On Sat, 1 Oct 1994 14:01:55 EDT, Stan Blum wrote:
 
>How about two lists:  one a "museum-chat-list" where folks could
>blather away, and the other a "museum-serious-list" with a
>predominantly more substantive content.  I see two options for
>assuring quality on the serious list:  a moderator -- i.e., all
>submissions go through the moderator; or community enforcement
>-- i.e., you get "spammed" with "flames" (off the list) if you post
>junk.  Something to the effect of:
>
>  There are 6,000 people subscribed to this list.  It takes
>  the average person 10 seconds to: 1) open a piece of mail,
>  2) determe that it's junk, and 3) delete it. Your bonehead
>  message just cost the community 60,000 seconds -- that's 1,000
>  minutes, or 16.7 hours.
>
>    Have a nice day, moron.
>
>
>Too radical?
>
>Stan Blum
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Stan, et al.,
 
The problem is that some of the more interesting discussions on the
list have started with innocent, ignorant, offhand, chatty, or self-
serving (or self-promoting) messages.  One approach might be for other
organizations to do what we informally do here:  Have a few people monitor
the list who routinely send individual messages or folders put together
from extended debates on certain issues to other staff who might be
interested in them.
Ken Yellis
Assistant Director for Public Programs
Peabody Museum of Natural History
170 Whitney Avenue
Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118
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(203) 432-9891/9816(fax)