list consolidation

[Peter Coghlan]

>
> FYI - in the fairly near term, I plan to get rid of the "two views of the
> same list" configuration on the classiccmp server. It has always created a
> rather large administrative burden, but also lately just has not been
> working right (problems subscribing, duplicate emails, a continuous stream
> of bounces, etc.). The list would go back to the way it used to be - one
> list, one view, at classiccmp at classiccmp.org.
>

Excellent.

Thank you Jay for providing this unique resource and for putting up with
all the grief that goes with it.  I've looked after a few mailing lists in
a previous life but only on the technical side.  It was difficult enough at
times and I am well aware how hard it is to please everyone but I've never
had to deal with the flamefests, feuds, off-topicness and other human issues so
I can only admire your patience, tolerance and ability to achieve the seemingly
impossible as a matter of routine, not to mention managing to keep the level
of spam which gets through to as near to absolute zero as it gets.
 
>
> The primary reason for the "two view" paradigm was due to (at the time) some
> very substantial off-topicness, flamewars, etc. For a period of time I was
> not regularly reading the list and thus missed those things when they were
> occurring. For the past year or so (and it will very likely continue that
> way) I have been back to regularly watching/reading the list - so on my part
> I will do a better job monitoring the list for "outbreaks", and will email
> the involved parties off-list whenever (if) it starts to occur. In addition,
> many of the most vocal flamers are no longer here. Separately, those who are
> more irked by off-topicness I would ask to get slightly more familiar with
> the DEL key J
>

I hope that we will all do our best to restrain ourselves and keep things civil
and on-topic and to think carefully about whether what we are about to post
will be a useful contribution to the discussion that at least a portion of
the membership will be likely to be interested in reading and that we will bear
in mind that some effort in presentation has only to be made once by the poster
but will be greatly appreciated by the all of the many recipients when they
find the conversation that much easier to follow.

For me, the DEL key simply does not function as a solution to those who prefer
to have write-only access to mailing lists and I tend to reach for the UNSUB
key instead.  Thankfully this has never been necessary here, due in no small
part to the behind the scenes hard work of Jay and the list moderators.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan.