MJ Ray wrote:
That's not necessarily so. I've had compliments for moderating other lists, but this list does have three characteristics that I think make complaints more likely:-
- weak/vague charter (partly my fault - I was inexperienced);
- slow/irregular moderation;
- being on a tech topic.
I have no problem with the slow/irregular moderation.
If the list admins are finding enough time to trawl through what I imagine is a mountain of spam to find the odd post from new members and then just either bouncing it back with reasons why it was rejected or accepting it for the list so that others can explain why it was moderated in the first place then I think they are doing the most that can be reasonably be expected and this doesn't need to happen immediately.
What I think would help is if it was obvious in some way that the message had been moderated, changing the subject might break threading for people, but is there a way of automating the addition of a line at the top saying "moderated" when something hits the moderation queue ? That way we wouldn't get other members on the list wondering why a backdated message has suddenly appeared.
Often when this comes up it seems to be approached with a total disregard to the moderators being voluntary and actually having other stuff to do. Of course normally such complaints are missing the offer of help you have made.