Dear List Owners,
 
        I have been on this list for months and what I've mostly seen
        are (wonderful) technical discussions, I therefore don't know if
        it's appropriate to ask your help on the following topic.
 
        It's about net behaviors -- if this is the wrong place, please
        ignore the following and point me the right place to go. Thanks.
 
                        *       *       *       *
 
        I started to become the list owner of CHPOEM-L at the beginning
        of the year. The list is about 3 years old (there was no active
        list owner last year), and it's a forum for people who are
        interested in Chinese literature, with the emphasis on poetry.
        The common language used in the list is Chinese.
 
        Although I am nowhere near writing a poem myself, I have enjoyed
        the work by many of the list users. Sometimes, however, there
        are nearly out-of-control verbal fights which greatly irritated
        the silent and innocent majority. A very few have used INCREDIBLY
        foul language blended with personal attacks and sexual harrasment.
        The magnitude of the nastiness is beyond my imagination...
 
        Needless to say, I have been pondering how to stop this.
 
        Some netters who cannot bear the verbal polution have stood up
        and voiced their anger, but sometimes they became so emotional
        -- I am in no mood to joke, but they are, after all, poets --
        that more chances were created for the dirty mouths to open.
 
        Don't we have list rules? Not really, and as I mentioned above,
        I became the list owner just a few months ago and was not a
        member until only a couple of months before that -- I saw no
        list owner and volunteered the position. I had no idea what was
        coming.
 
        Now, I am certainly against foul behaviors and the abuse of
        freedom of speech. Unfortunately I am a person who's probably
        too mild and too patient; I personally don't want to see any
        hard rules on this list with merely 150 people, for example, and
        I don't want to set precedence of kicking anyone out -- unless
        some of you convince me to change my mind. I am here to ask for
        your help -- your kind hearts and rich experience -- how do I
        balance the control of the net behavior and the freedom of their
        writing activities? Have some of you encountered similar situ-
        ation and how did you handle it? -- It might not be the main
        responsibility of a list owner at all, but as a member of list,
        I'd like to do anything to help the situation.
 
        Any help will be appreciated.
 
        Kindest regards,
        Jim Yu
 
 
--
Go isn't everything.  Go is the only thing.           -- zhuge