The future of the list?

[Penny Padgett]

Hi all,

Linda Highland asks some very intelligent questions about the
moderation proposal:

>Are messages refused because they are offensive, becase they are
>off topic, because the moderator feels it is inappropriate, because it
>is the sort of message members have complained about before....?  All of
>the above?  

Any or all of the above, I should think.  I would expect that the posting 
guidelines be publicized and at least nominally agreed upon by the majority 
of the list participants.

> ... I assume posts are "held up" for an indefinate time until
>the moderator has time to screen them. What effect does this usually
>have on the flow of the discussion? 

I suppose that would depend on the moderator, and how fast s/he is.  
The moderation task can be shared among two or more people, which would
probably speed things up.  The goal would have to be to get the posts out
as quickly as possible.

>Basically, what really would change?

I hope that the result would be an improvement in the signal/noise ratio, 
at the cost of some immediacy in the appearance of posts, without sacrificing
liveliness, spirited discussion, disagreement, or strongly-held opinions. If 
I didn't think this possible, I wouldn't support the proposal of a moderated 
list, nor would I be considering actually volunteering to share the
moderation 
task.

Penny