[Advaita-l] ADMIN: List moderation and posts

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

A general note to all list members:

If all you can say boils down to a "how dare you say something different
frome me?" type of response, it is better to not say it out loud. It creates
a bad impression of you in the minds of 2 out of 3 people and it brings
down the overall quality and tenor of this list. As moderators of this list,
we don't care about the opinions that 2 out of 3 people may form about
you, but we care about maintaining the quality and tenor of this list. And
if you want to contribute meaningfully to the tenor of discussions on this
list, you had better care a little about how others perceive your posts. 

If you do not have anything to say that is particularly relevant TO THIS
LIST, it is better to keep quiet. People like Osama and Kasab, and the
responses of USA and Pakistan and India as modern nations that deal
with these people, have nothing to do with the goals of this list.

We are NOT an India discussion list. We are NOT a USA discussion list.
We are NOT a terrorism discussion list. We are NOT a New Age list.
We are NOT an "All religions are good" kind of discussion list. We are
NOT a "my religion is superior, all other religions are for morons" kind
of list. We are a list for discussing Advaita Vedanta. Keep that in mind
at all times. Any comparison of different religions or philosophies and
their adherents needs to be focused and kept at a scholarly level. 
We have provided a general set of list policies that should govern your
behavior on this list. If we find that you repeatedly abuse this privilege,
we  will first place you on moderated status and then perhaps remove
you from the list. Being placed on moderated status means that not a
single one of your posts will make it to the list, unless a moderator
approves it. We do not take the step of removing anybody from the list
unless there is a great deal of provocation to do so.
 
You may have other interests and other opinions on millions of topics
under the sun, but THIS list is not the forum for expressing them. If you
find that you cannot regulate your posts to this list according to list policy,
perhaps you need to find other avenues to express yourselves. In that 
case, being removed from this list may be a blessing in disguise. Start
your own blog, or join some other discussion list, or open a Facebook
page and post status updates or join Twitter and provide sound-bites,
or do something else. Spare this mailing list.
 
As per our list policy, let me reiterate that we do not actively approve or
reject every post that appears on the list. When you address your post
to the list address and hit send, you are expressing yourself to about 300
people at the same time. Please treat this as a PRIVILEGE and exercise it
wisely. Think about the fact that out of these 300, for every one person
who may agree with you, chances are that there are ten who will disagree
with you. And out of those who do agree with you, ninety percent may feel
that you need not have said anything at all. 

Jaldhar Vyas, Ravisankar Mayavaram and I, as list-moderators, have
explained all of this multiple times in the past, in various ways. We want 
to take a mostly hands-off approach to moderation of list discussions,
because we believe that every one of you is a responsible adult. And as
list members ourselves, we want the liberty to express our own views
independent of our list-moderation duties. We value that liberty and we
hope you value YOUR liberty in not waiting for every single one of your
posts being vetted and censored before being approved for posting. If
we have reason to believe that you are misusing or abusing your privilege
 as a member of an open discussion list, we WILL take remedial action.

Treat this as a warning or as a threat or as friendly advice, whatever
your personal take may be, but do regulate your behavior on the list
accordingly.
 
Vidyasankar