[governance] Trying to "fix" the list

[Milton L Mueller]

Rui makes a reasonable suggestion but I do not support posting limits because the real problem is not the number of posts per person but the quality and pertinence of the posts. e.g., if Parminder and Bill Drake are really going at it, I wouldn't mind seeing 10 each from both of them in one day. Any reasonable posting limit - say, 5 per day - would still allow people who have nothing to say but plenty of time, to waste our time and generate reactions from others.

________________________________
From: Rui Correia [mailto:correia.rui at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 5:49 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Jeanette Hofmann
Subject: Re: [governance] Trying to "fix" the list

Dear All

I am on a list on which they imposed a quota of daily posting by members - that will at least address the issue of having some members commenting on every single posting that others submit on a given issue. Anyone exceeding the quota gets a warning and after that suspension for x amount of time.

Obviously there should be exceptions for list admin/ event up-date announcements etc by list administrators.

And implement something like this is no more censorship than setting a time limit during question time/ not allowing same person to make more than one question during question time/ not accepting submission of more than x hundred words. Time is valuable, we are all very busy and so it is only fair that we allow as many people a voice in as short time as possible, taking into account that we have to set aside time to read others' contributions.

And unless we are voting, could we perhaps cut down on "yes, I agree"/ "good point, Joe Soap" - unless Joe Soap's point actually makes you change your mind, in which case you might want to retract/ amend your earlier position making it clear that that is what you are doing.

Best regards,

Rui



2009/8/14 Jeanette Hofmann <jeanette at wzb.eu>
Hi all,

I think it is a mistake to conflate the issue of discourse pollution with the issue of decision making capacity.


The strength of this list relies on its openness, which facilitates contributions from IG participants and observers regardless of their membership status. If we moved advocacy related discussions to more specific lists, the general discussion list would most likely become irrelevant within a few months. So, like Avri, I am very much against creating or moving the discussion to new lists as a means of dealing with abuse.

The creation of troll filters is a good interim solution but not sufficient to protect the open space of this list. For example, filters don't prevent ad hominem attacks.

After having skimmed through the "unsubscribe" discussion of the last 10 days, I get the feeling that the lack of decision making capacity, which is so typical for this list, applies also to the issue of trolls.

My suggestion would be to ask the coordinators to come up with a few options for action.
One option, supported by Ginger and Parminder, is to move this discussion elsewhere.
Another option would be to adjust our charter by adding a section on abuse.

The following para of our charter, for example, could be expanded a bit to take into account other forms of of discourse pollution:

"Some of the specific guidelines that will be enforced include those relating to:
*No personal insults
*No spam"

The members of this list would have to agree on a general definition of abuse and appropriate means of action against it.


There might be other options. In any case, I would like to ask out coordinators to apply some form of leadership to overcome the present impasse and help restoring this discussion space.

jeanette




Rui Correia
Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant
2 Cutten St
Horison
Roodepoort-Johannesburg,
South Africa
Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336
Mobile (+27) (0) 84-498-6838
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