[Ns-developers] mailing list changes

[Tom Henderson]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: John Heidemann [mailto:johnh at ISI.EDU]
>Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 05:30 PM
>To: 'Tom Henderson'
>Cc: ns-developers at ISI.EDU
>Subject: Re: [Ns-developers] mailing list changes 
>
>On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 08:21:31 PST, Tom Henderson wrote: 
>>All,
>>I haven't heard any objection to opening up the ns-developers list. 
>>Therefore, I've converted the list to a public list, and aligned the 
>>privacy and subscription options to match those of ns-users at isi.edu. 
>>Specifically,
>>- the list archive is now public and accessible at
>>http://mailman.isi.edu/mailman/listinfo/ns-developers
>>- the subscriber list is private (matching the rules set up for ns-users)
>>- the spam filtering has been aligned with that of ns-users
>>- the subscription and posting does not use list admin moderation at the 
>>moment.
>>
>>The final step I would like to take is to set up the custom "welcome" 
>>message that sends the FAQ to first time posters.
>>
>>We will see how this goes.  If things trend towards too many 
>>inappropriate posts to the list, we can move towards a more moderated 
>>subscription and posting model, but I'd like to see whether it will work 
>>with this lower level of administrative work to begin with.
>>
>>Tom
>
>Sorry to be late about getting back about this.
>
>There are years of archives for ns-developers.
>I haven't looked back over that, but I wonder if it makes sense to
>retroactively open that up.  There may well have been indelicate
>discussion on that list.
>
>I'm going to remove archived discussions through Feb. 2005.
>If someone wants to go over them the can.

That is fine and sounds reasonable.

>
>Also, I'm skeptical that an open list will not be filled with
>inappropriate questions.  90% of what goes to ns-edu are questions
>that are inappropriate.  I don't see why ns-developers would be different.
>

I am concerned about that too.  I am not sure what the right solution is, other than to try to make things open and then if there is too much noise, make it progressively harder for the noise to get through (via black lists, moderated joins, moderated posts with white lists for posters with known social behavior).

If anyone has any other ideas, I'd like to hear.  I do subscribe to other open developers lists where this is not a problem.  Perhaps if we put some strong enough language on the subscription page that inappropriate posts will not be tolerated, it might give some people pause.

Tom