[Theforum] Inviting other people

[A. Erickson]

> Part 1)
> Ten crap articles each day: This is simple. There are admin 
> gods who go 
> through the articles and evaluate their merit. This should 
> eliminate total 
> crud, and get articles up to at least an "average" level.
> Could one of the admins please let us know how many (absolute or 
> percentage) article submissions you've rejected in the past?

My example was hypothetical as we have always evaluated articles before
they go live. What I was speaking to was the reputation hit that we
might take. I'm just comparing quality and quantity and what happens
when quality suffers.

> Part 2)
> I'm not sure what "ranting newbies" do (since I've never 
> witnessed it on 
> thelist, and never was subscribed to MJ), but is that they post OT 
> comments? If so, a gentle reminder (unlike the dictatorial 
> ways of, cough, 
> another list) seems to have worked well for us in the past, 
> has it not?
> 
> Is it that they ask too many "newbie" questions? That's not a 
> bad thing and 

Newbies are, by my definition, not merely people who are new or young or
inexperienced but also tend to take and take and take without giving, to
rant at the drop of a hat and to take great offense when called out for
it. What they do to a community is to bring down the level of
discussion, create chaos where there was none and drive away good
members. They create an atmosphere for regular arguments that go
something like this:
	
	Newbie: I am not being unreasonable!
	Old Curmudgeon: Yes you are because of x, y, and z.
	List Mod: Can we take this offlist, this isn't appropriate.
	Middlebie: I really think it is appropriate, and I think Newbie
is being tortured and blah, blah, blah.
	Newbie: Yeah!

Wash, rinse, repeat.

I'm glad that these instances are very few and far between on thelist. I
want it to stay that way and I'm sure others do, too. 

All of this is just my own opinion on treading carefully into promoting
thelist. We just need to think about the angles and evaluate the
cost/benefit if we can.

- amanda