Re: list minders

I am willing to continue to serve until such time as a new system is
put in place, but at that time I would only be willing to continue
if there were some type of rotating system of the type described by
Eric.

It is also my opinion that some rough guidelines as to what is
considered appropriate discussion topics for the list should be
established. Right now the only limits appear to be vulgarity and
personal insults. I am not of the opinion that the discussions should
only be about technical issues directly related to alt processes. In
fact, I am receptive to a rather wide range of subjects involving
both photographic aesthetics, history and techniques. What I am
absolutely opposed to are discussions about politics, religion,
ethics, sociology, and philosophy, *unless* such discussions are
based first and foremost on a photographic component. I would favor
giving people only one warning on this. After the first warning you
can still keep talking, but for a second offense you get the penalty
box.

It would also be better, IMO, that members report messages that they
find objectionable directly to the list minders rather than take
matters into their own hand and complain to the list. The list
minder(s) would then take whatever action deemed appropriate, but
would not be expected to give a report to the complaining member. If
fact, complaining on list that someone else's message is
objectionable should be in itself a reason for censor since this
practice has historically been one of the major, if not the major,
cause of flame war.

The idea that we simply allow the list to play out its conflicts is
in my opinion a very bad one. It may work ok in lists that are
relatively small and where the members have different personality
profiles than some of the core members of this list. Here, however,
we can clearly see that option is not working very well, unless you
idea of working is what we have seen recently.

Sandy

>Hi All:
>
>I do think we need to revisit the issue of listminders. I think it is
>something the list needs.
>
>In the past I had tried letting the list sort out all the issues, flames
>etc., but found at times the list did nothing but debate these issue, and
>did little actual discussion of alt-photo.
>
>In the distant past I read every single posting made to this list, and
>respond privately when someone was inappropriate. When I decided to
>establish the list minders, it was done out of recognition that I was no
>longer able to read every message, and that I felt I should not be the
>sole judge and jury.
>
>The listminders job was to watch the list at a particular time and
>privately respond to inappropriate postings. In the event of a big issue
>we would discuss it amongst the minders and come up with a response. This
>was usually about banishing someone from the list.
>
>I have not been able to follow the list closely in the last few months.
>Too many other issues going on in my life right now. I will readily admit
>that I have seriously neglected by "list minder duties"
>
>The list minders are:
>
>myself Gord Holtslander
>Sandy King
>Adam Kimball
>Art Chakalis
>Bob Schramm
>Dave Soemarko
>
>When I established this a few years ago I asked people to nominate list
>members as potential list minders. I wanted to pick people who were
>widely respected on this list.
>
>I would like to find a replacement for myself as a list minder. (I will
>still manage the list) I don't think Adam Kimball is participating in
>this list any longer (Hello Adam?) the same for Art Chakalis (Hello Art?)
>
>I think the biggest problem currently with the list minders is that only
>three of them are actively "minding"
>
>I think it would be valid to have a woman as one of the list minders. I
>had asked some to be a list minder initially but they declined.
>
>Are all the other list minders still here willing to continue? Do we want
>to go with a bigger group, or smaller group?
>
>Gord
>List Manager
>
>---------------------------------------------------------
>Gordon J. Holtslander Dept. of Biology
>holtsg@duke.usask.ca 112 Science Place
>http://duke.usask.ca/~holtsg University of Saskatchewan
>Tel (306) 966-4433 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
>Fax (306) 966-4461 Canada S7N 5E2
>---------------------------------------------------------
Received on Mon Mar 14 21:06:06 2005