[License-discuss] Crossposting Considered Harmful (was: [License-review] Evolving the License Review process for OSI)

[Rick Moen]

¡Hola!  Please note:

> To: "Tzeng, Nigel H." <Nigel.Tzeng at jhuapl.edu>
> Cc: Bruce Perens <bruce at perens.com>,
>         License submissions for OSI review
>         <license-review at lists.opensource.org>,
>         "license-discuss at lists.opensource.org"
>         <license-discuss at lists.opensource.org>

To paraphrase the illustrious Jamie Zawinski's famous jibe about awk, 'A
man once had a problem with a contentious mailing list, and thought, 
"I know!  I'll cross-post across a second contentious mailing list."
Now, he had _two_ problems.'

Speaking as a longtime mailing list operator/administrator (elsewhere),
I've found that crossposts cause a variety of troubles that land
particularly heavily but not exclusively on the affected listadmins.  I
won't get into the problems caused to listadmins, as it's a bit geeky,
but will note also that crossposting often raises the emotional
temperature.

Last, l-d and l-r simply have different mandates.  It would IMO be so
rare for a crosspost between them to be appropriate that offhand I can't
even imagine an example.

Please, if someone has started such a cross-post, consider trimming
headers so as not to perpetuate it.  I just did, for example, which is
why this is going only to l-d.

(If OSI's esteemed listadmin feel I've stepped on their toes, I will
gladly apologise for the turf transgression.)