List status

[AI7R]

Greetings once again,

First, I want to thank Paul Dean, WB9HGZ for once again taking the
moderation chair for the Heath list.  He was actually the guy who took the
wheel in the past also.  He's fair, and he's actually pretty quick with the
approvals so things run well with him doing it.

This go around at trying to bring the list back to the basics of Heath and
related electronics brought a bag full of email from people.  In the past
there wasn't much in the way of opinions one way or the other.  I guess this
shows that a lot of you are enjoying the list and want to make sure that
this little part of life at least doesn't change to drastically.  Never
fear, I think it'll be here for a long time. (I retire from Tempe in 9
years...and might have some pull to keep it even beyond)

The most common theme in the messages were, "remove the problem posters".
Ahhh, so the questions is, what is worse?  Moderating and allowing everyone
to enjoy the list, especially knowing the problem posters are also valued
contributors at times, or select a few that get carried away with their
feelings of free speech and remove their privileges?  Well, from an ethical
(and legal) point of view, I think keeping everyone to a standard by
moderation is far less serious than one man (probably me) passing judgment
on someone and taking away their privilege to post.

For the record, I am strongly opposed to moderated lists.  I am equally
opposed to removing subscribers. (Did it once and made an enemy for life)
And the recent on again, off again of the moderation on the list was because
of the history of the list.  Since 1998 I always pointed to the Heath list
as an example of a large group of people respecting each other and enjoying
a single topic without a hint of egos or chest beating.  At the same time I
hosted another list that was...well...from hell.  They are hosted elsewhere
now...but I digress.  I figured the list would come back to being a nice,
strong, focused list after a brief period of moderation to calm it down and
in effect say "we aren't kidding here".  But, it appeared that it didn't
revert back to it's shining past.  So, the moderation will take care of the
majority...and frankly, that's who it's got to be for.

Have a very happy holiday season everyone.  May you find everything you've
ever dreamt of at the next hamfest for a dollar.

Dave
AI7R

-----------------------------------------------------------
This list is a public service of the City of Tempe, Arizona
-----------------------------------------------------------

Subscription control - http://www.tempe.gov/lists/control.asp?list=HEATH
To post - HEATH at LISTSERV.TEMPE.GOV
Archives - http://interactive.tempe.gov/archives/HEATH.html