cellio | (no subject)

Sometimes the life of a mailing-list administrator is not fun.

I am the owner of an SCA list for Jewish topics (Jewish personas and/or issues around practicing the religion in an SCA context). I didn't create the list; I inherited it.

Someone posted a message with all the hallmarks of spam -- style of language, vagueness, formatting -- implying relevance to Israel today. But this isn't a list about Israel. If I were a regular subscriber I would have simply deleted it (probably parsing it as run-of-the-mill spam and missing the Jewish connection entirely), but I'm the list owner and I really don't want to see an increase in the volume of off-topic messages.

So I looked up the sender, and he's a subscriber. I sent him mail saying (politely) "please don't post off-topic stuff to this list". I was very diplomatic, because I perceived an error of judgement rather than blatant disregard. (Sort of like the people who post virus warnings to every mailing lis they're on. They mean well, but they're usually quite clueless.)

I got mail back from him saying "When you will be off topic we will still help you...". Ok, poster needs time with a clue-by-four. I sent one reply explaining why we have topic rules, and I don't really expect to hear back. I have also put him on the "messages must be approved by list owner" list, but I didn't tell him that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ok, I now have evidence that the poster is a jerk rather than simply being clueless. Oh well; he'll just have to live with moderation of his posts. I don't like doing that sort of thing on an open list, but in this case I guess I'll have to.

Stick to your guns. *nod* *supportive smile*

Looks like we both are faced with people who need to get with the program...and learn the RULES! It's funny how, in life, people feel rules are constricting-- rather than realizing that rules actually bring a sense of freedom. They allow us to do what we are supposed to do with a minimal amount of problems.
Forinstance, if the man I picked up from the airport had figured out the RULES of obtaining a visa-- how much smoother the start of his visit here would have been.....
if the poster on your list had stuck to the rules of the list--how much easier your job would be and others wouldn't have to wade through his 'off subject' emails....
rules...good things!

"When you will be off topic we will still help you...".

Someone actually constructed a sentence that parses like ELIZA?

Sorry that this person needs to be slapped for a while.

That was a direct quote from his reply to my message. Cut and paste, actually. :-)

Given that this person is sending mail from Israel, it's entirely possible that English is not his first language. So I'm not criticizing his syntax -- just his methods.