Traffic volume on www-tag (was Re: site metadata discussion is overly voluminous)

It is increasingly apparent that we need to remind ourselves of the purpose
of www-tag and maybe reconsider the way we use it. Over the past couple of
months we have seen a number of threads that have grown without limit and
which the TAG itself has been unable process through sheer volume overload.

The purpose of www-tag is:

1) for the TAG to conduct its technical discussion in public view
2) for the public to engage dialog *with* the TAG.

Many of the larger and rapidly growing threads have little or no TAG
involvement and have ceased to be a dialog *with* the TAG. The effect is
counter-productive. There may be a good and serious point that needs some
attention... but that stans a good change of being lost. Various folk (TAG
members and public) will have developed a variety of strategies to manage
their in-boxes which will include ignoring particular thread, ignoring
particular contributors, and/or ignoring the list entirely.

The TAG does have some guidelines for attracting its attention [1]. I will
be revising them shortly. We intend to periodically update these guidelines
in the light of continued experience and to periodically issue reminders of
their existence.

In addition to:

"Therefore, before you post to www-tag, you should consider the following
alternatives:
  a.. Is there another group within W3C that is more suited to address this
issue? Check out the list of W3C mailing lists and list of W3C Activities.
  b.. General discussion about the Web should take place on
www-talk@w3.org."
If you are responding to a posting on www-tag I would urge you to consider:

a) Have you posted more than once already on the same thread on the same
day? If so, give TAG members a chance to respond before posting again.

b) If the TAG are not engaged in the particular discussion, give serious
consideration to the likelihood of your posting being ignored.

As Tim says, we have no wish to discourage free and open discussion, but we
would like ensure the list remains an effective tool for the TAG's technical
discussion and for the TAG to engage in dialog with the public.

Lastly, if you feel compelled to respond to this message, please restrict
yourself to one posting (flame or otherwise) - and use it wisely.

Stuart Williams
Co-Chair W3C TAG
--
[1] http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/#tag-attn


Message-ID: <3E4AC965.1080609@textuality.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 14:23:33 -0800
From: Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>
To: www-tag@w3.org
Subject: site metadata discussion is overly voluminous

This discussion has rapidly overrun my ability to keep up with it.  The
immediate question at hand is whether the TAG should accept this as an
issue.  I don't want to discourage free and open discussion of the
issues, but to be brutally realistic, the chance of having an impact is
pretty well in inverse proportion to the volume of verbiage.

Also, when I open an email and the quoted content fills the entire first
screen so that I can't start reading what the poster is saying, I
usually just delete the message right there.  Others may have different
approaches. -Tim

Received on Wednesday, 12 February 2003 19:32:41 UTC