New support lists?

[William Case]

Hi Anne et al;

2¢

On Tue, 2008-07-29 at 12:18 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Tuesday 29 July 2008 00:21:22 Ed Greshko wrote:
> > Anne Wilson wrote:
> > > On Monday 28 July 2008 23:08:15 Aaron Konstam wrote:
> > >> On Mon, 2008-07-28 at 22:04 +0200, Anders Karlsson wrote:
> > >>> * Anne Wilson <cannewilson at googlemail.com> [20080728 21:48]:
> > >>>> On Monday 28 July 2008 20:15:54 Mike Chambers wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> [snip]
> > >>>
> > >>>>> Would this help make things better?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> In theory, yes.  In practice, not unless there is moderator support
> > >>>> for making sure that non-support threads go to the relevant list.
> > >>>
> > >>> I'm sure we could manage that. :)
> > >>>
> > >>> /Anders
> > >>
> > >> I don't think we could handle that. This split is a really bad idea.
> > >
> > > For some of us it is an excellent idea
> >
> > Yes it is an excellent idea.  But, sadly, it probably won't work since it
> > relies on reasonable humans to understand and be willing and able to
> > separate their posts among the newly created lists.
> >
> Or a moderator willing to kick off anyone who refuses to comply
> 
> Anne

I, for one, would miss the occasional Off Topic thread.  I have had my
interest peaked and had late night working re-invigorated by this list's
incidental forays into language usage, international discussions on how
things are done elsewhere, teasing, and even the odd frustrated rant.  I
believe that kind of communications builds a bit of a community that one
can count on when one is really in need of OS or Computer help.  I know
I have come to recognize and respect a good many names on this list.

For what it is worth, I have noticed that the OT increases
proportionally from the time when the latest version of Fedora has been
released.  Perhaps that reflects the decline in the number of real
problems which need to be fixed and leaves members free to let their
minds wander.

Our local LUG had a problem with our mailing list being turned into an
anti-social set of diatribes by a couple of members who were no more
than trolls.  In order to avoid them, we set up a second moderated list
for 'tech' subjects only.  We ended up with long debates over the
whether a question belonged on the 'social' list or the 'tech' list.
Slowly everyone drifted away from both; with only a few remaining
members using the LUG IRC.

I don't know what the answer for the current pointless thread(s) is
other than to ignore them for the time being, complain a bit, and hope
that other members will stop feeding the troll.

But, my experience says setting up an additional mailing list doesn't
really solve much and can be harmful to a nice little community of
interests.

-- 
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.3
Evo.2.22.3.1, Emacs 22.2.1