ
Well, if you're going to obtain organization-wide consensus, then it'd be a good idea to obtain consensus within a self-selected sub-committee first. Of course, that assumes that by consensus you mean something actually approaching consensus.
It's a good idea in theory, but signing up for and using multiple mailing lists is somewhat of a pain in the ass, so I'm not so sure how well it would work in practice.
Anthony