[Milsurplus] off topic post & vulgar language, a word from the list admin

[Ralph Hogan]

I hate to send out these emails. It is a reminder for everyone to behave
themselves.

I can't stay online 24 hours a day / 7 days a week to real time monitor the
traffic on this remailer. A lot of messages can slip through before I can
react to a problem. The only alternative is to run a  moderated list.  That
means I would have to approve each and every post before it goes out to the
subscriber list. I would then have subscribers taking offense that I must
approve every word they say.

99.9% of the time, everyone behaves themselves. But, generally twice a year
on this list, someone says something that someone else gets upset about and
we have an incident like the one today. With this large of a group, it is
bound to happen occasionally.

There are definitely two things which don't fly on this remailer. I've
stated them before.

One is off topic post. A single post and maybe one or two replies usually
gets by without too much repercussion. A long drawn out off topic thread
will usually result in someone blowing up. We witnessed this today. I try to
intervene before this happens and warn the original poster and listees to
stop the thread. Today unfortunately I didn't get there in time. If you see
an off topic post and this offends you please ignore it and use your delete
key. Don't play traffic cop. Let the list admin take care of the problem. If
you actually have interest in the off topic subject matter and want to
respond, please be courteous and send a PRIVATE email to the poster and not
the reflector. The reflector is only for military radio related subject
matter. Failure to keep on topic will put you immediately on moderated
status.

The second big no-no is vulgar language. This is a GP rated remailer. Many
of our subscribers have email going to family accounts. Please refrain from
vulgar language in your messages. Failure to do so will put you immediately
on moderated status or worse.

I received derogatory messages today concerning who I 'let' onto this
remailer. Subscribing is automated at this point. Even if I did 'approve'
the hundreds of memberships on this list, how am I to judge who to approve
for a subscription? How can a list administrator know if someone will some
day do something wrong or blow his stack? Should I send each new subscriber
candidate a 100 item questionnaire along with a psychological test to
answer? Come on guys be real. I must trust that a fellow military radio
collector will behave himself on our remailer. When he doesn't then I act as
swiftly as possible.

If you wish to discuss this posting, please send me a private email.

As a final word, the person in question today is no longer a member of this
list.

Ralph W4XE / AAT4UU
Milsurplus Admin