[Aslml] Moderation update

[Martin Snow]

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003, Sam Belcher wrote:

> > In the case of AARs I strongly disagree.  It adds _encouragement_ to the
> > AAR poster.  If you post an AAR, and all you see in response is one person
> > pointing out your mistakes because ten other responses got filtered out
> > because they were too short, would you feel like posting another
> > AAR?  Probably not.  Please do not filter "attaboys".
>
> The point is we don't need to INCLUDE the entire AAR to say "attaboy".
>

It's also true that an "attaboy" should go to the poster and not to the
entire list.  I think that any message which is primarily intended for one
individual should just go to that individual.

As most of you probably know, I am one of the team of moderators.  My
rules of thumb for rejecting messages are:

1. Completely off topic -- yes, I was the one that rejected the message
about the aurora borealis.
2. Personal attacks
3. "me too" or "I'll be posting later" -- just post the content to begin
with.
4. test messages -- your rejection message will be your proof that your
message made it to the list. :-)
5. messages that are really just a reply to an individual with an
inadvertent CC to the 800 other people on the list. (cf "attaboy" above)

Obviously, these are general rules with plenty of exceptions, but I think
most people would consider these types of messages as more "noise" than
"signal."

Humorous messages, where to buy Planos, book discussions, etc. I consider
to be "on-topic" so I would not filter them out.

Martin Snow                           <*>
snowm at ucsu.colorado.edu
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~snowm/Home.html