I really can win this one, but I'd like to correct a few errors and
misconceptions.

> As it is, they're more into forcing politeness than most previous
> moderators _and_ they can be pretty darned rude themselves at times

In all the years I've been on Gmast, I know of only one moderator and she
*kicked* (not drove) someone off the list for rudeness in her first month.
I don't think I can accept your claim.

> If they want to condemn people for being crass or rude, they shouldn't
> flame someone themselves.  That, in my opinion, is abuse of power.

I don't believe I've flamed anyone on this list.  I've been short with
them, and perhaps on the rude side, but I very, very rarely flame.  Though
this could be a perception problem caused by the deflation of "flame" over
the last few years.

> It has a tradition that has been slowly eroded away over the past few
> years.  The decrease in readership and postings reflects this, I
> think.

The readership is bigger than it was when we inherited the list from
Stargame.  We have averaged 185 members for years now... there hasn't been
a decline in readership.  In fact, you don't have any basis to make this
claim on... you don't have access to the numbers.

The decrease in postings happened long before we established any kind of
"moderation style".  I believe the beginning of decline started on the
university site, was heavily impacted by shifting to Stargame (nothing to
do with Stargame, just the fact that it moved and a lot of people didn't
move with it) and it's never recovered.  Because...

> People are afraid to post their ideas because if they seem too rude in
> expressing them or too controversial, they know they'll get squished.

I don't think this is the case.  I think the community has simply
stagnated.  It happens.  The world-design mailing list is clearly a case
of this.

> That's the moderator's job...to provide support to his or her constituents
> (i.e. the list members).

If the list members are going to be rude to us, I don't see that we have
any obligation to help them.  I posted enough information for Jim to
figure out how to sign off and he responded by calling me a jerk and
complaining that I took over 24 hours to get around to responding to him.
And you expect me to give him service with a smile?

Like Karen said... we're not paid, we're not "obligated" to do anything.

> In the golden age of GMAST, that meant preventing spam and providing
> list-related information when it was requested, even by people who
> flame the moderator or don't try to decipher the headers.

In the golden age of Gmast, there was no moderator or even a listowner
that paid attention to the list.

Well, 'nuff of that.  Announcement up next.

--
Carl D Cravens (raven@phoenyx.net)                GMAST List Owner
    [        The Fudge List -- http://fudge.phoenyx.net/        ]
ERROR: Unable to comprehend lame tagline.



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