[CS-FSLUG] Moderator's Clarification

[Timothy Butler]

On Dec 17, 2009, at 12:11 PM, Ed Hurst wrote:

> Finally, anyone is free to object, appeal over my head to Tim, etc.  
> I don't take myself that seriously.

I'm happy to hear appeals to our policy in general, although I should  
clarify to the list that Ed and I have certainly talked about this  
sort of thing many times and the conclusion has remained the same.

Basically, I'd say the best thing to do is try to limit OT posting. If  
someone has already posted five things on a single OT subject in a  
week or two, unless it brings something crucial to the table everyone  
needs to discuss, let's try not to add a sixth. Every time OT posting  
on Muslims, the "evils of Democrats," etc., get out of hand for  
awhile, we start losing members and your moderation team cracks down.  
Once Ed or I close a thread, people remember for awhile and behave.  
Then we start again.

(It should be noted that Ed and I are in different places politically,  
so lest anyone think we are somehow biased, I think we balance each  
other out.)

On the other hand, I encourage those bothered by posts to do as Josiah  
did and filter. Filtering helps us to select the areas we want to hear  
from in a mailing list, working around some of the limitations of our  
format. You might just want to filter out OT posts all together. Or,  
say, OT posts from certain senders. That way you can still hear those  
folks contributions on other topics.

As a third point, let me encourage folks to contact the moderators  
when they have a concern, rather than just leaving. We do try to  
strive to fix things, but each person has different tolerances for  
when moderation should happen. Personally, I often just skip over the  
vast majority of things posted on this list... and other lists I am on.

On a personal note: I'd say Christians have so many problems  
internally, that while external issues such as threats from Muslim  
extremists are relevant, but are over represented.  First, we need to  
figure out why the divorce rate amongst Christians is as high or  
higher than the national average. We need to figure out why so many  
Christians come off hateful rather than loving. We need to figure out  
why so many people are being hurt by the church. There are enough  
damnable problems amongst us that if importance was related to  
frequency of posting, I suspect very few of our posts would focus on  
anything but ourselves.

	I don't say this to critique anyone. I've been friends with both Ed  
and Fred for the better part of a decade. And speaking of Ed, let me  
encourage everyone to give a tip of the hat to this dear brother who  
has been a faithful moderator to this list for so many years, quietly  
doing thankless work in the background much of the time.

	-Tim