CentOS - Feb 2015 - Thread moderation and list etiquette (Reference - Another Fedora Decision)

Hi,

The thread titled "Another Fedora Decision" is rapidly turning into a
political and opinion driven flame fest that is unsuited for the CentOS
mailing list. This list should try and remain focused on CentOS, what we
have and keep the area sane for new users as well as old hands to
participate in a fair and thoughtful conversation around the CentOS
Linux platform and the CentOS project ecosystem.

We are, from this point on, considering moderating all content posted to
that thread.

Furthermore, consider this to be a wider general request - specially to
the list regulars - to be considerate and thoughtful in their responses.
General 'me too' and 'yes' or 'no' type posts are not
needed. Similarly,
if you must correct someone, do it politely without making it into a
personal attack. Finally, if content in a conversation changes from the
original post - please change the thread and start a new one.



-- 
Jim Perrin
The CentOS Project | http://www.centos.org
twitter: @BitIntegrity | GPG Key: FA09AD77

Hi Jim,

Thanks for putting in the effort here.  It's never a good situation to have
to moderate, but sometimes it is necessary.
>From my perspective, this kind of thing happens far more often than the
current example, though maybe not with such intensity.  This situation
forces me to evaluate if replying to any message on this list is going to
be worth the headache of the inevitable noise that seems to get attached to
almost every thread.  I can say with certainty that there are many
questions that I could've provided some help on, but did not do so simply
to avoid the annoyance.

I think it's something people have gotten used to, and only noticed in
extreme cases.  CentOS is unquestionably one of the most used Linux distros
in the world, and yet the mailing list is relatively quiet.  To me this is
a symptom of a problem, and I feel that it's partially a result of the same
regular people, only be virtue of the fact that they are "regulars",
acting
as if this is their own personal living room instead of a public community
space for collaboration and support.

My ability to contribute to the CentOS community is limited.  There's not
much I can do as far as helping out with builds, testing, etc... so the
main thing I can contribute is help and (hopefully) thoughtful discussion
on the list.  The current environment discourages me from that, so I tend
to ignore most messages and turn my attention to other things.


? Brian Mathis
@orev


On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 11:07 AM, Jim Perrin <jperrin at centos.org>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The thread titled "Another Fedora Decision" is rapidly turning
into a
> political and opinion driven flame fest that is unsuited for the CentOS
> mailing list. This list should try and remain focused on CentOS, what we
> have and keep the area sane for new users as well as old hands to
> participate in a fair and thoughtful conversation around the CentOS
> Linux platform and the CentOS project ecosystem.
>
> We are, from this point on, considering moderating all content posted to
> that thread.
>
> Furthermore, consider this to be a wider general request - specially to
> the list regulars - to be considerate and thoughtful in their responses.
> General 'me too' and 'yes' or 'no' type posts are
not needed. Similarly,
> if you must correct someone, do it politely without making it into a
> personal attack. Finally, if content in a conversation changes from the
> original post - please change the thread and start a new one.
>
>
>
> --
> Jim Perrin
> The CentOS Project | http://www.centos.org
> twitter: @BitIntegrity | GPG Key: FA09AD77
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 10:51 AM, Brian Mathis
<brian.mathis+centos at betteradmin.com> wrote:
> CentOS is unquestionably one of the most used Linux distros
> in the world, and yet the mailing list is relatively quiet.  To me this is
> a symptom of a problem, and I feel that it's partially a result of the
same
> regular people,
I think it is generally a good thing when the bulk of the conversation
here is ranting about mostly irrelevant opinions.   That is, instead
of 'Why doesn't this work"', or 'How do I fix this
problem" that you
would have if there were something fundamentally wrong with the disto.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
      lesmikesell at gmail.com

On 12/02/15 16:51, Brian Mathis wrote:
> Thanks for putting in the effort here.  It's never a good situation to
have
> to moderate, but sometimes it is necessary.
> 
> From my perspective, this kind of thing happens far more often than the
> current example, though maybe not with such intensity.  This situation
A large part of this is that some of the regular people are now using
the list as a way to socialise and contribute 'me too' or
'yes/no' sort
of comments that dont really have much relevance to the real thread. All
of this not only makes the list unwelcoming to new users, it also
dramatically drops the quality of conversation.

If moderating is the only way to restore sanity and keep things
productive for the folks bringing through conversations then so be it,
we will start putting individual accounts on moderation.

-- 
Karanbir Singh
+44-207-0999389 | http://www.karan.org/ | twitter.com/kbsingh
GnuPG Key : http://www.karan.org/publickey.asc