25 Jan
1999
25 Jan
'99
10:13 a.m.
The original intent of the 10 year rule has been lost
upon the more recent
members of the list. Bill Whitson created the Ten Year Rule to prevent
this forum from becoming just another PC discussion group. He wanted the
discussion to stay generally on the topic of discussing old computers. So
by making the charter preclude discussion of computers under 10 years old,
he hoped to avoid people fielding boring questions that are better asked
elsewhere, in forums that are specifically catered to those particular
needs.
I've been saving all the messages about the ten-year rule, and I was going
to make an official pronouncement when I had enough time (after reading all
the messages first). But since Sam has spoken, now's my only chance to up-
stage him in my role as moderator! :) Besides, Sam's viewpoint seems to be
pretty close to my own.
The list has a welcome file which should get sent to all new members. I
edited it recently, mostly to add a few tips about list commands and to take
out the dire warnings ("This list is going away!"). I think I mentioned
that I had changed it but I don't know how many people saw the new version.
The welcome file mentions the ten-year rule. It mentions allowable and un-
allowable violations. It even implies that the rule is a bit of a double
standard, in the sense that it's OK for the topic being discussed to drift
away from the ten-year rule. (It doesn't actually out-and-out say that
that's OK. This is one of the connotations of my term "double standard".)
To be honest, the off-topic messages I've seen are blatantly off-topic.
I can remember only a handful of messages (if that) dealing with modern PCs.
So, I know it would be futile to hope this permanently
recurring thread
would stop recurring, but if everyone would just keep this in mind, and we
would finally have a FAQ that would be required reading to all new-comers
that explains this before they are allowed to post, then I think we could
finally put this issue to rest...permanently.
Well, the welcome file is such a FAQ. It should be sent to newcomers by the
list-processing software. Unfortunately, there's no way to make sure anyone
has read it as a requirement to posting.
Unlike policing topic drift (a power which I've assumed only to a low
degree, far below the full possible amount) I do see list maintenance as an
important duty. I want to set up the old WWW site and FTP archives. (I'm
working with Bill on that -- I just need to actually get in touch with him.)
I want to add new material. In the past, Bill posted announcements on USE-
NET, and having those announcements is on my list of things to do. That
would probably help eliminate this debate.
Of course since we're a very vocal bunch of people (as well as smart), it's
probably not possible to completely eliminate the debate.
-- Derek