Spinning off the moderation discussion to its own thread. On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 7:45 PM, MZMcBride &lt;z(a)mzmcbride.com&gt; wrote: I agree that we probably should have stepped up and put a halt to things earlier. For my part, I didn't check my e-mail for the last 36 hours or so; I read the first part of the discussion Sunday night, and checked back a few hours ago. That said, we have lives beyond moderating this list. I would not be opposed to adding another active moderator to help out, but a few months ago, when we actively sought additional moderators, I was seriously underwhelmed by the number of people who volunteered. On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 7:47 PM, &lt;WJhonson(a)aol.com&gt; wrote: We have a fundamental disagreement, then, as to the point of moderation. To me, moderation is not to stuff a sock in anyone's mouth, it's to improve the quality of discussion by adding a gate-keeper for those users who need one. While Will has made quality posts to the list, he's also made posts that have hurt discussion, both in the last few days and previously. Note that his comments in that thread led the discussion quickly off the topic of releasing server logs (which was an interesting discussion, in my opinion) into a few different meta-discussions, and the original subject was forgotten altogether. I'm happy to approve posts from Will that are on-topic, but until he shows the ability to avoid these random posts that devolve perfectly good discussions, I think moderation is the best option. I'll share with everyone the reasoning I gave Will as to why he is on moderation (portion in <brackets> edited from my original message for the purpose of clarity): Will, There are a few other things that I want to emphasize: - There were one or two other posters who exhibited similar behavior, to some extent baiting Will. That said, Will was by far the most prolific poster there, and was generally the one raising the heat of the discussion throughout. He's also had similar issues in the past. I did not feel moderation was appropriate in the cases of other users, but those users who were involved should be much more civil in the future, and those with a history of incivil or off-topic comments will be subject to moderation if the behavior continues. - Non-moderators should feel free to take a more active role in cooling down discussions. Moderators can't watch the list 24/7, and just one post imploring a few heated participants to think before they hit "send" can be very helpful. - Most importantly, I want to also emphasize that I'm speaking on behalf of myself only, and not on behalf of the other list moderators. -- [[User:Ral315]]