[tlug] Suggestions for splitting of mails?

["Gernot Hassenpflug" <aikishugyo@example.com>]

Hello all,

I enjoy TLUG's ML a lot, and I have mixed feelings about the last
couple of days of posts. I appreciate that the list is populated by a
bunch of very smart people who hold strong views on what they believe
in. It is also clear that it is impossible for everyone to agree, nor
do I think that is desirable. Self-discipline and strong beliefs are
hard to balance, and the job of the list master is a thankless one.
I'm happy to see that none of the near flame-wars  (and I admit I have
sympathies on both sides here, and also had to hold back from replying
in a non-linux-related manner to some things on another thread in the
admin list) degradated into incivility, but at the same time I am
unhappy to see them ending in warnings to some of the participants
(and also, in a more general sense, that some people may appear
to be getting away with throw-away remarks). Maybe there is
no better solution, but...

I am wondering what is the best way for a ML subscriber to handle
this? I appreciate that getting a batch of mails on my Google account
is not the best solution, and that people who have mail accounts to
receive to can do splitting better. However, I don't want to split by
topic or by author or by keyword, I would prefer the contents of the
posts to be on-topic as far as possible (hollow laugh).

I wonder if it might be possible to split the ML more? I am thinking
along the lines of an analogue to web forums, where sub-forums for
various off-topic, ah, topics, go, and one can have sub-forums for
flaming, trashing other OSes, political views, and so on. On the other
hand, such topics would have no place in the on-topic sub-forums, and
posts or threads could be moved between sub-forums as appropriate.
Browsing the ML would probably be a lot easier too with such
higer-level distinctions. At present, for disciplinary action, also
there seems to be only the possibility of a warning and expulsion,
which is a bit wide-ranging (shotgun against cockroach sort of
approach). Furthermore, instead of temporarily suspending or killing a
topic dead by order, moving it to OT would be another possible
solution. If such sub-MLs were used, subscribers could possibly avoid
getting drawn into OT arguments more, and exercise self-discipline.
Example: poster A introduces political views into a post about a
technical issue. Poster B replies to the technical issue, and then
starts a thread in an OT forum on political view, quoting A's post.
People who haven't subscribed to that forum/ML would never need to see
it. Some rules on absolutely out of the question topics could be made,
something that might become necessary if TLUG gets any larger and
maybe less cohesive.

Any comments welcome. If there is already an established procedure
decided on by the committee (and they feel it is working), so be it.

...dons fire-proof suit.
-- 
Gernot Hassenpflug