List issues / moderation / new maintainer (was Re: obnoxious header)

[rant on] Oh come on, Sam. The only reason Enrico hasn't been tossed is because Bill is too busy to deal, we can't fault him for that. However, we _really_ could use a list maintainer who has the time to actually read the list and toss the occasional kook. My biggest issue with you becoming list maintainer is that you regularly attempt to control content by sending public flames. I _know_ you get frustrated when folks discuss things that you find off topic, I even agree _in spirit_ with your stated goals. But your interpretation of what's signal and what's noise, and how to deal with the noisier folks, leaves me unable to support you as list maintainer. This is called 'list politics' and is something which we must deal with. It's _annoying_, has nothing to do with classic computers, and because of that is something we'd all like to just forget. Unfortunately, the last big flame war nearly blew this list apart. I _really_ don't want to see that happen because there is so much useful stuff going on here that I would consider it a big loss if the list simply died from this garbage. My father is seriously ill, so I can't handle the job... and I don't think the majority of the people here want me in the seat, anyway. But it's clear that a large number of people here don't want you in that seat either. If the list votes - in majority - to make you list maintainer, I'll shut up. Until then we (as a list) have some unresolved issues of a _practical_ matter which need to be hashed out, publicly; and I think we should _ALL_ start talking it over. Is the list going to move? What software do we want to run? do we wish per post moderation to keep the content on topic, or can we trust the members to post using informal 'judgment' calls? It's currently running Tasos Kastonsis's (sp? - I used to work with the guy, _real_ nice guy BTW!) Listproc package. Both of these are capable packages, I'd vote for either majordomo or listproc on this 'cause I don't want to lose digest capability. I'd _like_ to keep the list right where it is, but if Bill doesn't want to give list maintainance authority to a complete stranger (and why should we blame him for that?) then we may have to consider finding a new server and host.domain address. And finally, even though Enrico has abused the list, and even though we seem to have regular flame wars now and then over what's 'on topic' and what's 'off topic', I think we're still _much_ better off using 'judgment calls' and 'personal censorship' rather than having a list moderator check posts before making them public. The last flame war was _different_ from what we're experiencing with Enrico, he just needs to be kicked off the list (IMHO). But the last one showed that we need to resolve inherent problems with list maintenance... someone needs to take on these responsibilities, I agree. I just want it to come to public vote and I want the list to remain free enough for Tim Hotze to post an occasional off topic thing without a public flame going into all our mailboxes, or a list moderator cutting it out because he/she finds the discussion out of bounds. Finally, Sam, please don't take this as a hostile flame. You often post knowledgeable and helpful materials. I apologized to you personally, and on the list, because of how helpful you've been both to me and others. It would have been a real shame to see you go (and at the time you hadn't posted for a couple of days so I seriously thought you might leave), and I didn't want to be in any way responsible for that. But I still don't think you're the right person to handle list maintenance, and I'll continue saying so until the issue is resolved through some consensus of the list participants. [rant off] --jmg