[Asterisk-Dev] RFC: Moderating the Asterisk Mailing Lists

[Leif Madsen]

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:46:31 +0100, Bruno Hertz <brrhtz at yahoo.de> wrote:
> In other words, if I had been putting up with mails like "* won't
> start, please help" I'd have probably shot myself years ago. In the
> foot of course, to generate business for the health care rather than
> the undertaker business.
> 
> All I tried to say was there might be reasons to keep up the effort.
> How do other lists manage things like this? Is there a way to politely
> enforce policies without putting to much workload on a single or few
> persons, as moderation would likely imply? I've no experience in this
> area myself, but I'll keep thinking and maybe do some inquiries, and
> when I feel something reasonable comes up I'll check back.

When I originally started this thread over a day ago, I didn't think I
was going to start such a firestorm.  For the most part, I think
people have had productive things to say, and much has been learned. 
If anything, I think at least awareness that there are things which
can probably be done to aleviate any of the issues people might have
with the mailing list.  My original proposal included moderators to
help keep "noise" posts off the list.  However, with the advancement
of modern technology, it seems most of that can be automated.

>From what I have read, it seems these are the things people are looking for.

- automatic filtering of HTML (either stripped or bounced)
- the first email the user receives from the list includes a mailing
list etiquette 'checklist'
- a possible segment of the list into more specific groups.  For
instance, I know mandrake has both a newbie and expert mailing list. 
Opinion: It should be specified when joining the expert list that
newbie questions will not be answered. And that the practice is
followed.
- All respected sources of documentation should be made prominent to
new users.  Possible places include the footer of the mailing list
messages and the initial email(s) that users receive.  Opinion:  this
should aleviate the "check the wiki" type responses.
- Out of Office replies for the most part should be automatically
removed.  Possibly place an automatic delete for phrases such as "Out
of Office".  Perhaps the user could be auto suspended until they
re-activate their account.
- Perhaps one of the list etiquette is to treat others as you would
like to be treated.  Opinion: Demeaning messages should not have to be
tolerated.  It simply shows the immaturity of the community.  We are
all professionals here.

Perhaps we need to see more people take a proactive approach.  There
is a group currently being setup to help with giving new developers a
place to start.  It is basically going to be the development
documentation side of the Asterisk Docs Project.  Things like this are
good for the community, and I'm seeing more and more everyday things
starting to come together.

If anyone is interested in putting together an "initial email" to new
users, which I also think should be posted once a month the the
mailing lists, contact me off list.  Or, if you would prefer to have
an open discussion on the asterisk-users list, that is also fine with
me.

Thanks,
Leif Madsen.
http://www.leifmadsen.com
leif (at) NOSPAM leifmadsen (dot.) com