Anthea Tillyer's concerns are interesting to me because we have just experienced almost identical problems on my list, -- and it is my reactions to those problems which have led me here to LSTOWN-L. I realize that I am tailwagging beginner here, and perhaps this list is best thought of as a forum to discuss technical issues. In that regard, this place is very useful, and I've already absorbed a lot of helpful ideas. But the "philosophy of list ownership" is also significant, -- so I hope these comments are not out of line... > It controls the list in two ways, Anthea. > > First, the fact that you take your list and its purpose seriously enough to > ask that the applicants give you some indication of their interest in it > will prove at least some level of psychological barrier. Just having set subscription to "by_owner", I have composed a generic letter, which I send out in response to the requests that come in. This letter includes a bit of explanation, and a "form" asking a series of questions, which, thus far, respondents are encouraged but not required to answer. The most troublesome thing about doing this is that I have to manually transfer the addresses of the "requestees" to my Pine address book, since they come to me from listserv. It would be convenient if there was a way to automate a reply to the requester. > Filling out a profile > will also prove a bit too much, like as not, for those who are just > sampling lists and have no especial interest. It also is a sign to serious > applicants that they are likely to have a good, serious forum for their > postings, not a quibblesome chittery chattery list of obnoxes and idiots. > > Mind you, there are no absolute guarantees. It simply improves the odds > for you immensely. Yes, this is right. It's just another level of "bozo filter". And the people it drives away you don't need. > As my fellow listowner, Jae Walker, mentioned a bit earlier in this thread, > we made ARCANA a closed, subscription by owner list from the beginning, and > have never, ever regretted it. . . > > We have a short profile form (little more than name, address, and tell us a > little about your interests) that we send out to each applicant. In > addition, when the applicant is added, we send the profile to the list (IF > and ONLY if the applicant has agreed) by way of introduction -- and, often, > we see the "interests" part of the profile generate new threads of > discussion. It's worked out very well. Though I haven't been recently active, I myself am a subscriber to ARCANA, and I downloaded and followed some of your policies when I was restructuring BRIDGE-L. In fact, Mario, I have a printout of your "Welcome Letter" (January) sitting right here. And I was working with one other of your subscribers (Coeur) when I developed our new policy. As I continue to say, online message space is a "blank white page". We can write on it what we will. Given the complaints and squawks from many quarters regarding the low quality of most writing on the Internet, and the unwillingness of many very talented people to become involved, it seems worthwhile to work seriously on designing approaches to this medium that can ensure highest quality. - Bruce Schuman [log in to unmask]