Re: Missing Brigade (2)

[Hans Reiser <reiser@ricochet.net>]

I personally would also much prefer it if this list adhered to the ABA list
standard rather than no standard at all.  I find the flames annoying to sift
through.  I also recognize that the folks at essential are busy, and that
moderating is a lot of work.

Hans

charles mueller wrote:

>         In my musing last evening on how a discussion list might go at
> attracting the most knowledgeable people in its field--in antimonopoly
> policy, the very senior economic scholars who've written the textbooks for
> the past 4 or 5 decades, conducted the leading empirical studies of
> real-world monopolies, and so on--I was about to start my 3rd suggestion,
> got distracted, and then later inadvertently hit 'send' while posting a
> dozen or so other messages.  Here is the completed version of my suggestions
> for making a list attractive to these distinguished people:
>
>                                                   .....................
>
>         1.  No name-calling, ad hominem attacks, or discourteous, uncivil,
> disrespectful or offensive posts.
>
>         2.  The list owner will himself, or through a designate, provide an
> E-mail address for the lodging of complaints under (1),  above, either by
> the person offended or by any other member of the list.
>
>         3.  Upon receipt of such a complaint, the offender will be invited
> to submit  to the group, and to the person offended, an on-line apology
> which has been accepted by the latter.  Should the offender decline to do
> so, he will be forthwith removed from the list of members.
>
>                                                   ......................
>
>         This morning I joined another antitrust discussion list, one
> administered by the American Bar Association (ABA).  Its policy guidelines
> include the following:
>
>         'This list is a privilege and personal attacks and profanity will
> not be tolerated.         If you feel that this privilege is being abused by
> a subscriber, it is your right            and your RESPONSIBILITY to email
> to listman@abanet.org and report this.'
>
>         This covers my points (1) and (2).  And it would hardly be
> surprising if, in their application, this group of lawyers doesn't also
> employ my principle (3), namely, requiring an apology (made publicly,
> on-list) that is sufficient to satisfy the person who has been offended.
> The latter point, in my view, is vital--the list is going to lose that
> offended senior scholar if HE is left with a sense of justice not fully and
> fairly done.  It is his perception of the matter that is vital to keeping
> him, which of course means that there must not just be an apology by the
> offender but that it must be of a kind and character that fully satisifes
> the victim, that is generous enough to persuade him to say, 'apology
> accepted.'
>
>         Attracting the most knowledgeable people to Net discussion groups is
> obviously the linchpin in their ability to contribute to the solution of the
> world's harder policy problems.  So far, none of the lists I've been on have
> spelled out such a consistent, coherent policy--or have attracted the full
> roster of the best in their respective fields.  'List policy' is, I believe,
> a key factor in making a real-world difference.  I hope we'll hear from
> other members who have some thoughts here.
>
>         Charles Mueller, Editor
>         ANTITRUST LAW & ECONOMICS REVIEW
>         http://webpages.metrolink.net/~cmueller


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