crackdown 2.0

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Ranjit Bhatnagar <ranjit at moonmilk.com> wrote: The urth list is getting way too busy these days, so I'm gonna lay down the law again. ?Please send any comments or complaints directly to me <ranjit at moonmilk.com> rather than to the list. 1. Please stick to the core mission of the list, which is discussion that directly relates to Gene Wolfe's fiction (with occasional diversions for notable events in the sci-fi and literary worlds). Religion in general and atheism in general are not suitable topics. 2. I'm setting an informal goal of no more than approximately five messages per person per day. — It's ok to go over five now and then, but don't feel like you need to use all five every day, either. ?I'm not going to bother counting individual's messages, but I'm hoping that we'll get slower-paced and more focused discussions. ?If this doesn't slow the list down enough, I'll make it a technical restriction, which will be much more annoying for everyone. ?We'll see how it goes. - Ranjit

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote: I would also like to add a third suggestion: please stop changing subjects! I try not to complain but merely 'mute' or 'killfile' threads I find dull or stupid (like a great many in the past few weeks), but I cannot do this if people keep changing the subjects - the emails with modified subjects will land right in my inbox, and like a rat on an intermittent reinforcement schedule, I will read it to see whether something interesting has been said.

On 6/7/2010 9:37 PM, Ranjit Bhatnagar wrote: On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Gwern Branwen<gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:

I would also like to add a third suggestion: please stop changing subjects! I try not to complain but merely 'mute' or 'killfile' threads I find dull or stupid (like a great many in the past few weeks), but I cannot do this if people keep changing the subjects - the emails with modified subjects will land right in my inbox, and like a rat on an intermittent reinforcement schedule, I will read it to see whether something interesting has been said.

This is also officially encouraged behavior. Think of it as a bureaucratic filing system - even if the topic of discussion drifts, keeping the subject the same helps keep the thread of thought together.

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 12:56 AM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote: On 6/7/2010 9:37 PM, Ranjit Bhatnagar wrote:

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Gwern Branwen<gwern0 at gmail.com> ?wrote:

I would also like to add a third suggestion: please stop changing subjects! I try not to complain but merely 'mute' or 'killfile' threads I find dull or stupid (like a great many in the past few weeks), but I cannot do this if people keep changing the subjects - the emails with modified subjects will land right in my inbox, and like a rat on an intermittent reinforcement schedule, I will read it to see whether something interesting has been said.

I do not feel it right for you to expect everyone else to modify their behavior to suit your reading preferences.

This is also officially encouraged behavior. “Think of it as a bureaucratic filing system - even if the topic of discussion drifts, keeping the subject the same helps keep the thread of thought together.

Wait a minute - just two weeks ago you said "It's a good idea to edit the subject line of a discussion to reflect the topic being discussed" - which is it”

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 8:21 AM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote: What topic change, pray tell, is signaled by switching from 'travelling north' to 'Urth Digest, Vol 70, Issue 15'?

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 12:56 AM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote:

On 6/7/2010 9:37 PM, Ranjit Bhatnagar wrote:

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 5:06 PM, Gwern Branwen<gwern0 at gmail.com> ??wrote:

I would also like to add a third suggestion: please stop changing subjects! I try not to complain but merely 'mute' or 'killfile' threads I find dull or stupid (like a great many in the past few weeks), but I cannot do this if people keep changing the subjects - the emails with modified subjects will land right in my inbox, and like a rat on an intermittent reinforcement schedule, I will read it to see whether something interesting has been said.

I do not feel it right for you to expect everyone else to modify their behavior to suit your reading preferences.

I see. Will you be extending your little anarchist free speech crusade to the entirety of netiquette? Or just the parts that people bring up? I ask for subject changes to match genuine topic changes precisely so other people do not have to change what they write, to allow me to opt out. If they don't, then I'm forced to either unsubscribe entirely, or do my best to destroy each offending thread. I don't want to do either.

This is also officially encouraged behavior. ??Think of it as a bureaucratic filing system - even if the topic of discussion drifts, keeping the subject the same helps keep the thread of thought together.

Wait a minute - just two weeks ago you said "It's a good idea to edit the subject line of a discussion to reflect the topic being discussed" - which is it?

There's nothing inconsistent here, except in your head. I asked you offlist to look at the list of threads for just June and tell me whether you thought each and every one was a genuine subject edit in response to a topic change. You didn't. So I'll provide an example from http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2010-June/thread.html What topic change, pray tell, is signaled by switching from 'travelling north' to 'Urth Digest, Vol 70, Issue 15'? -- gwern _______________________________________________

On 6/8/2010 10:21 AM, Gwern Branwen wrote: On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 12:56 AM, Jeff Wilson<jwilson at io.com> wrote:

I do not feel it right for you to expect everyone else to modify their behavior to suit your reading preferences.

I see. Will you be extending your little anarchist free speech crusade to the entirety of netiquette? Or just the parts that people bring up?

This is also officially encouraged behavior. Think of it as a bureaucratic filing system - even if the topic of discussion drifts, keeping the subject the same helps keep the thread of thought together.

Wait a minute - just two weeks ago you said "It's a good idea to edit the subject line of a discussion to reflect the topic being discussed" - which is it?

There's nothing inconsistent here, except in your head. I asked you offlist to look at the list of threads for just June and tell me whether you thought each and every one was a genuine subject edit in response to a topic change. You didn't. So I'll provide an example from http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2010-June/thread.html

What topic change, pray tell, is signaled by switching from 'travelling north' to 'Urth Digest, Vol 70, Issue 15'?

On 6/9/2010 6:20 AM, Jonathan Laidlow wrote: While we're being kind to digest readers, it would help if some of you could delete the irrelevant portions of the messages you're replying to. Sometimes the digests have one message, which contains 6-7 previous messages, and they become very difficult to read...

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 12:11 AM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote: Wait a minute - just two weeks ago you said "It's a good idea to edit the subject line of a discussion to reflect the topic being discussed" - which is it?

There's nothing inconsistent here, except in your head. I asked you offlist to look at the list of threads for just June and tell me whether you thought each and every one was a genuine subject edit in response to a topic change. You didn't. So I'll provide an example from http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2010-June/thread.html

I didn't see any offlist messages from you, sorry.

On Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 9:56 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote: **

I didn't see any offlist messages from you, sorry.

My mistake, that was James Wynn - same initials, I guess! -- gwern _

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