From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 29 02:48:01 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A27041065670 for ; Fri, 29 May 2009 02:48:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr (poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr [150.140.141.169]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CDF78FC1D for ; Fri, 29 May 2009 02:48:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr (unknown [10.1.0.143]) by poseidon.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id DFA1CEB57B1; Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:59 +0300 (EEST) Received: from localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id D3024450ED; Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:59 +0300 (EEST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ceid.upatras.gr Received: from mail.ceid.upatras.gr ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (europa.ceid.upatras.gr [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 2nGB1dBsU0JL; Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:59 +0300 (EEST) Received: from kobe.laptop (adsl59-123.kln.forthnet.gr [77.49.186.123]) by mail.ceid.upatras.gr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 821AE450D0; Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:59 +0300 (EEST) Received: from kobe.laptop (kobe.laptop [127.0.0.1]) by kobe.laptop (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n4T2lx6k088440; Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:59 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by kobe.laptop (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id n4T2lwcW088439; Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:58 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Wojciech Puchar References: <6C96EEF057EDE24197FECB0D1EA035044A8F6EB461@h1341255.aoemedia.de> <744a9119476160472a319bbc9f4fd799.squirrel@relay.lc-words.com> <065001c9def1$54ae3f40$fe0abdc0$@za.org> <20090527124014.6998139c@gom> <20090527203000.GA1328@fusion.opticnetworks.net> <70C0964126D66F458E688618E1CD008A0793EDCC@WADPEXV0.waddell.com> <4A1EF89C.9040505@isafeelin.org> Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 05:47:58 +0300 In-Reply-To: (Wojciech Puchar's message of "Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:09 +0200 (CEST)") Message-ID: <87prdsr5ep.fsf_-_@kobe.laptop> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.94 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: On the need for moderated questions lists X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 02:48:02 -0000 On Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:09 +0200 (CEST), Wojciech Puchar wrote: >> Wojciech Puchar wrote: >>> How about it? Only STRICT RULES keep things healthy and long lived. >> >> I wonder what makes you think you have the right to decide for all? > > Why you think so? I don't mean myself as definer of that rules. > > FreeBSD owners should start moderation and define rules. What they do is > their decision. > > It's just my opinion, time will show if i am right if they will not do > this, and this list turn to <1% on topic. The only problem with that sort of reasoning is that the FreeBSD mailing list charters *have* been decided. There is a reason why freebsd-questions is open to everyone, including people who want to discuss things like ``How do I make my Windows boot loader launch FreeBSD?''. This way people who are not subscribed to the mailing list can still post their question and receive _helpful_ answers like ``Sure, add this line to your C:\BOOT.INI file and you are ready to start using FreeBSD''. My impression from hanging around this mailing list for several years now (It's almost a decade now, geez! When did all that time pass?) is that the openness and the all-around friendly character of ``If your question is even marginally related to a small part of FreeBSD and we can help, we'll do it'' is a valued and much-cherished attribute of the list. A lot of the people who hang around here like it this way, and what you propose to do is such a radical change that it requires a *lot* of up-front work if you really want to convince anyone. You do have a point that there is a very thin line between ``being very helpful to new people'' and ``talking about irrelevant systems all the time'', but it is my impression that you have not provided convincing arguments about the need for another moderated list or even the need for more strict ``rules'' in this one. The main argument for launching a moderated list seems to be ``We have to do this or we are doomed to be flooded with useless non-FreeBSD posts''. This is very hard to prove, however, without having actually seen it happen in this very same list, so that's why you get a lot of resistance to the idea from old-time mailing list posters. One way to see if there is indeed a lot of off-topic traffic or if the volume of off-topic posts has any sort of upwards trend is to: (a) Define *precisely* and in very clear terms what you consider on topic and what you consider off-topic. (b) Download the freebsd-questions archives from our public web site. They are openly shared with anyone interested to get them. (c) Go through the archives by year and/or month and keep statistics about things like: thread size, active posters per period, posts per period, off-topic/on-topic ratio of messages, and so on. Then, with a verifiable, documented and repeatable way to repeat the experiment, you can present graphs that stand a far better chance of proving or disproving the hypothesis that ``the sky is falling if we don't moderate freebsd-questions''. This sort of approach would probably meet a lot less resistance, because it is repeatable by anyone who wants to verify your results, and it is based on the actual *data* of the mailing list itself, instead of a hand-wavy interpretation of personal opinions like ``trust me, I've seen this happen before''.