Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 10:43:30 +0100
Subject: M-G: Consistency in treatment of long posts on M-I!


A completely predictable problem has just arisen on Marxism-International,
as the following post by one of the moderators shows:

>To marxism-international:
>
>Rakesh's recent post (9:40 EST) was actually a single post bearing the title
>"Nimal Chandra on India" which boundced to the moderators due to its
>excessive length earlier this evening.    He has re-posted it in four parts
>at my suggestion.
>
>I am well aware that this is,  technically,  a violation of the 3 post per
>day rule.    It may have been more propitious to have asked him to wait
>until tomorrow to post,  since he had today already posted twice to the
>list.    This error of judgement -- if such it is -- falls on me alone,  and
>I apologize to the list members for this seeming indiscretion.
>
>Louis Godena,
>co-moderator


All very well, and we all respect Rakesh.

However, would the moderators have been as accommodating towards, say, Bob
Malecki or Auntie Adolfo if they had been forced to break a long post into
smaller pieces?

I doubt it, and I think we need to insist on consistency if the list is to
maintain any kind of authority as a moderated forum.

The problem of long posts can be dealt with by sending them as attachments
to the archives where anyone can fetch them, by having the author send them
to individual subscribers who state their interest, or by chopping them up
into manageable bits and treating the bits consistently:

a) as one post in a number of bits (which the list software evidently
doesn't do)

or

b) as single posts that take their turn with every other post.

Clarification from the moderators on this please, before everybody starts
sending long posts and demanding equal treatment on the basis of this
precedent.


Cheers,

Hugh

PS Over on Marxism-General, there's no maximum limit to posts -- so there's
no problem. Might be easier to post there when the discussion gets intense?
Just a thought...




     --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---