hi Niraj,

The list is moderated by people. It is quite easy to find out who these people are. You go to the listinfo page, which for the India list is here - https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l. When you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see the list moderators' email address.

The action that Anirudh took is not unprecedented. Being the list moderator, it was his job to keep the list clean. Before he took the action, he wrote and informed to the list of the action he was taking. If there was objection from any member on the list it could have been made on-list then. That no one wrote in opposing his action, he assumed that he is taking the action for the good of the mailing list members. This is normal on mailing lists.

Moderating mailing lists is a painful and thankless job. So, let me pause here and give thanks to the list moderators for the job that they do. Having moderated mailing lists myself, I know this for a fact. There are not many takers for the job.

When a moderator is unable to carry out his responsibility, he usually writes to the list informing the same. Another volunteer usually steps up and takes on the responsibility of moderating the list.

For most of the other questions you have raised, one just assumes good faith, just like on Wikipedia.

I hope this answers the questions adequately.