Moderating and Administrative Thoughts

[Ann Okerson <aokerson@pantheon.yale.edu>]

	Dear liblicense-l readers:	

	*As readers of this list are aware, we have had some
	"interesting" (at times a little tense) threads on this
	list recently.  These have been very illuminating, and
	each of the correspondents has made highly useful points 
	and performed important an public service while doing so
	(particular thanks to Donnie Curtis for her excellent
	analytical work about aggregator databases, for which
	the library community is immensely grateful).  We have
	all been informed and educated by the messages herein.  

	My view is that the moderator, at least of this particular
	list, serves the several thousand readers by keeping
	postings somewhere within range of the list's topic and 
	sending through messages that are cogent and readable, so 
	as to not waste your time and to maximize the ratio of 
	information to noise.

	And:  at least *this* moderator believes in as little
	censorship of messages as possible.	

	Thus, some readers of this list may worry from time to time, 
	as your moderator does, that messages may slip away from
	the calm tones and measured arguments of academic discourse.
	It certainly happens.  Occasionally, I have been known 
	to chat offline with contributors, to encourage them
	to consider the greatest good of the greatest number and 
	to help us all keep this list a source of interesting and
	frank discussion.  We've never had a "flame war", and I'm
	glad of that, because *that* kind of frank discussion
	tends to shut down both frankness and discussion.

	Still other readers have expressed a concern to me that 
	sometimes the postings on the list are too self-promoting of a
	given correspondent's commercial business.  This is a harder
	area for your moderator, though again liblicense-l strives to
	include as much as possible, even press releases where they 
	appear to serve a useful and informative role.

	But the bottom line is that we are all grownups and if we get 
	a little exercised from time to time, we also calm down soon
	enough. And if we tend to promote our interests too much, we
	know that someone else will call this to readers' atention!
	To a large extent, we "moderate" ourselves.
	
	In short, this list is intended to be a high quality
	information and learning service -- and many of you believe 
	that it meets that goal admirably. Please as you read and 
	write, bear in mind our common desire for candor and 
	enlightenment and think how you can help us all to achieve 
	those important goals.

	*On a less lofty point, your listowners are now encountering a
	huge number message bounces and rejects due to overflowing
	mailboxes, disappearing subscribers, unknown services, and
	the like.  The volume of these has gotten so high that it
	is impossible to deal with them manually.  Accordingly, our
	postmaster has just set the liblicense-l list so that messages
	that are identified as "undeliverable" for many reasons, will
	be deleted without our seeing them and without our intervention.
	This may seem cruel, but it does save much time every day!
	And if it proves too cruel, we'll look for other options.

	The list software will, however, continue to direct to us
	any messages in which you are trying to subscribe or 
	unsubscribe and your command is incorrect -- so you fail.
	In this case, human intervention will continue to help you!
	We want everyone who wants to be part of this list, to be
	here and to help those who no longer want to be here, to
	leave us.  And if you are totally frustrated in your
	attempts, please write to me directly.

	*Finally, if you wish to change your address, unsubscribe,
	re-subscribe, or tell a friend how to subscribe for the first
	time, there is a very easy way to do so and to avoid the
	complications of listproc software commands, which are
	ugly indeed.  Simply go to the liblicense web site at:
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	Thank you as always for being with us and for learning with
	us and for teaching us.
	
	Ann Okerson, for liblicense-l
	ann.okerson@yale.edu