Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00638)

Doss:

>> It would be interesting, though, if we could discuss what would
>> be proper guidelines for posting to this list. We could come up
>> with some more detailed rules than "respect the views of others".
>> I'd help with discussing the guidelines, and would follow whatever
>> we mutually agree to.

>Your objective is good. I have been around the discussion "lists" long
>before Internet was available to the public. To achieve the objective, based
>on my experience, it is going to require very detailed narrow guidelines
>and also a "moderator/censor" whose job is to warn anyone transgressing
>the guidelines and after two or three warnings the poster should be
>removed from the list. Without these two, IMHO, it would not work.

You're probably right. But the process of talking about what would
be proper and what might be inappropriate might help clarify things,
even if the discussion doesn't result in any guidelines.

>IMHO, it is very impractical come up with *any* guidelines. Any time you
>start with guidelines, it is slowly going to gravitate towards a
>censored list. I do not think *any one* here would like any kind of
>censoring. IMHO, all that can be done is to "play by the ear".
>If everyone makes an effort to make this list educative,  informational,
>helpful, then we can make it succeed.

Again, you're probably right. This list is a free-for-all that has
a certain charm because of that fact. Those that join the list and
persist here do so because of liking it for what it is. It's not,
though, the only way to do things, and I can see a number of different
approaches being experimented with elsewhere in the future.

-- Eldon