[Foundation-l] Moderation of this list

Fri Dec 21 18:18:53 UTC 2007

Andrew Whitworth wrote:
 >> I have to say that I agree with Birgitte here.  For me, Foundation-l has
 >> becoming incresasingly useless as a mailing list because it is so
 >> frequently dominated by people who seem to be very "bitter and
 >> mean-spirited" to the point that they are on the attack no matter what
 >> happens.
 >
 > So ignore them, block them, ban them, etc. If there are people whose
 > mean-spiritedness is preventing us from conducting legitimate business
 > here, or is preventing this list from being a useful resource, those
 > people should be removed from it. It is not anybody's duty or
 > responsibility to "put up" with people who are unhelpful,
 > unproductive, and even counter-productive. This list has a purpose and
 > "empowering trolls" or "dealing with trolls" is not that purpose.
 >
 >> I am unsure what we should do about foundation-l.  It has become a
 >> sewer.  It is difficult to balance our very strong desire for an
 >> unmoderated forum where people can feel comfortable making strong
 >> criticisms (nothing wrong with that!) with a forum where trolls are
 >> exhausting a lot of good people and spreading misinformation due to the
 >> inability of others to keep up with the sheer volume of malice.
 >
 > I don't see why this list has to be "unmoderated". None of the wikis
 > are unmoderated, and some of them are very strictly moderated. Set
 > rules: legitimate users will follow them, trolls will not. This is not
 > to say that the rules need to be complicated, or strict, etc. The
 > rules may not even need to be explicit, set some moderators who have
 > good judgement and tell them that they will "know it when they see
 > it". Hell, it works for pornography in the US, it will work for trolls
 > on the mailinglist.
 >
 > I would also submit a small disagreement that this list has become a
 > "sewer", but it's effectiveness has certainly been limited
 > unnecessarily.
 >
 > --Andrew Whitworth

I fully agree with you Andrew.
Several years ago, I was not really supportive of putting people in 
moderation, but in the past few months, I became a little bit bolder in 
that regard. When I feel that some posters are really going too far, I 
put them in moderation. For example, I did that in the past with 
Anthony, and more recently with Geni. I think it was rather helpful.

Ant