I've received a couple of complaints about the tenor of this mailing list.  My cursory look through the archives suggests that the problems are with a couple of people.

I'm trying to sort it out with the people about whom the complaints are about, but something occurred to me.  There's been lots of "votes" on this mailing list, which I've never been a big fan of, because the group of people who are active on this list are self-selected.  However, there's one thing y'all are the exact right people to vote on, which is "who should be on this mailing list?".  It may be good to have times where y'all get to vote a person or two off of the mailing list "Survivor"-style, though I want to make sure that this list is a safe place for smart people with unconventional communication styles to express unpopular opinions every now and then.

I'm announcing today is the first day of voting in this election.  Please send me a private ballot (to me only, not to the list) in the following example format:

1.  A -  This person ("A") is my favorite person posting on the list.  (Please only vote for one or two "favorites", though I won't mind if you gush about three or four people in this first round of voting)

2. CCCCC - These people ("C", "C", "C", "C", and "C") are usually pretty reasonable, and though I disagree with them sometimes (or perhaps almost every message they send), their messages are generally thoughtful and well-expressed.  It would make me sad if they decided to unsubscribe to this mailing list, and are driven off the list by the more obnoxious/prolific posters.  I'm sometimes thinking of these people specifically when I write emails to the list, because I want to reach these people.

3. FFF - These people ("F", "F", and "F") are almost always sending unacceptable messages to this list, and they do it A LOT.  It's not just annoying, it's toxic.  I've been tempted to unsubscribe mainly because of THEIR messages (and some of you may say "I have done it a time or two in the past").

I really want concise email ballots, though I'm allowing for a little prose to explain why you put someone at the "A" tier or why you're relegating anyone to the "FFF" tier.  Try to have at least one person in the "A" tier for every person you put in the "FFF" tier.  The "CCCCC" tier should really just be a list.

This is an experiment.  I'm going to be traveling soon, so I'm hoping to have the first set of ballots by end-of-day Monday (and note: my end-of-day is probably later than your end-of-day, especially if you're not in the United States).  I don't mind if you email me personally and say "I'd like a little more time to think about this".  I probably won't try figuring out how to aggregate everyone's feedback about other list members until August, but those of you who vote early will have my gratitude.  If you want to propose other ballot formats than what I suggest above, that's okay, but I think I'm going to insist on using my three-tier "A", "CCCCC", and "FFF" tiers, and using those names.  I'm going to be hand aggregating ballots, so the more novel you are with your ballots, the less likely I'm going to be to consider your ballot.

I'm not likely to act soon on the first set of ballots unless there are a lot of ballots that put the same person(s) in the "FFF" category.  I'm not planning on holding these votes at any particular interval, but maybe we should devise a set of rules for calling a "vote of no confidence" in the current membership of the mailing list.  It may be that only people who post 5 or more times per month are eligible to be voted off the island, so to speak.  I haven't decided, but your comments are welcome!

Rob

p.s. I've started work setting up an alternative mailing list to discuss voting software.  I'm more likely to read all of the messages to this alternative mailing list, so I'm less likely to be patient with people that ruin the reading experience for the lurkers on the list.