[OSM-talk] moderation going forward

[Steve Bennett]

On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 7:52 PM, Chris Browet <cbro at semperpax.com> wrote:
> But every opinions should have a place to voice themselves, shouldn't they?

No. Not all opinions are helpful. And certainly, sheer volume of
opinions is unhelpful.


> If Talk becomes moderated/censured, where would that be?
> Wouldn't it better to create specific, on-topic moderated lists (and
> moderate the existing ones) rather than moderating "Talk", whose topic is
> not obvious?
>
> Then people who don't want the noise can just turn it off, while leaving a
> place of "free speech", and topic-focused lists would be sane...

If anything, I would do the opposite: tightly moderate Talk as a
community forum where issues of all nature can be discussed, if done
so constructively and succinctly. Individual specialist lists could be
left unmoderated. Since the numbers of subscribers are lower, they can
form and enforce their own standards more easily.

Btw, once more, this notion of "those who don't want the spam don't
have to read it" is just plain wrong. The spam overwhelms the valuable
discussion, meaning everyone suffers. It's not a question of "if you
don't like the rain, don't stand in it".

Steve