Re: [ga] GA-REVIEW & Other Mailing Lists

[technizmo <technizmo@yahoo.com>]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the additional
mailing lists were set up for "major" topics of
interest, so that they could benefit from noise
reduction, and have a better chance of producing
results, as has happened in the case of former WGs.

While these desired results may or may not happen, and
the lists may or may not perform as expected, some
initial effects may already be observed:

It will be extremely difficult now to eliminate
individual sublists without contest.  The existence of
a sublist on a topic gives an air of authority (real
or imagined) about that topic.  People who believe
strongly in one side of a topic / issue that has a
sublist dedicated to it  will identify with that
"authority".  This "authority", in their minds, gives
added credence to the topic, and hence their position
and their words.

Less biased opinions are less expressed in additional
sublists.  As I can attest, a person who does not have
a strong opinion on a topic is loathe to subscribe to
an additional list on that topic, when simply reading
messages from the main list can take the better part
of a day.  

I can understand the opinion of some, saying "let them
go into their own little room and fight amongst
themselves."  But for the sake of exposure of these
important topics, it would be IMO better served if
people who have yet to make up their minds on the
issue had the easiest access to the dialogue, so that
they can add to and compromise the divisive issue.

Easy access, for me,  does not include subscribing to
sublists on issues in which I have, as yet, no strong
opinion.  Better to have them in the immediate open,
where the observers can be informed, persuaded, and
educated into making up their own minds.  After that
happens, they can only add to the discussion.

-Jason Graff



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