Moderating a Discussion Group

The moderator of a discussion group has a great deal of power. It should be wielded properly and correctly.

This power should not be used visibly. The subscribers should not see that you take part in the discussion itself too much; the less you do the better. You should butt out completely except for administrative messages that’s the best possible and then you can have the most power. The power is wielded because the group is moderated which means that you can control what people post. Supposedly people have the open light to post anything they want. If somebody posts something which does not meet your approval or the group approval which should be stated clearly either in a monthly message or in a website or in a welcome message, if it does not meet to your approval completely then you can reject the message or you can send it back to the person to rewrite it until you are satisfied. This may alienate some people because they don't want to be bothered. They don't want to take the effort of rewriting it even if that just means changing the subject line from Digest 437 to a more appropriate subject line. They’re just going to want you to put it through and be through with it. On the other hand, people who care that little about their own posting and are not willing to improve it don't really matter that much to their group. To the group in many cases their postings aren’t all that worthwhile. They just throw something down in order to see their name in print and you’re not going to lose that much if the postings don't go through. Some people post things so that they can see their name in print and know that it has gone out to many others and if you hurt their feelings by not putting it through they may unsubscribe.

So be it.

The purpose of your discussion group is to achieve a certain goal or to stress a certain topic. It’s not meant to be a personal publicity for individuals. That seems to be a constant to the agenda. You want to have your needs met and those needs should be clearly stated in the beginning as the goals not as needs and yes people have different goals than those you have stipulated then there’s a conflict between your goals and theirs in which case as moderator of the group you have the option of being able to enforce your goals rather than theirs. The result might be some nasty retorts or correspondents from the offended subscriber. However this can also mean off-line. You can use your judgment as to when to respond to the person and when to use the tact and avoid responding. Some people indignantly speak about their rights and they will say you have no right to list server such as Yahoo! and complain, sue if their issues are not publicized. In the constitution is the right to express themselves and because they have the right to free speech and on and on. None of these issues should be of any interest or ?? to you as the moderator. None of them are valid and they should not push you away from your main cause and direction.

Of course all of this is irrelevant if you have an unmoderated group or a group in which you really don't have a theme in which you just allow free and open discussion. On such a group it doesn’t really matter in the end it doesn’t really matter what is said however there is very little satisfaction by the participants in such a group and certainly very little satisfaction to be gained by you for having to run such a group nor will it accomplish much. I don't understand why people join free and open discussions which are unlimited and unmoderated in which they can say anything but as a result postings have no value or no importance and which would be a waste of time similar to chat groups or IRC which is available or real-time chat or a lot of things that have no significance. From the start … those who want to discuss important and worthwhile topics in a legitimate and worthwhile forum … rather than just kill an evening with just talk.