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To: "'Rasmus Lerdorf'" <rasmus@lerdorf.com>,
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Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 09:35:54 -0400
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Subject: RE: [PHP-DEV] keeping traffic on this list manageable
From: mike@rile.ca ("Mike R")

Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:

> A simpler approach might be to just make the mailing list software
> enforce a 1 email per 24-hour day per user.  It would require a bit
> more upfront work to munge the software, but wouldn't require any ongoing
> effort.  Moderation can get messy since it isn't simply spam we or
> off-topic messages we are trying to control here, it is the volume,
> quality and timeliness of on-topic messages.  I'm not sure moderation
> is the answer to that.  We need a behavioural change here.

IMHO,I don't think this approach would work, but moderation isn't the
answer. PHP has far too vibrant a community to fall victim to this type
of alienation. In the dozen+ years I've been subscribed I've never found
the list so unmanageable as to warrant moderation of any kind. My eyeballs
and the delete key are still pretty good BS filters.

Behavioral change is exactly what is needed. The simplest way to achieve
that is education and buy-in. A good start would be to document the desired
behavior, in an isolated php-dev subscription page, in the form of a _brief_
terms of use, and have new subscribers acknowledge and agree to it. There
could also be a cooling off period, where new subscribers are read-only for
the first NN days - that'll let tempers and hair-triggers cool off. The
core team is populated by some of the smartest people on the planet, I'm
sure some other ideas can be bandied about and implemented to achieve the
desired goal without resorting to moderation.


Mike Robinson