ADMIN: Abusive posts

Good evening fellow -Graphics people,

It is sad to see the open spirit of the Guild's lists abused and
compromised the way it has been recently.  Unfortunately because the
Guild's lists are guided and not moderated, List Guides do not "approve"
each post - and so we can only deal with the situation after the fact.
Most of our actions are carried out in the background via private mail.

I want to reassure you that this matter has been dealt with by the List
Guides.  However, although I am not at liberty to reveal details of
specific punishments to individual members I would like to draw your
attention to the following facts.

* Removing somebody from a list(s) takes a little longer than cautioning
them.  There are certain procedures that need to be followed.

* The List Guide Program operates totally on volunteer labour and that
different time zones often interfere with "immediate action".

* Announcing on a public list that a person is removed before they actually
are generally results result in worse displays by that person.

Having said all that, I would like to thank you all for your patience while
this matter has been resolved.  I assure you the List Guides have been just
as concerned about the situation as you have.

Despite our current problems, I still believe that guided lists are
generally a better option than moderated lists.  If List Guides were to
become List Moderators, the responsiveness (and hence a lot of the value)
of the Guild's lists would be lost.  Unfortunately there will always be a
minority who want to spoil things for others.

Let us now call an end to this subject and resume the HWG-Graphics charter!
 Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.


Chris Higgs <c.higgs(at)landfood.unimelb.edu.au>
Assist. List Guide Manager
HTML Writers Guild, http://www.hwg.org

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