The first of these groups (Jewish Computing) was initiated in 1997. We've used most of the major public list servers that have been available over the course of time: ListBot, eGroups, OneList, Shamash, Yahoogroups, Googlegroups, and Topica.
By now, we know what we want to accomplish (and it has been developed and written out in the website for each group); the techniques have been refined, the mistakes are more predictable, and it has been possible to solve many of the potential problems.
The lists demand a great deal of bureaucratic or administrative work. The larger the lists, the more of this work that is involved.
In group dynamics, a facilitator selects the topics to be discussed, and then s/he invites other people to subscribe to or to join their discussion.
Similarly, in most of the other groups on the Internet, discussions are carried out in a free and unimpeded manner. Thus, somebody can send out a message and everybody else on the group will receive it within a very brief period of time. This works similar to most email although the technical arrangements behind the scenes are different from usual methods of transferring email from one address to another.
However, a moderated group is different. A moderated group has one or more moderators who check each piece of mail before it is sent out. It is their job to approve or disapprove of the email, return the email to the sender and request specific changes. The sender then has the option of making those changes or refusing, before it is sent out. It is bad netiquette to make any change in the email of a subscriber without their permission.
Find out more about moderating these groups
Find out about guidelines for our Jewish groups
Find out more about other Jewish and Hebrew groups
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Many issues were raised in this group. Were they all included in these guidelines?
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Keywords: History, Moderation
/ourjewishgroups/7WhyModerate/History