Regarding moderation of this list: While John Chadwick is the OWNER of
the list, and has not volunteered to be its moderator (I believe he
prefers that the list not be moderated), LISTSERV does, in fact, provide
the capability to designate _someone(s)_ to be EDITOR(s) (to which all
incoming messages are directed, and who then has the responsibility to
either post them to the list, perhaps after some form of editing, or to
otherwise dispose of them).
 
So, I ask you: Who is willing to volunteer to moderate MUSEUM-L (if John
C. were willing to permit this)? Step up, folks, and let yourselves be
heard.
 
Let's say that you'd have to make a committment to be moderator for at least
four months, after which an assessment of how successful this approach was
can be made. If successful, then it could be continued. If unsuccessful, then
the question is: new moderator? back to unmoderated? split off subtopic lists?
etc.
 
The moderator's responsibilities include: timely postings, no substantive
content editing of material that gets posted, superhuman ability to sort
out the signal from the noise messages and dispose of the noise gracefully,
and to be comfortable with no more than a possible thank-you from the
subscribership.
 
Comments?
 
One suggestion already posted regards "bundling" of responses to a
message and sending out the bundle. I think this is unnecessary, and just
makes responding to individual's comments more awkward, as well as being an
extra burden on the EDITOR, and being a cause of delay in postings.
Peter Rauch