[arin-discuss] Time to Moderate?

[Michael Smith]

Hello Steve:
On Nov 9, 2007, at 6:08 PM, Steve Bertrand wrote:

> Michael Smith wrote:
>
>> Would it be a bad thing to moderate the lists associated with ARIN?
>> If we assigned/elected/ordained Mailing List moderators from the
>> participants on a revolving basis we could give reasonable assurances
>> to everyone concerned that no one particular group's (however that is
>> defined) viewpoint is holding sway.
>
> ...and whoever is controlling moderation at 'x' time controls the type
> of discussion that is happening (and the flow, and control etc).

The rotation of moderator duties wouldn't solve this issue, but it  
would keep things fairly balanced I would think.  As long as the  
documentation about "on topic" versus "off topic" exists and is  
followed it could work.

I was on a humanities list back in the day that had 4 moderators, all  
of whom had approve/deny privileges, and all of whom saw every mail  
that hit the list, even the ones the Moderator On Duty deigned to  
defer.  That way, if a particular moderator was taking liberties with  
their power the other moderators would know and would deal with the  
issue.

This could work here as well.  The list elects/selects a group of  
volunteers to moderate the list.  The actual moderator rotates every  
30 days and all of the members of the group review all messages.  If  
there are issues, the individual moderator is dealt with according to  
whatever procedure we (as the list members) deem appropriate  
(dismissal, reprimand, keel-hauling, etc.).
>
>
> Besides that, this type of setup would then introduce into the  
> list(s) a
> hierarchy of complaints about the moderation of the [non]complaints
> about the board...

It is certainly not a panacea, but it is just another option to think  
about.  We could have another list called "arin-discuss-deferred" or  
something similar that is a repository for all deferred messages/ 
topics/threads.  Then, if the community feels a moderator or set of  
moderators is acting unfairly against a list member, those objections  
can be publicly voiced and addressed by the whole community.

Regards,

Mike