Exegesis Volume 5 Issue #69 From: "Francis G. Kostella" Subject: More moderator babbling
Exegesis Digest Wed, 18 Oct 2000

Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 23:56:37 -0400
From: "Francis G. Kostella"
To: exegesis
Subject: More moderator babbling
 

Occasionally I need to send out a short note to remind authors about a few situations that I, your happy moderator, find taxing to resolve gracefully. That said, here goes...

~~~

First, the amount of quoted material per message has been getting very large lately and I've begun bouncing messages back to their authors asking them to trim the fat. Here are some helpful tips:

You should assume that readers here are able to read the entire original message offline if they need to do so. Pick the smallest bit of material needed to convey your point. Posting 30 lines followed by a single line remark is a waste of our time.

Assume our readers are able to archive a few messages and understand how to open up an old message to review or verify your argument if it seems out of hand.

You should NEVER send a message which contains a big blob of quoted material at the bottom. I assume that the message was unfinished and return it to the author 99.9% of the time.

Assume our readers are smart and can follow the point without too much hand-waving. My experience is that the large quotes usually contain one sentence to which the reply is really directed. Quote that sentence, ignore the rest.

The single biggest complaint I receive from readers is that there tends to be too much quoted material and that it gets in the way of reading the new writing.

~~~

Another concern is that I've received a number of messages "bad- mouthing" other astrologers (on or off the list) or asking another to do so. I want to be explicit:

You can't do that here.

I'm simply unable to moderate flame-wars, dodge slander threats, and calm irritated professional astrologers or heads of professional astrology groups. I didn't start the list to spend my time doing that and I think it is 100% off-topic.

~~~

I never edit your messages.

~~~

The web site is in limbo until I find time to get more space for it. It now exceeds my 5M web site limit. Any help finding advertising-free space would be appreciated!

I can forward back issues to interested parties, if really needed.

~~~

I do try to be fair but I also do make mistakes. Sometimes I violate one of the above and it irritates somebody. Please point it out to me if you see it happening so that I can try to improve in the future. Just be aware that I cannot undo what has happened already and there is no perfect justice in cyberspace.

I really do dislike having to have policies and rules, but, such is life, I guess.

As usual, debate on the above is acceptable and encouraged (but I'm pretty firm on the "no bad-mouthing" thing).

Have fun and drive safe,

--fran

End of Exegesis Digest Volume 5 Issue 69

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