How many other non-moderated lists are you on with more than a few 
hundred members that are as well behaved as the Piclist?

I used to read several newsgroups.  I used to subscribe to *many* 
lists.  Then, for several years, I was only on the piclist and a few 
other minor lists.  Recently I've started a new hobby and subscribed to 
several lists in that field.

My recent (and past) experience seems to suggest that, in general, 
non-moderated and untamed lists/newsgroups have at least 2-3 knock down 
drag out flame wars per year which typically end with ... well, let's 
simply say that thankfully they do end most of the time - sometimes they 
hide for awhile only to pop up a few days/weeks/months/years later.  
They tend to divide some of the list into factions, and the list 
essentially 'dies' or becomes relatively useless for the period of the 
conflict. Other conversations go on between some very dedicated members 
but the problem is that some of the 'bad' contributers take over some of 
the 'good' threads in order to continue their crusade.  This is 
counterproductive to the list as a whole.

The Piclist has some wonderful discussions.  In particular it has (and 
accepts) some great off topic discussions that on other lists with other 
participants would devolve quickly and surely into ranting and raving.

The key difference between this list and others is that the Piclist has 
some clear ground rules and /they are enforced/.

Olin has a flagrant disregard for these rules, as have other members in 
the past.  If, usually after several private and on list warnings, 
someone does not come to grips with the rules (whether they are able to 
or not) then they do not belong on the list.  This may be a single huge 
outburst (such as from Engineering Info) which is so inappropiate that a 
warning is not given, or it may be a constant undercurrent of 
inappropiate posting (such as from Olin) which gets many warnings until 
the admins decide that warnings are not working.

It is not appropiate to change the tone of the list to include just one 
more person who is unable or unwilling to be nice simply because some 
perceive the errant member to have 'great value' in other areas.  This 
slippery slope will cause much more long term damage to a fine list than 
the removal of a single member.

No, the list is not 'getting' a little too politically correct - in fact 
this dismisal confirms that it is not changing in this regard.  If it's 
'too' PC, then it was well before Olin and hopefully will be well after.

-Adam

Rich wrote:

>Is this list getting a little too politically correct?
>
>  
>
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