Re: [h-e-w] spam problem, moderation [sic] enabled, members only

[Michael R . Wolf]

David Vanderschel <address@hidden> writes:

> On Monday, December 29, "Michael R. Wolf"
> <address@hidden> wrote a rant the main point of
> which would seem to be:
>>Adding more impedance in this way would certainly cut me off
>>even more when I need help the most.
>
> I hope others have not missed the fact mentioned in my
> message with subject "members only" that the list is
> no longer being moderated, a fact which seems to me to
> render Michael's rant moot (even though his subject
> would seem to indicate that he had seen that message).

I understood that message to mean that this list had rapidly moved
from being an unmoderated open list, to a moderated list, to a closed
list. Am I mistaken?

Perhaps I could rephrase my concern - could you humor me by redefining
"rant" to

    Requiring 
    Authorization 
    Negates
    The accessability of the list to those who need help

I'd have used "diminishes", but it doesn't start with "N"....:-)

> Michael's moot dissent is the only dissent I have seen so far, and a
> number of folks have contacted me privately to lend support and/or
> to suggest explicitly-allowed posters from outside the list.

I don't yet see my point as moot. Perhaps you could help me. Is it
trivially easy for an outsider to post (or gain membership), and thus
gain access to the core benefit of the list?

A list with no newcomers will certainly be of limited use, especially
over time, as all the insiders share all their expertise with experts
and the discussion converges to zero. Any population without newcomers
is a dying culture. I'm interested in *building* the emacs culture,
especially on windows. Emacs is one of the few things for me that
makes life bearable and work possible on a Redmond OS.

In the spirit of making the helpfulness I've found on this list
(including some of your suggestions) accessable to others, I
appreciate your efforts at keeping the barriers to entry as low as
possible.

Thanks,
Michael Wolf

-- 
Michael R. Wolf
    All mammals learn by playing!
        address@hidden