[Flafurs] Moderation

[Scott Garron]

Antimon wrote:
> why does nearly every email client application and device do so 
> automatically unless strictly told not to?

      The e-mail client doesn't know to what part of an e-mail you are
replying (it's not directly interfaced to your brain), so it copies the
whole thing.  It's easier to have the quoted text in your editor so you
can remove/edit down the parts that are either unrelated to your reply
or in excess of providing minimal context as opposed to you having to
manually copy and paste the contextual parts.

      The act of quoting, itself, is not "so evil and frowned upon", if
it's done properly.  In fact, quoting is extremely helpful to provide
the reader with context to your reply so that you don't have to re-type
context clues or reasons for your response.  Again, the general rule of
thumb is that you should have less repeated/quoted text than text which
you typed, yourself.


XoaGray wrote:
> The thing that people are against in this, is the "first strike 
> you're out" attitude that's being taken.

      Firstly, nobody's ever been "out".  Moderation is not equal to
banning or subscription removal.  It just means that your messages are
held for approval.  If they're not formatted correctly, they are
rejected with the opportunity to correct the formatting and resubmit the
message.  This reduces the amount of improperly formatted e-mails that
make it to the list's members, thus keeping it more enjoyable for a
larger portion of them.

      ANYWAY...  people seemed butthurt by a simple delay in their e-mail
sending abilities.  As a result, the policy has been revised to include
a "moderator warning" message sent as a first response.  That's even
more cumbersome for me to manage because it means that I have to do an
extra search to see if the user has been previously warned before
setting their mod flag.  Still, butthurtees rule the world, so that's
how it's being done.


Peimur Linyaari wrote:
> I'm still moderated but I really don't mind

      Your moderation flag was removed after you posted a few
better-formatted replies.

> Originally, I did not like Simba's approach at informing people of
> the rules (back when he would go off on people). However, he seems to
> be trying to be more amiable and gentle about it, which I *really* 
> appreciate.

      I wasn't a moderator before, just a guy who hosts the server it's
on.  After becoming an "official" moderator, I've have to restrain at
least some of my enthusiasm.  I'll let Harik pick up my old position of
tactless bastard, 'cause he's better at it than I am anyway.  :)

> how do you unsubscribe?

      Follow the link at the bottom of every e-mail that comes from the
list (labeled "For Subscription Options, Visit:")  If the page is not
self explanatory enough, e-mail me directly and I will help you through
the process.


Kevin Knapke wrote:
> In effect, you chose to adopt them and enforce them, so they become 
> your rules, or the rules of the Florida Furs mailing list as set 
> forth by its moderator(s).

      You're arguing semantics, which is pointless.

      In case anyone was still wondering if I pulled these guidelines out
of my proverbial posterior porthole, here's a short list of sites that
also show mailing list etiquette and include the same basic sentiment on
replies:

http://www.i-hate-computers.demon.co.uk/quote.html
http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-etiquette.html
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/etiquette.html
http://db.tidbits.com/article/5386
http://samba.org/samba/ml-etiquette.html
http://69.56.150.42/IML-specific/Etiquette.htm
http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
http://www.appraisaltoday.com/netiquet.htm
http://modperlbook.org/html/23-2-Mailing-List-Etiquette.html
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List_etiquette
http://osdir.com/ml/linux.ports.arm.general/2004-09/msg00116.html
http://www.lionking.org/~tlk-l/faq.htm
http://wiki.exim.org/MailingListEtiquette
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists/etiquette
http://silverlist.org/Etiquette.html
http://www.mac-guild.org/etiquette.html (not the "mac only" section)
http://www.mac-guild.org/client-setup.html
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/pipermail/blfs-dev/2002-August/001100.html
http://www.madrone.com/Home-ed/hewelcome.html
http://store.bikefriday.com/pipermail/yak/2005-January/001237.html
http://lists.personaltelco.net/pipermail/ptp/2003q4/015172.html
http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~ml/weka/mailinglist_etiquette.html
http://www.houstonlandroverclub.com/docs/Mailing_List_Etiquette.pdf
http://www.kcitraining.com/styleguide/book/mlistet.html
http://linuxchix.org.in/wiki/index.php/Netiquette
http://www.fred.net/kathy/at/atlist.html
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/austen-l.html
http://members.aol.com/genny1/weaklidx.html
http://www.jcc.com/listserver.htm
http://www.pcisig.com/developers/technical_support/pci_forum
http://www.herdomain.org/netiquette.html
http://www.aqr.org.uk/lists/etiquette.shtml
http://geocities.com/physhare/listetiquette.html
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/how_to_write_effective_mailing_list_email/
http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.context.php
http://www.911dispatch.com/info/internet_resources.html
http://www.appraisaltoday.com/netiquet.htm
http://www.msresource.com/assessment/welcome1.html
http://www.africa-ata.org/etiquette.htm
http://linuxwarrior.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/mailing-list-guideliness/