[council] Mailing List Management

["Patrick Corliss" <patrick@quad.net.au>]

On Saturday, July 07, 2001 12:32 AM (AEST), you wrote:

> Elizabeth has made a very reasonable request.  We are spending a lot of
> time on these administrative issues. I can tell that you are pretty
> frustrated.  What do you recommend? Can we make a decision which can
> be considered a trial if needed until a set time, and take consultation on
> it, and then announce it?

Dear Names Council

I agree it sounds reasonable but it's wrong for several reasons all of which
would be burdensome to explain in detail.  Simply put, the General Assembly
is dysfunctional and needs to get its act together.  Danny and I are not
communicating.  We are both subjected to all sorts of abuse.  Two list
monitors have resigned and the others are not adjudicating any cases.

Danny could solve that by appointing one list monitor.  I would suspend
William X. Walsh for abuse and Jim Fleming for excess postings.

The abusers are running riot over the lists.  William X. Walsh broke Joop
and wants to do the same for me and Danny.  Nobody has volunteered to take
over as Chair of any of the sublists.  Danny's proposed Organizing Committee
has never got off the ground.  The GA or the NC has no funds to send Danny
or me to the ICANN conferences.

Now my view is that there is only one way to make the GA work.  That is to
get rid of all the debate on rules and procedures.  They are diversionary
tactics played by those who want to wreck the process.  And they are very
successful at doing it too.  That's why we need the [ga-rules] sublist.

The trouble is that the sublists have not reached a critical mass yet.  The
[ga-roots] is ok with 64 subscribers and [ga-udrp] is getting there with 40
people.  But one list has only 22 subscribers and that's not nearly enough
to create a good debate.  As well there are too many causing confusion.

Jefsey is sabotaging the sublists by taking any sublist post and posting a
reply on GA.  As most people play follow the leader, he switches the forum.
Danny is nearly as bad because he insists on posting to [ga] where there is
the widest audience.  Nobody seems to understand the list dynamics.

Managing the lists is a full-time job.  I have no time to be Alt Chair.  In
particular I have asked Elisabeth to set the mailing list software to bounce
error mail back to the sender.  She doesn't have the technical skills.  As
well, we need to stop all cross-posting.  Elisabeth agrees in principle.

One problem is the number of people who use [ga-abuse] as a sort of
*drop-in* chat room.  The worst offender, as you might expect, is Eric
Dierker.  What that does is clutter the decision-making process.

At the moment the list monitors are way behind.  That's my fault too.

My view is that we cannot control behaviour through the list rules.  We
must do it through the list software.  I am trying to set up a system of
virtual mailing lists.  Of course, I have to do this in tiny steps.  I need
the lists to work properly first.  That's not happening at all.

What amazes me is the lack of understanding by those on OUR side !!

Best regards
Patrick Corliss

PS I have sent this reply to the GA Chair, the DNSO Secretariat, the Names
Council and others with a blind copy to you.  I hope that's ok with you.