Anyone who has managed an unmoderated list knows what a nightmare it is to battle SPAM and other unauthorized and inappropriate messages. There are hoards of programmed robots continually searching through the lists and forums etc to post advertising, malware and scams on unmoderated lists. Removing such messages after the fact is a never ending battle that consumes far too much time and effort, not to mention that is a terribly annoying task. There may also be a liability issue for the site owner (NADAC) if defamatory remarks or other illegal activity is performed via the site.
I also believe that the popularity of the NADAC group list is much due to the fact that it is moderated. Another, very important factor is that Sharon, as the moderator, does not block messages that are critical to decisions made or that promote views contrary to hers. So, the only negative for us as forum participants is that there can be a delay for posts to make it through. I'm amazed at how short that delay usually is, and it is a minimal price to pay for the benefit of forums that provide for so much information and exchange of ideas through civilized discourse.
For a long time, I've wondered how one person possibly could do all the things Sharon does, and moderating the forum(s) must take up a lot of time and require a lot of effort. However you do it, Thanks!
Stefan Elvstad
Karissa, I am going to highly disagree with you about moderated lists. They DO grow! Our agility list is the second largest in the world (behind Clean Run) and the biggest part of this is because people are happy that they don't have to hear non-stop negative ramblings and criticism of each other. Our list is friendly, supportive and is a great family of fellow supporters who "enjoy" each other's presence. This is not true of the non-moderated lists where people can be very rude and totally "out of line" before they get put on a "moderated" status.... but that is after the damage is done.
Our lists will remain modertated and that is not open to change..... we are always overwhelmed with the appreciation of the "masses" who want moderation so topics can be talked about with good input and opionions without emotional outbursts.
For those who do enjoy that type of "reading" there are dozens of agility lits and forums that are not moderated and they don't have the size of of our agility list of 5,800 people on Yahoo currently.
There are many "real-time" forums for people to use for social networking and there are no shortages of those!
We will maintain our current status!
Sharon
