Subject: Re: irrelevant posts (was: importing jewelry)

From: "Colin J. Raven" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 17:00:52 -0000

Adam;
    I recently wrote to Ed on this subject. Having read the thread that
seems to have developed, I concur with the apparent concensus that a
moderated list and an unmoderated private one alongside seems to have the
structure necessary to solve the problem.
    I would be willing to moderate a new subscriber's list, and since I
prefer to avoid flaming or retorting to silly-assed queries, maybe that
might be of some help when acting as a moderator. For that matter, perhaps
those core members could rotate moderation on (say) a three month basis. If
we had four willing members, then each would run the list once per year. If
not, then what the hell, I'll moderate it.
    What would be necessary from U/Wash point of view to make this happen,
and would they necessarily agree with the need to do this? Does this become
a policy issue? I have no clue what the possible answers are to any of the
above. Maybe it doesn't matter...I don't know.
    I accede to the wishes of the majority here, but I have the patience to
do it which may help.
-Colin
>
>>I am interested in getting started in the importing business; the product
that
>>I will se selling is filigree jewelry from India.
>
>Sigh. Who has a theory on how a Web page from the archives was the highest
>scoring hit for "filigree jewelry"?
>
>I assume this person isn't a subscriber. This is still an argument for
modera-
>ting mail from nonsubscribers. Does anyone else think this is a good idea?
>
>

---

From: "Adam H. Kerman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 19:40:07 -0600 (CST)

>From: "Colin J. Raven" <[email-masked]>
>Date: Thu, 8 Jan 1998 17:00:52 -0000

>What would be necessary from U/Wash point of view to make this happen, and
>would they necessarily agree with the need to do this? Does this become a
>policy issue?

I don't know who the Webmaster is, and who the list-owner is. The Webmaster
would need to change the archives to clearly give a description of pine on any
Web page that has a mailto: URL. I got a letter today on "lxgal nxme chxnge".

Fixing the Web pages would likely eliminate 90% of the irrelevant posts from
nonsubscribers.

Any post from a nonsubscriber would be sent to the moderation pool. Any new
subscriber could be moderated till he asks a relevant question. The list server
used is ListProc, and I assume it could filter mail along these lines.

This is my suggestion. I wish the list-owner would post a message offering the
University's opinion.