[wlug_org] I Vote to kick Michael off the main list!

[Ewen McNeill]

In message <1142893370.3934.15.camel at jessie>, Jethro Carr writes:
>Question:
>---------
>Do you think that emails on the mailing list notifying people of free
>hardware should be classed as advertising?

FWIW, _I_ consider posts "notifying" people of "free" hardware to be too
much like advertising[0] to evade the "no advertising" request, at least on
their face.  It might be near the top of the slippery slope, but it's
definitely on that slippery slope.  (Ie, if "everyone did it" then it'd
change the character of the list significantly, and be harder to defend
against people wanting to post other "special offers".)

To be honest I'm tiring of the attempts to create exceptions to the "no
advertising" request, or creatively interpret it to not apply to specific
posts that people want to make "just this once".  Especially given that
there's a perfectly good alternative list (-trade) for those who can't
live without all those "special offers".  For legal reasons Naos doesn't
want to host a list which consists of a series of "special offers".[1]

So if you do want to have a poll about this issue I suggest:

-=- cut here -=-
Should wellylug stay with a no-advertising main list, and an advertising
trade list, or move to a single combined list?
(a) stay with the two separate lists
(b) combine the lists
-=- cut here -=-

And in the latter case (combining the lists), I'll be looking to hand over
the list to someone else to run.  The archive of every post made to the
Wellylug list is downloadable by anyone ready to import into some other
mailing list software.  Jeremy can provide a list of the subscribers to
a designated person.  And Donald Gordan can update the wellylug.org.nz
DNS to point at the new site.

I'm of course happy to assist with the transition, but my point is
that it's (deliberately) possible for Wellylug to move the mailing list
without requiring my involvement.

Ewen

[0] Actually I consider it to be advertising, but "too much like
    advertising" is sufficient for my point here.

[1] And I don't really want to subscribe to a list which is filled
    with adverts; indeed the primary reason for offering to host the
    list was that I didn't want to subscribe to the ad-filled Yahoo
    Groups list.  Presumably other people have a higher tolerance/need
    for advertising than I do.