Legitimacy of the Ten Year Rule.

From: Derek Peschel <dpeschel_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Mon Jan 25 18:13:31 1999

> The original intent of the 10 year rule has been lost upon the more recent
> members of the list. Bill Whitson created the Ten Year Rule to prevent
> this forum from becoming just another PC discussion group. He wanted the
> discussion to stay generally on the topic of discussing old computers. So
> by making the charter preclude discussion of computers under 10 years old,
> he hoped to avoid people fielding boring questions that are better asked
> elsewhere, in forums that are specifically catered to those particular
> needs.

I've been saving all the messages about the ten-year rule, and I was going
to make an official pronouncement when I had enough time (after reading all
the messages first). But since Sam has spoken, now's my only chance to up-
stage him in my role as moderator! :) Besides, Sam's viewpoint seems to be
pretty close to my own.

The list has a welcome file which should get sent to all new members. I
edited it recently, mostly to add a few tips about list commands and to take
out the dire warnings ("This list is going away!"). I think I mentioned
that I had changed it but I don't know how many people saw the new version.

The welcome file mentions the ten-year rule. It mentions allowable and un-
allowable violations. It even implies that the rule is a bit of a double
standard, in the sense that it's OK for the topic being discussed to drift
away from the ten-year rule. (It doesn't actually out-and-out say that
that's OK. This is one of the connotations of my term "double standard".)

To be honest, the off-topic messages I've seen are blatantly off-topic.
I can remember only a handful of messages (if that) dealing with modern PCs.

> So, I know it would be futile to hope this permanently recurring thread
> would stop recurring, but if everyone would just keep this in mind, and we
> would finally have a FAQ that would be required reading to all new-comers
> that explains this before they are allowed to post, then I think we could
> finally put this issue to rest...permanently.

Well, the welcome file is such a FAQ. It should be sent to newcomers by the
list-processing software. Unfortunately, there's no way to make sure anyone
has read it as a requirement to posting.

Unlike policing topic drift (a power which I've assumed only to a low
degree, far below the full possible amount) I do see list maintenance as an
important duty. I want to set up the old WWW site and FTP archives. (I'm
working with Bill on that -- I just need to actually get in touch with him.)
I want to add new material. In the past, Bill posted announcements on USE-
NET, and having those announcements is on my list of things to do. That
would probably help eliminate this debate.

Of course since we're a very vocal bunch of people (as well as smart), it's
probably not possible to completely eliminate the debate.

-- Derek
Received on Mon Jan 25 1999 - 18:13:31 GMT