In a message dated Mon, 10 Jun 2002 12:10:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Beldarrin writes:
> Heh, since I seem to be not welcome here anyway (or at least that's the vibe I seem to unerringly be getting), I'll raise my hand and volunteer to be the jerk.
Who says you're not welcome? I never got that impression at all!
> I, too, was rather irritated with the pepper discussion and especially all the RPG discussion (after I decided it sounded far too time-consuming to suit my taste), and just wanted it to go away. And likewise, I'm sure many of you are not very happy with my random queries and ramblings.
Once it's set up, it shouldn't be any more time-consuming for someone wanting to play than any offline RPG (I hope you'll join in). :) And I like all of your random queries as well as everyone else's.
> Who has time to thoroughly (or even not-so-thoroughly) read like 50+ e-mails a day, especially when some of them are as lengthy as mine gnerally turn out to be? (Okay, someone be a smartass and chime in here.)
I guess I'll be the smartass. :) 50+ Emails per day is LIGHT for me. Hence my confusion as to why some people are upset. I'm also a very fast reader, which helps with large mail volume. And I have access to a computer and my Email accounts pretty much all day since I work on a computer, so I can generally check it several times per day and keep things from exploding in my box.
> So, umm, there. Hope that sated your genuine
> curiosity. :)
It helps. As I see it, we have two problems:
1. Volume, although I suspect this isn't the real problem.
2. Topics. Methinks if the topics were something you ("you" being used generally here and not specifically aimed) were interested in, the number of Emails on that topic wouldn't annoy you? It seems to me that people are confused as to what the mailing list is for. The official rules state:
"On topic" material for this list includes general discussion among fans of Steven Brust, Paarfi, and the world of Dragaera; moderate amounts of "community" discussion; and such digressions as are more trouble to suppress than to ignore."
which essentially means anything and everything is OK and acceptable within reason. I'm not sure what constitutes "moderate" amounts, but I would guess we haven't gone over it or we would have heard from the Lord of the Keys. :)
Moderating lists/message boards/chatrooms is always subjective. As someone who has done said moderation for AOL since 1996, you don't want to squelch people, while at the same time not letting things get out of hand. It's a tough call, and the only thing that is certain is that you cannot please everyone (heh....you usually can't even please anyone).
I think we all need to have some patience and understanding as the list(s) is/are still very new and so we are all in untested waters, swimming about and trying to see what floats and what sinks.
Stacy, who likes everyone on this list and wants everyone to stay and be happy. :)