On Mon, 27 Sep 1999, someone wrote:

> At 00:18 1999/09/27 -0500, you wrote:
> >> I've begged and pleaded with my subscribers to stop overquoting;
> >> whenever I do, things improve for about a week, and then everyone goes
> >> back to quoting everything.
> >

On Mon., 27 Sept. 1999 Douglas Winship wrote:
> >Yeah, well, tell me about it: noticed phenomenon for years.  I know how to
> >stop it but can't as haven't total freedom here.  Just play the nasty
> >listowner from time to time which helps, for a while, but also makes the
> >timorous reluctant to post (hey, I ain't seriously bit anyone yet, despite
> >my bluffs).  Clean operation of the list, the goal of the listowner, is a
> >difficult concept to convey as they *will* take it personally.

On Mon, 27 Sep 1999, janet paterson wrote:
>
> this begs the question as to the ultimate "goal" of the list
>
> is the "goal" of the listowner
> different from the "goals" of the listmembers?
>
> if so, then conflict is inevitable
>

As Douglas Winship's co-listowner my viewpoint is not that list
subscribers and listowners have different goals but that listowners have
additional goals.  The goals of the subscribers are usually to
communicate, to have a resource that helps them resolve problems, and to
share their own knowledge to the extent possible.  The listowners share in
these goals but in addition wish to make this communication as
trouble-free as possible for all subscribers.  To use cliches, they wish
to reduce the percentage of chaff or the amount of static that is
generated.  This can involve such things as struggling against
over-quoting, attachments, HTML and MIME, flames, thread that last too
long and start being redundant, and out-of-scope topics; the sending of
SET NOMAIL and other commands to the list address, etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judith Hopkins, Listowner of Autocat
     [log in to unmask]     AND  [log in to unmask]
     My home page: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~ulcjh
     AUTOCAT home page:
     http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/cts/autocat/