[Talk-us] New List: osm-professional

[Serge Wroclawski]

On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Dave Hansen <dave at sr71.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-03-03 at 17:57 +0100, Frederik Ramm wrote:
>> Serge Wroclawski wrote:
>> > Most people know what professional behavior is, and if things get out
>> > of hand, we'll talk to them. Semi-moderated means at first, all post
>> > and all people will be moderated. Over time, we'll probably get go of
>> > the reins a bit
>>
>> Ok. I would like to be part of a professional OSM mailing list but not
>> one that is moderated. I guess I'll just ask for a second, unmoderated
>> list to be created ;-)
>
> If things ever got severely out of control on talk-us, I think I'd be OK
> with switching the moderation bit on.

Several people specifically asked me for a fully moderated list.

Full moderation is all messages, all the time.

I don't think that's either feasible or necessary. People can
generally behave like adults.

At the same time, knowing this request and the reason for it, I
understood their concerns and wanted to let them know that this list,
unlike talk at openstreetmaup, would be monitored for behavior And if
something happens, there's the understanding that the list is
moderated and so no one feels bad if all messages are moderated while
things get sorted out.

The alternatives appeal to me far less:

1) We don't say anything. We say "This is a new list" and then there
are arbitrary decisions about moderation, or kicking people off.  I
don't think this is a friendly way to run a community.

2) We fully moderate the list, all the time. That's no good.. It just
makes communication stilted. Even though it's what I was asked for,
it's too burdensome.

3) We don't do any moderation.  Well, we have a list like this already
and it's been a problem for us, keeping us from making meaningful
connections with other communities. Governments and child-friendly
non-profits want some assurance that a list will be "safe", so this is
what I'm trying to do.

Nothing I do is going to satisfy everyone's requirements, but this
list isn't about the existing OSM community as much as a new group of
folks who want to be gently introduced to the project.  Working with
these people is valuable and the they've told me they need a safe
forum. The list already brought in a large number of people and we're
going to bring in various individuals and groups now, so as far as I'm
concerned, it's been good... and nothing is going to be perfect at
first either... so there's plenty of opportunity to learn.

- Serge