moderation. was: The New Face of Ubuntu

[Kevin O'Gorman]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Ric Moore <wayward4now at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 02/24/2012 12:09 PM, Cybe R. Wizard wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:45:41 -0800
>> "Kevin O'Gorman"<kogorman at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 2:12 PM, Cybe R. Wizard
>>> <cybe_r_wizard at earthlink.net>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If there is no policy what is the job of a moderator?   ...and why?
>>>
>>>
>>> As a moderator, I find myself wanting to answer that question, even
>>> though it's tangential to the original thread.
>>>
>>> I deal almost exclusively with messages that the software has rejected
>>> already.  Almost all of it is submissions that come from non-members.
>>> The vast majority are non-english (I see chineese, hangul, cyrillic,
>>> and a bunch of alphabets I can't even identify), or are obvious bounce
>>> messages, frauds, phishing or spam.  Mostly it's a non-brainer based
>>> just on the subject line. All of the above get silently discarded.
>>>
>>> The exceptions are reasonable Ubuntu-related English messages,
>>> probably from members, who are sending from an email account that is
>>> not subscribed, or messages that are larger than our size limit.  They
>>> get a message telling them what the problem is, and advised to
>>> subscribe/trim and resubmit.
>>>
>>> Note how little this has to do with content, or any policy about
>>> content other than choice of language.
>>>
>>> Other things are possible, but exceedingly rare.
>>>
>> Thanks, Kevin, that was a great response, answers my question
>> perfectly and is something that I had never even considered.
>>
>> Learning is happening!
>>
>> That said, I have now gotten two responses to my question in my inbox
>> instead of in my Ubuntu-users folder (one sent directly and
>> bypassing the mailing list altogether) which is /against/ the mailing
>> list guidelines. Could you moderators possibly read and follow your own
>> mailing list guidelines it would probably at least help to serve to
>> insure that others abide by the same guidelines, too.
>
>
> Seemingly the "guidelines" are a moving target. There USED to be an official
> sanction against top posting. Then it was removed. Then it was said to be
> re-instated. I don't see it now. It's JARRING to be reading nicely trimmed
> bottom post responses then WHAM! A top post, followed by another. It hurts
> my head. It makes the list a mishmash. Is there an ~official guideline~
> regarding that now?? Ric

The temptation to top-post a reply is considerable, but Ric *did* indicate such
things cause him pain.  Nevertheless, reading is a skill set best
applied liberally
so that you can read a variety of things, both in content and presentation.

No matter what rules you might apply (and we don't exactly *have* rules here,)
some things will be easier to read than others.  There's no getting away from
it.

Moreover, please re-read Alan's comments above re "leeway" and "iron fist".

-- 
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD