Hi, everyone.
You may get two copies if this. If so, my apologies. My initial posting
did not show up on the Archives over the last 12 hours.
I'll try to do something I've done only once before on our Mailing List
over the past four years: post a message relating to management and
policies of this List rather than about sailing issues.
Upon seeing so many "remove" or "unsubscribe" requests, I started
realizing that I actually know very little about our Mailing List at the
aggregate level. Probably I'm not alone.
- How many people are subscribed to our List? (A time-series would be
nice.)
- How many people are subscribed to the List in Digest Form?
- How many people follow the list postings from www.laser.org/archives?
- What is the global geographical distribution of the subscribers (over
time)?
- At what rate do sailors unsubscribe from the list/digest?
- Do we keep track of why people unsubscribe?
- Who is responsible for the content policies of the list?
- Who is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the list,
including maintenance of the links provided TO this Mailing List?
Where can I find such information?
The Mailing List also seems like a little "clique" or a "private club"
to me, where old-time subscribers exchange ideas without regard to
bringing the new subscribers up to par, and thereby setting bad
exemples.
It is, for instance, interesting that, out of the blue, some "Will
Sadler" can post a message complaining about the "remove" messages
posted on the List without feeling the necessity to identify who he is.
Frankly, I have also always been equally surprised by the *International
Laser Class Association Norh American Region ex-Secretary* Allan
Broadribb's signing his postings as just "Allan". (Sorry, Allan, to use
you here as an example.) It's almost as bad as somebody signing his/her
posting as "MM" (Marilyn Monroe?), or not signing it at all. I think
such practices may be seen as somewhat intimidating by the new
subscribers. They don't have to know who we are.
I also am surprised that somehow, my computer eats up some of the
postings: I see public responses to e-mail that never appeared on the
List, responses to personal e-mail that are sent to the List without
also quoting the original message! I wonder if there is a secret CGI
script that eliminates "sensitive" postings from the Archives. (Of
course not! Such blunders are our fault.)
In early 1997, I suggested to the (at least then) owner of this List
that it may be a good idea to reprogram(me) the list archives so that
those of us who view the list from the archives on the WWW do not have
to wait to download a huge 700 KB file if we want to check what's going
on every hour. Thanks! Now, after two years, I have to wait for only 300
KB! What happened to the "page-by-page" listing that was implemented for
a limited period?
And add to all this the occasional unncessarily strong or rude remarks,
insults, and the bickering about Class Rules, about what constitutes
"flaming" or "spamming" and what doesn't, etc.
I wonder if we could all collectively shape up a bit before the rate of
"remove" messages exceed the rate of "subscribe" messages. I say, let's
shape up regardless of that. This mailing list needs to be engineered
and managed more carefully, its standards must be publicized regularly
and in alternative media and enforced, and also, it should not be turned
into a U.S.-only tool.
I don't want to step on any toes. I just would love it if we improved
our practices. To Alex Natanzon go my aplogies, for posting another mail
not related to how to sail the boat better.
Regards,
Shevy Gunter DEATHROLL 134145
Philadelphia, PA USA
drlaser@roostergraphics.com
http://www.roostergraphics.com/drlaser
