[Buddha-l] Re: An experiment (Gender on Buddha-l)

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2005-10-11 at 20:36 -0400, Bernie Simon wrote:

> The character of any list is set by its main participants. Unless 
> someone bans them, or leans on them via heavy handed moderation, the 
> character of the list is not going to change.

In the case of buddha-l, it would be a pity if things changed. When I
look at the list of people who contribute the most messages, all of them
strike me as showing admirable civility. The only exception to that is
myself, and I contribute only about 15% of the messages. (And if people
how much more polite what I say is that what I'd LIKE to say, they would
realize what a saintly model of restraint I set.) 

So all things considered, this list is, on average, quite cordial and
civilized.
And that is achieved with a bare minimum of moderation. Everybody who
contributes frequently has their "moderation flag" set to no moderation.
No more than five or six messages a week are seen by a moderator before
they go out. So I'd have to say that the folks here are, with only one
exception, excellent e-mail citizens. So stop bitching already.

> Short of banning people or breaking their knuckles, I can 
> only suggest setting a good example on the theory that it will foster a 
> similar response. Though if such things worked, I think the history of 
> this sorry world would be considerably different than it is.

Fortunately, buddha-l is better behaved than the world as a whole. 85%
of the messages set an excellent example of civility, and 85% of the
messages follow that excellent example.

-- 
Richard Hayes