On 9/7/07, Rich Holton richholton@gmail.com wrote:
All of us that are not list moderators suffer from ignorance. We don't know what is prevented from reaching the list. We don't know how much
We don't filter much out. Less than 1% of messages, probably. And because we don't want to be accused of being the Cabal, we err on the side of inclusion.
Of course there is a huge amount of actual spam sent to this list, but that's a separate problem.
junk is filtered out. We don't know how many messages from moderated users are filtered out, nor do we know the nature of those moderated messages.
It's not very exciting. It's mostly just a continuation of rants which started on the list, but that everyone eventually tired of. You know, 3 months later and someone's still complaining about having been blocked.
If we're in a suspicious mood, we might imagine that the moderators are suppressing opinions they don't agree with. Let me rush to say that I don't tend towards suspiciousness, at least with the moderators of this list. I'm just pointing out that lack of knowledge can breed suspicion and fear.
If this was the case, it wouldn't be hard for aggrieved parties to complain, perhaps by personally emailing other contributors on the list. If they thought only one moderator was at fault, they could email wikien-l-owner, so we could all see what was going on.
Just dreaming for a moment, without thought as to implementation details, it would be instructive to have a place where any list members (only) could go and see what is *not* published to the list. This would give information to those that desire it, provide a sort of "check" for the moderators, and still keep the list free from garbage.
Yeah, but you'd still be trusting the moderators to set that up, wouldn't you? Besides, most of that junk is somewhat abusive, if not downright libellous.
Steve