Re: Calls for participation no longer allowed

On 24/05/2016 16:38, ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program wrote:
> Is it possible to create a separate list for Calls for participation and calls for papers and have them all posted on a website where they are categorized and where people can subscribe to either all posts or weekly summaries?
> There is an obvious need for these news items, since NO websites exist that publish all CfP's (papers or participation) in ICT in general and semantic web, linked data, big data, data mining or the Internet of Things in particular.

The option of setting up a separate mailing list just for CfPs was 
included in the survey I ran a a couple of months ago and it was not 
well supported. The overall result of that consultation was that, as you 
say, CfPs are important information. A lot of us need to see them and 
post them. We're not trying to stop them all together - but we are 
trying to reduce the amount of cross posting. Most people on this list 
are also on the semantic-web list, as well as others, and so when we get 
"sorry for cross posting" messages - you know that's utterly meaningless 
as multiple copies duly arrive in your inbox.

Let's stop that.

But let's also highlight how we *do* want to receive CfPs. Again, using 
my survey from March as a basis, the approach with the greatest support 
is that CfPs are posted to semantic-web@w3.org as long as:

1. The event is relevant to SemWeb/LD.
2. Ideally it also includes the string [CfP] in the subject line.

Since I started clamping down on excessive and unwanted multiple posts, 
we've had a few examples of that - terrific. See the archive at 
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2016May/ and search 
for [CfP] - it works by golly! I've tried to encourage that further by 
personally tweeting thanks to those people. See 
https://twitter.com/philarcher1/status/735016787423731712 for example.

We've had a couple that have only been posted to semantic-web - good - 
but you don't get the tweet without the [CfP] :-)

On the flip side, we've also blocked a couple of people who are clearly 
abusing the system despite specific warnings. In one case, we blocked 
all mail from all addresses on a given domain from all our lists. 
Drastic, yes - but the abuse has to stop so that the genuine messages 
are received and appreciated.

A bit of internal W3C-ery for you: every mailing list in our system has 
an 'owner' - I 'own' all the ones related to SemWeb and data in general 
(but not XML, that's Liam Quin's job). So I'm *only* applying this 
policy to the lists in my patch. Colleagues will manage their own list 
in their own way - but you may be surprised: I'm the nice guy around 
here. Most colleagues just want to ban all CfPS from all lists. No 
exceptions, no plea bargaining, no nothing.

I've had several messages of support for these actions - thank you. I've 
also had complaints. The former outnumber the latter.

Let's see how this pans out - the aim, of course, is for the system to 
be genuinely useful to everyone.

Cheers

Phil.


>  Milton Ponson
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>
>     On Tuesday, May 17, 2016 5:32 AM, Phil Archer <phila@w3.org> wrote:
>
>
>  Dear all,
>
> As you may recall, I recently asked members of this list and
> semantic-web@w3.org about attitudes to calls for participation [1].
>
> Following that survey, the majority view is that:
>
> 1. CfPs are not welcome on this (public-lod@w3.org) list.
>
> 2. *Some* CfPs are tolerable on semantic-web@w3.org, especially if the
> string '[CfP]' appears in the subject line (for personal filtering).
>
> I will write to the semantic-web list separately but for this list the
> rule is simple:
>
> Calls for participation are not allowed on this list.
>
> No exceptions.
>
> None.
>
> This is in line with other lists maintained by W3C that do not allow
> such posts.
>
> Any future calls for participation posted to this list will be treated
> as spam.
>
> Thanks
>
> Phil
>
> [1] https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2016Mar/0051.html
>
>

-- 


Phil Archer
W3C Data Activity Lead
http://www.w3.org/2013/data/

http://philarcher.org
+44 (0)7887 767755
@philarcher1

Received on Tuesday, 24 May 2016 16:19:49 UTC