[offtopic] Topicality debate [my 2 bits]

Sat Sep 23 23:19:24 UTC 2006

John Underhill wrote:
[snip]
> There is the issue of sustaining readership. If window of acceptable
> subject matter is too narrow, appeal will decline, and with it some of
> the readership that we need to remain active will leave the list, hence
> we need some [reasonable] measure of flexibility allowed for in
> guidelines, [think: discretion]. 
[snip]
> John

I would like to interject my two bits as well, if permissible. As a
student of the Network Administration, I joined this list to get a
better understanding of the trade as a whole, and I can say that without
reservation I have learned an enormous amount. That said, if the list
became subject to a strict set of posting rules, the value that I derive
from lurking here diminishes greatly, as I will no longer be seeing
Network Operations as a whole, but some subset thereof that has been
artificially imposed.

I think that the best way for the list to remain at least somewhat
focused is very simple: ignore it. If you think that a post is offtopic,
don't respond at all. If an argument gets out of hand, ignore it. Don't
post saying "Don't feed the troll," don't say "How is this related to
Network Operations?" If you and everyone else feels that it is offtopic,
and ignore it, that one message will remain one message, rather than
becoming several hundred, and eventually the trolls and OT posters will
leave, because they are no longer generating the response that they had
hoped. If the behavior becomes bad enough, I believe that there is an
oversight committee who is quite capable of running a couple of
'unsubscribes' through the system to maintain some semblance of order.

Again, just my 2 (student) bits.

-- 
Josh Cheney
jcheney at mfx.net
http://www.joshcheney.com