[tei-council] Setting up read-only access to TEI Council list?

[Rebecca Welzenbach]

 I take Kevin's point that even though the Council archives are
publicly accessible, by making it less convenient than it might be to
access them, we're rather violating the spirit of open government.

Nevertheless, I agree with Piotr, Martin, Gaby, and Stuart. Not
because messages to this list might land in other people's inboxes,
but because this violates my expectation of how email lists work. When
subscribing to a list that is structured as a conversation, not just
one-way blasts, I generally expect to be able to participate, even if
moderated. Since that wouldn't typically be case here, I suspect this
is likely to confuse and frustrate people.

Kevin made an analogy to the public being able to attend a city
council meeting, but only having the opportunity/right to address the
council if invited to do so. But in that setting, the boundaries are
clear: an audience watching and listening to those at the front of the
room. To me, both an open email archive and a feed set up a similarly
clear expectation/boundary (so I'm all in favor of those), while
actually allowing non-members to subscribe to the list obscures it.

Something I've learned from representing the TCP: don't put yourself
in a position to constantly have to explain to people that they can't
do what they expect to be able to do. It totally outweighs any
goodwill that you hope to build up by being conveniently transparent.
Operating by one set of rules in a medium that usually abides by a
different set of rules seems to invite headaches on all sides.

I'm very willing to be convinced otherwise if I'm wrong about how
unusual this is, and there's precedent for sharing and following email
business in this way. Otherwise it seems rather like a city council
member coming to your home to tell you about a new proposal, but then
not letting you respond without permission.

Sorry for the rambling....
Becky

On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 4:50 PM, stuart yeates <syeates at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20/05/12 01:08, Gabriel BODARD wrote:
>> I agree with both Piotr and Martin's positions: that's exactly what I
>> was trying to say by pointing out that setting up a parallel read-only
>> email list was just like subscribing people to the Council list itself.
>> (And makes me just as uncomfortable.)
>
> I pretty much agree with Piotr, Martin an Gabriel, however I note that
> Christof (or David on Christof's behalf) does not appear to have given a
> motivation for wanting access.
>
> I'm going to say no, unless some compelling motivation is bought forward
> to overcome the opposition already expressed.
>
> cheers
> stuart
>
>
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