On the need for moderated questions lists

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On Fri, 29 May 2009 15:14:20 +0200 (CEST),
Wojciech Puchar <wojtek at wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> wrote:
>> Not necessarily.
>>
>> There were 'rules' in Nazi Germany too, and there usually exist at
>> least some 'rules' in oppressive regimes, but they do not
>> necessarily, by virtue of their mere existence, lead to satisfying
>> results.
>
> The difference is that you have choice here, people living in Nazi
> Germany (and Poland) that times didn't.

First of all, this is not a personal comment, directed at you, but a
comment on the idea of 'strict moderation'.

Another thing that is worth stating is that invoking Godwin's law means
I instantly lose any argument; I know that already.  More importantly, I
do not mean to sound disrespectful to you or other Polish people.
Especially since my own family has lost people in WWII.

But the choice you have in a strictly moderated mailing list is about
the same as the choice my people had in that particular oppressive
regime: leave or stay to fight a hopeless battle.

That's what bothers me with strict moderation.  It hinders the freedom
of expression of people, forcing them to go through unreasonable hoops
whenever their personality is slightly different from the 'permitted'
forms of straight-jacket.

>>> already told you i will
>>
>> Thank you!  I'll be watching for interesting updates :)
>
> OK no later than tomorrow morning

There are 53 archive files for freebsd-questions in 2008.  Their average
size is 1,863,288 bytes.  This means around 8,229,522 of email for each
month of 2008 alone.

This is a lot of text to go through, even in a semi-automated manner.

So please, take your time.  I'm not some sort of Dilbertian manager who
wants you ``to do the impossible and do it a week ago, because we sold
it already to someone''.