[Tango-L] To moderate or not to moderate... be aware of Miles argument

[Nina Pesochinsky]

Amaury,

On the tango lists, there are only two choices - you either die or be 
killed, or grow thick skin.  Welcome to the list1

Nina






At 02:16 PM 7/18/2007, Amaury de Siqueira wrote:
>My first experience with list moderation date as far
>back as 1993-4 with the
>KMUG (Kansai Mac Users Group) list.  At the end of the
>day moderation was as
>detrimental to the list as non-moderation.
>
>One of the rationales behind list moderation is
>sustenance of an online
>community.  Implicit in this argument is the idea that
>constant disruption
>and flame war is likely to push certain members to
>leave the community thus
>eroding the quality of membership and content of
>postings.
>
>The bottom line for me is the 'age' of a list.  That
>is, an old established
>list with strong membership and displaying high
>quality posting may not be
>susceptible to the eroding effects of flame and
>disruption.  It seems to me
>that this list's quality FAR exceed the once in a
>while virulent posting of
>some listeras. ;)
>
>Some flames evolve into rich discussion and edifying
>exchanges.  Nina's
>abhorrent posting is a good case in point.  I learned
>as a result of an
>initial nonsensical posting - (thank you to
>Konstantin, Huck, and all
>others)
>
>A censored list may strip the list of its richness of
>expression.  Granted
>we should all try to display certain level of
>civility.   However, I must
>say that the entertainment value of some postings
>bring a smile to my face.
>That alone makes it all worthwhile.
>
>Cheers,
>Amaury
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: tango-l-bounces at mit.edu
>[mailto:tango-l-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of
>m i l e s
>Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 3:11 PM
>To: tango-l at mit.edu
>Subject: [Tango-L] A Cautionary Phrase (was:
>Acrimoniousness)
>
>Hi,
>
>After reading everyones responses my post about
>Acrimoniousness...
>
>"You can tell a fool he's doing a foolish thing, it
>may not change
>anything, but at least the truth is where it needs to
>be". - Kosh,
>Vorlon Ambassador, Babylon 5.
>
>Oh and one thing about list moderation, the list
>moderator in my
>estimation in question isn't doing a good job of list
>moderation if
>they're acting like that.  A good list moderator,
>shepherds the
>conversation and doesn't stifle it!  That's a rare
>skill and not
>everyone is cut out for it, so its wise when starting
>a list to pick
>someone ELSE other than yourself to moderate a list.
>
>Lastly, I find it interesting that you folks took the
>better portion
>of my note and discarded it in favor of focusing on
>the one thing
>that was an after thought, the list moderation.  As a
>friend of mine
>once said, "People are gonna do what they're gonna do,
>and you can't
>change that.  But you can influence them by how you
>carry yourself."
>
>M i l e s.
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>
>
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