Hoi, I am at the Commons usability conference in Paris. I am not on any internal mailing lists. It has become painfully obvious that as a consequence of a refusal to any longer post on the foundation-l by several people present at this conference, the use of foundation-l has been severely diminished.

There have been frequent threads and pleas on this list to moderate the output of opinions, restated opinions, and the people who are asked to do so are adamant that it is their "democratic right" or whatever to state what they have to say, that the onus of selecting what thread to read is on the reader.

The consequence for me has been that the frequency that I post on this list has decreased a lot. I now blog and this has proven to be more effective. However for the issue at hand at this conference, there is little likelihood that it will be discussed on this list. It will not be because several of the key people refuse to. For me to keep informed, I will have to get access to the internal list or I will find that much of what is happening will pass me by.

The argument about "democratic right" to be heard is balanced with the argument for our "democratic right" to be informed. We are not informed and will not be informed because of the verbal diarrhoea by some and their unrepentant claim that they are not responsible for the results. As I indicated earlier I have no solution. The only solution I see is moderation. Moderation preferably by the people involved but I would like us to consider the moderation by moderators whereby people can be in extremis be completely removed from the list.

Let us be clear, the value of foundation-l has a direct relation to the quality of the discussions. The signal to noise ratio has devalued this list. It is however the only mailing list that qualifies. Maybe and probably mail is not the best technology for the existing unbridled discussion, Google Wave has more potential but that is not the technology that is currently available to us.

Please read it as an appeal to reply to foundation-l in moderation. Please read it as an appeal to post liberally to this list as we do not have an alternative. Thanks, GerardM