On Sat, 16 Aug 1997, Cynthia <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I have someone set to review on my list.  She got on review by violating a
> list posting policy.  She got one of her friends to forward a post to the
> list, bypassing the review process.  The forwarded post in itself did not
> violate any of the posting guidelines we have but I got very angry because
> she circumvented the review.
>
> I set the friend also to review while I contemplate kicking them both off or
> just the one originally on review.  I also posted a message to the list,
> indicating any one else trying the same stunt would be removed without any
> further consideration.  This was not a list policy when the incident happened.
>
> Some people are questioning why I am so bothered by this and being an
> unreasonable listowner.  I've worked hard to keep flames off my list and I
> had nightmares of what could happen if other troublemakers got their friends
> to do their dirty work after they were on review or kicked off.  My list
> averages 60 posts a day so I don't want to go to moderation; we already have
> owner-approved subscriptions.

You might want to rethink your resistance to moderation.  I've been
through this on my list, and I learned that simply approving every post is
far easier and less stressful than trying to talk sense into crazy people
and stop raging flame wars.

It is very difficult to stop a flame war, because everyone wants to have
the last word.  Also, once you start setting problem subscribers to
REVIEW, you are selectively punishing people and creating a subset of
pariahs and martyrs on your list, which just leads to more antagonism.

The solution, in my case, was to create a WELCOME file with guidelines for
acceptable posts, then moderate everything and toss any posts that don't
meet the guidelines.  People are much more accepting of moderation if it's
applied across the board rather than selectively, and it's less work than
you might imagine.

steve

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H. Stephen Wright           Northern Illinois University Music Library
[log in to unmask]        http://www.niu.edu/depts/library/hswright.html
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