Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 03:18 PM 27/09/99 -0700, you wrote: >Well Ted, you know, once something has been said and a label affixed to it >(by whomever) it will develop a life of its own and mutate into >unrecognizable jibberish. >But what you said is exactly correct. Us old farts have seen this shine >before and can smell it right out of the box. It is not going away. It's >not going to get any better. And even though I'm not in the direct line of >fire, I see that it is making blithering idiots out of what used to be >smart folks. >The worst thing is that I see intelligent people answering questions that >are direct contradictions of either previously asked questions or >statements. It's as if there is some kind of spell that keeps folks from >remembering what was just said the day before. >Mad dogs do wag their tail. >You and your old motto have company. Me! >Jim I can see how having a moderated list would solve this problem quite neatly- just do what the Nikon list did. But as it is we can't- because this is an unmoderated list. Having the LUG function as an unmoderated list was always a bit of a brave experiment, depending as it did on the goodwill and sense of all concerned- and it will only work as long as no truly dedicated idiot decides to set up camp on it. A moderator can simply get rid of such a problem. I am a moderator on another list that attracts its fair share of attention-seeking people who are motivated to cause problems for others- it would simply not work without the ability to throw such people out when necessary. You cannot reliably depend on intelligent humans to not respond to idiots- it is a natural instinct and there will normally be enough people to succumb to that temptation on a large email list like this. My suggestion- if anyone was thinking about setting up a LUG list that has a real moderator and throws idiots off when they become real problems, now might be a good time to start making it happen. I think we may have all enjoyed Brian's totally hands-off list moderation policy for about as long as is possible. Joe Berenbaum