GENE V GLASS <[log in to unmask]> writes:
 
GG>    I'm facing a serious problem and I need some advice.
 
That's what we're here for, I think.
 
GG>    I started a list on education policy analysis three years ago
GG> and it has grown steadily to the point where it has maybe 500
GG> subscribers and a dozen or so postings per day. Perhaps it is
GG> falling victim to its own success, because in the last few
GG> months a tiny group of unrelated persons has shown up who are
GG> dominating the discussion in a most obnoxious way.
 
Hehehehe.  I used to subscribe to the Soviet-L list from INDYCMS, and the
biggest thing on that list was not the destruction of communism and the
breakup, but
 
    HASAN B. MUTLU
 
posting garbage about the fight between the Armenians and the Turkish,
usually from the standpoint that the Armenians had never been bothered and
that they routinely butchered the Turkish.
 
Whether it's true or not is irrelevant, it is not germane to the matter of
the Soviet Union (or rather, Ex-Soviet Union) and its former pawns.  As I
pointed out to him in one posting, the U.S. Goverment placed American
Citizens in U.S. Government operated Concentration Camps within the
Mainland United States during World War II; while this is also an
important issue, it too is not germane to the Soviet Union either before
or after the breakup.  There are Turkish Lists.
 
This didn't seem to bother him, and he kept right on posting so much
garbage that people put his ID in a kill filter.  That works when you read
the messages via  rn  but not so good when mail comes in dozens or a
hundred messages a day, as I normally get via E-Mail.
 
>     I confronted one of these problem persons via private mail and told him
>  he was out of line and that he should shut up. [deleted]
>  But of course, now he is back demanding his "freedom of speech."
 
I don't know what the rules are with respect to your site is, but if you
can run private lists, then the issue doesn't apply.
 
I don't know if you can do this with LISTSERV, perhaps someone here (hint,
hint) can answer this:
 
 - Set the list so that only subscribers can post to it;
 - Set the list so that subscription requests require list owner
   approval (but not postings)
 
If you can do both of these, the simplest answer is to do that.  Now, it's
trivial; you post a message to the luser saying that his "conduct
unbecoming a gentleman" has cost him access to the list.  You can be as
nasty as you want to be by pointing out:
 
 - He is no longer subscribed to the list;
 - Only subscribers can post to it;
 - He can't subscribe unless you let him.
 - You won't let him subscribe for a while, perhaps a month, perhaps
   for life.
 
  Then you remove him.  Any attempts by him to subscribe get sent to you,
where you may file 13 them at your convenience.  Or even send him a nasty
message that says, "Didn't you read your mail?  I told you can't subscribe
unless I let you; I won't, so if you keep banging on the listserv you are
just going to be ignored."  If you banned him for less than life, then
send him a different message that  says the one month "cooling off period"
runs from the last time he tries to sign back onto the list, so if he
keeps trying to sign on, it pushes his banning period to one month AFTER
the date he last attempts to re-sign on.
 
Or you can send him a single note, and refuse to ever hear from him again.
 
Now, all you have to do on new subscribers is enforce a "3 mistake" limit,
that is that inappropriate messages get a warning, then a second, then a
third gets a 1-month "cooling off period" as outlined above.  If it then
happens after the 1-month period, it's longer or "for life."  This
prevents people who occasionally make a mistake from being frightened that
their messages might get them thrown off for being "Politically Incorrect"
in that the ONLY reason for someone being banned is posting messages
which are either illegal or are totally unrelated to the subject matter,
after being requested to STOP.
---
Paul Robinson [log in to unmask]