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First, to group messages that are solely devoted to a single topic (thread) into
a single mail message. Perhaps, by collecting responses to a query or an
ongoing debate for a few days, and then concatenating them into a single
message. This could also reduce the amount of copied material from the original
message ("> ...") since the original could simply be tacked on at the top of the
collection. Maybe the mailing could be done only on two days a week (unless
someone has an urgent questions), and messages in between those times are
collated.
I also strongly urge people who respond to questions to post their responses to
the original questioner rather than the list. If people on the list are
interested in the answers received, they can ask the person who first posted the
question for the summary of responses. In the past, some people have been
extremely good about summarizing the responses they got directly from people and
posting that on the net. This kind of processed information is much more useful
to the general readership, in that not everyone has to read duplicate answers,
trivial answers, etc.
Finally, I would like to ask the moderators to prevent what recently happened to
me: a private message I sent to another person was posted by that person on the
mailing list without my permission, in the form of a quoted reply. This kind of
publication of a private message is, as everyone would agree, inappropriate.
Unfortunately, these suggestions involve a greater investment of effort on the
part of the moderators (as well as the users)--something difficult to ask for
without compensation. I wonder whether it would be possible to have a group of
people (derived from the users who read the list) who would serve as moderators
(editors?) for periods of time? A volunteer editor could be responsible for
gathering messages about a certain topic, and doing the collation suggested
above.
In other words: how can we distribute the tasks necessary to maintain this list
across at least some of the users who gain from it?
mr
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