On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 4:59 PM John Levine <johnl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > In article <A5CE4192E3FE9B8606D89231@PSB> you write: > >That would take a different tool than one which produces a > >weekly summary. It does suggest an idea -- especially in the > >context of your comments about people leaving the list. > >Perhaps if the mailing list system returned messages above, say, > >the fifth in an hour on a given thread or the tenth on a given > >list in 24 hours with a careful reminder and request for > >confirmation before the message was distributed, that might > >help. ... > > Having been on lists that tried to do that, I can report that it > doesn't work. The people who most need to self-moderate are the ones > who say, yeah, sure, but this is IMPORTANT. You said "people who *most* need to self-moderate" (emphasis mine) -- while true, we really really *really* don't want to have anything that force-modeates people, so soft pressure is still helpful; even if we don't help everyone, some people will reconsider if sending their mail helps... For example, someone pointed out (off-list) that I'd sent 3 emails (7:30, 10:11, 10:31) on this and this was my warning. While this *did* come with a smiley face, it gave me pause (and I'm still oscillating on sending this). Yes, some people will still bloviate / grandstand / troll, but cutting down on even some of the knee-jerk replies helps disrupt the cycle of the argument - https://xkcd.com/386/ While we have to be careful that this doesn't reward those thoe shout loudest -- but, often simply being quieter both diffuses situations, and also allows those shouting to hear their own tone. For a while I reported to Vijay Gill; he really knew how to get my goat -- sometimes we would be in the middle of an really fun argument^w health debate, and as soon as it became clear that I was winning, he'd say "I'm bored now" and walk away. >From this I learnt that it's really hard to have an argument with someone who won't engage -- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hwqn9 W > > R's, > John > -- I don't think the execution is relevant when it was obviously a bad idea in the first place. This is like putting rabid weasels in your pants, and later expressing regret at having chosen those particular rabid weasels and that pair of pants. ---maf
