Thanks, Bettie. That's actually how our NC project was, too. Our then-
SC, Elizabeth Harris, set up the Discuss list for us. The NCGenWeb
mandatory list was 2-way, and it was where we did all our business,
and discussions often came up. But when we got into discussions, we'd
either voluntarily (or sometimes at Elizabeth's request), move our
discussion over to the Discuss list, so that people who weren't
necessarily interested in it didn't have to receive the mail.
In any case, both lists were 2-way, so it wasn't as if we could not
post to the mandatory list, rather that we wouldn't carry on lots of
discussion there. But it was really the place that a lot of really
good discussions *began*, because we were all subbed to the list and
that's where the stuff comes up.
The "crises" occurred when a few people refused to move discussions
to the Discuss list, and began generating a very large amount of
mail. Back then, the list admin software didn't provide a mechanism
to moderate individual listmembers, and of course, all cc's are
required to sub to the mandatory list, so removing a from the list
presents its own set of problems. Ultimately, the proposal was made
that we set the list to 'read only,' which precluded everybody from
posting due to the abuses of a few. It wasn't an easy decision to
make, but it seemed the only choice and a majority approved it. I
think most of it believed it was a temporary, emergency thing at the
time, but it's never been changed, so seven years later it's still
set to 'read only.' In the interim, the folks who caused the
hullaboo are no longer in the project, and even if the same situation
arose today, the list admin software is different, so that individual
list subscribers who don't follow list rules can be individually put
on "moderated" status (i.e., they will still receive mail, but they
cannot post directly to the list - their message goes to the list
admin who decides whether to post it or not.)
I think the list can be set back to its original 2-way status now
without fear of a recurrence of the situation of 7 years ago. We
could then have the ability to participate on our state list, but
still move discussions that begin there over to the Discuss list. Of
course, discussions can also begin on the Discuss list. ;-) So I
think it gives us a better potential all around for more participation.
-Sandy
On Jul 7, 2007, at 3:26 PM, Bosque Lover wrote:
What works in one state, may or not work in another state, but I
would
like to interject what happened in TXGenWeb. We also went along for
years with just one list. There wasn't a fuss of any kind, that I can
remember, but some CCs didn't like being required to subscribe to a
mail
list with so much email--sometimes discussions could cause quite a bit
of mail. The SC at the time, set up a discuss list, & kept the "old"
one (the one everyone was subscribed to) as the required list. The
new
list was for discussion amongst CCs, & guests that the SC invited. We
also have a chat time every Tuesday evening. The CCs seem to like it
all, & only participate if they choose to. It has worked well in that
state--just thought I'd let yawl know.
Bettie <><
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NCGENWEB-
DISCUSS-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without
the quotes in the subject and the body of the message