i am not a list moderator, but i do have a request

Mon Aug 14 17:57:03 UTC 2006

I'm not a list moderator either, anymore.  I spent enough time moderating 
the NANOG list to get thoroughly disgusted with those who need babysitters 
to supervise them in a professional forum.  I'm sure the current group of 
volunteer moderators would appreciate some common sense and common 
courtesy on the part of the list members.

Please, think before you post.  Ask yourself some questions about the 
topic.  Does whatever you're saying have to do directly with Internet 
operations, rather than with some other aspect of your professional or 
personal life?  Is it going to be useful to the rest of the members of the 
list?  Useful enough that a few thousand people should each at least spend 
30 seconds figuring out whether it's worth reading?  Is there a more 
appropriate forum, not because it's completely off-topic, but because the 
subset of NANOG subscribers who care about an issue are also subscribed 
elsewhere (like routes, the most specific mailing list should win, 
right?)?

If you've decided the topic is appropriate (in other words, that it's not, 
say, what to tell your executives about flying through London), figure out 
if your message adds anything.  Are you contributing anything new, or 
arguing for the sake of arguing?  Has what you're going to say already 
been said?  If you're contributing new analogies, are you adequately 
supporting them to make a broader point, or are you just throwing them out 
there to show off your creativity?  If making a legal argument, are you 
backing it up with relevant case law, or merely with analogies that seem 
relevant to you?  If you're making a business or technical argument, can 
you point to relevant experience, or at least sound theory, to back up 
whatever you're saying?

Since this list is read by many of your professional peers, what impact 
will your posts have next time you're looking for a job.  Will potential 
employers be impressed at your reasonableness and restraint, or scared off 
by your lack of self control?

Please, don't make your volunteer list administrators spend their time 
chasing after you.  They're there as a last resort, not as an immediate 
supervisor.

-Steve

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006, Paul Vixie wrote:

>
>>>  http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/botnets
>>
>> thanks, didn't know about it. But isn't it still usefull, when urgent
>> matters concerning botnets will still discussed on the nanog-list?
>> Please let me disabussed to it, but it's just my opinion.
>
> almost everything that happens in the world is urgent to somebody somewhere.
>
> not everything that happens on the internet is urgent to everybody on nanog.
>
> there are too many topics (and too many botnets) for nanog to cover them all.