the list

[Mark A Mandel]

On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:

#Seriously, I have been opposed to closing the list in the past, but the
#last few weeks have convinced me that it is probably time to close the
#list. Membership in ADS is still, AFAIK, open to any interested
#person.

Members have been explaining to Mr. Kennerly (if I have his name right)
some of the things we members and longtime listies take for granted. I
hope he will take them to heart and, if he wishes, continue to
participate in our discussions on the same foundations of scholarship
[and I don't mean credentials!], respect, and civility -- and good
humor! -- that our community has maintained, well, as long as I've been
here.

I think we need a list FAQ. It should not be a general FAQ, "all about
the ADS", though it should include a pointer to the website, and we
might some time want to create such a general FAQ. The list FAQ should
be brief, telling the reader what the list is about and for, what sort
of questions and discussion are welcome, and what is considered out of
order.

I would be unhappy to see the list closed to the general public. There
are alternatives. The least exclusionary would be "Welcome! Please read
the FAQ before posting, available at [URL] or by sending a request [thus
formatted] to [this address]."

At the other end of the spectrum, the least pleasant means would be, not
to put too fine a point on it, a blacklist: If the moderator determined
a non-member poster to be consistently disruptive, even after admonition
and warning, s/he could set the list to reject all postings from that
person. (I don't know what sort of mechanisms are required to implement
this or other possibilities I mention. I assume that such are
available.)

In between these extremes, the list could have a membership requirement
separate from the ADS membership. All ADS members would be list members
by default. Anyone else could ask to join, and would receive a set of
posting instructions and a copy of the FAQ, and would then be eligible
to post. But the moderator could still bounce a person for
disruptiveness.

I enjoy most of the inquiries from the general public, and I agree with
whoever said that we want to keep ourselves available as a resource for
genuine inquirers, rather than abandoning the field to ignorance and
folk etymology, which is ignorance by a nom de guerre.

-- Mark A. Mandel