I thank Dan for his carefully-thought-out and complete response to my
questions about dealing with the excess messages and insufficient quality
on my list.  In fact, I have been heartened by all the public messages and
private messages that I have received; truly is it heartening to know that
I am not alone.
 
Dan's desciption of how his moderating works is interesting.  It is hard
for me to imagine, though, that anyone would volunteer to moderate a list
like ours (even for one day a week) which receives in excess of 50 messages
a day (and almost all of them are 40 lines or more).  Actually, I don't
think that I would have any trouble getting volunteers...the trouble would
be in getting them to do what they volunteered for.  By and large, I find
that to be a problem.
 
Someone posted to me in private that perhaps what is needed now is for me
to close the list down and then start again with a whole new list which is
subscription by owner, and moderated.  Actually, I have been seriously
thinking of closing the list down, but hadn't really thought of opening
another.  This is an interesting thought, though.  Has anyone in this group
had any experience with this way of dealing with problems?
 
Here is another problem:  I know it sounds ridiculous, but I get really, really
upset by nastygrams.  In fact, I get so upset that it causes me not to take
steps that are necessary in order to run the list well. Does anyone have a
good way of dealing with nastygrams? Please don't tell me to get a thicker
skin and please don't tell me that with an address in New York City I should
know all about how to deal with nastiness :-)  This really is a serious
problem for me. It affects the quality of my life.
Peace,
Anthea Tillyer       City University of New York      [log in to unmask]