* The moderators have been threatened with legal action.
* The moderators were informed that an attorney was contacted
_before_ certain posts were written and posted to the list.
* The moderators have been accused of committing a crime.

For the record, I have not committed any crimes recently. Personally,
I don't want to deal with this. I have no desire to distribute
pornography to anyone. I do not distribute pornography. Threatening
people with legal action is bad karma, and rarely achieves the
desired result. In this case, I would counter sue for libel
or slander (whichever is the written one -- I'm not much on legal
trivia), and all that would happen is that the lawyers would get
rich. (I'll bet its possible that posting to a public forum that
I committed a crime is slander (or libel), and I'll bet my slander
(or libel) case against you Annye, is stronger than your pornography
case against the moderators or Yahoo).

So, hopefully we can dispense with that angle of this incident.

I did not see the offensive material. It was posted after I last checked
my e-mail, and deleted before I next checked it. In my mind, (and I
have _not_ contacted an attorney), that is not a crime on my part.
I did not post the offensive material, nor did I produce it. I feel it
was unfortunate that it was posted (more on that following). BTW, Yahoo,
I believe, requires adult supervision of all users of its system -- you
will have to check Yahoo's Terms of Use -- your legal beef is with
Yahoo anyway, not with the volunteer moderators (and besides, they have
more money than I do).

For those who care, and it seems I have to explain the details of my
private life to everyone, Chester County PA (where I live) was under
flash floods the end of the week (those who watch the Weather Channel
would be aware of the severe weather the east has been getting), all the
creeks that surround my neighborhood were flooded, I had to leave my house
and stay in a hotel so I could assure myself I could get out Saturday.
Saturday I had an 8 hour race that was rather grueling (I have witnesses
that I was there, rather than checking e-mail, and a receipt from the hotel
I stayed at (I do not own a laptop, PDA, or similar, and if I did, I
would not use it to check LbNA e-mail), Saturday evening I played Uncle
Wiggly with my son (who didn't see me at all Fri or Sat) due to the
circumstances. I am now checking e-mail for the first time in a while,
weeding thru it all, as usual. I have a life beyond LbNA, and the more
and more of this that happens, the more and more the LbNA portion shrinks.

As I said, I did not see the content in question, but my guess is that
it falls under what it is called "spam". Spam is a fact of life on the
internet, and if one is going to participate on the internet, one has to
learn to expect it, and develop a strategy for dealing with it. The spam
is out of the control of the moderators, and out of the control of Yahoo,
tho both do what they can to mitigate it. The only sure way to eliminate
spam is to eliminate the internet (there is a 17th century mathematical
proof that says the thieves will always be able to outwit the locksmiths --
I have not seen the proof, but my guess is that it applies to spam as
well).

I get alot of spam that is pornographic. I have a 5 year old son, and
like most people, abhor receiving pornography spam. But I accept that
this is a fact of life on the internet, and don't let him use the
internet unsupervised. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO MITIGATE SPAM (PORNOGRAPHIC
OR OTHERWISE), 100%, AND THE MODERATORS AND YAHOO WILL NOT BE ABLE TO
DO THIS. This is a fact of life, if you don't like it, I'm afraid you
will have to disconnect from the internet.

All spam does is rile people up for no reason, and waste even more
bandwidth.

Right now the the list is set so that only members may post, but anyone
can join. Therefore anyone can spam by joining and then spamming. An
alternative is to approve all memberships. Then, a spammer, say John
Smith, could attempt to join the list. Who are the moderators to say
John Smith 1 is a letterboxer and approve, and John Smith 2 is a spammer
and reject. We could look at their e-mail and see if it looks "spammish"
(there are rules to do this, but those rules would also probably reject
Ryan's e-mail address). We could just reject anyone. We could ban the
people who annoy us. We could moderate every post. But most people over
the last 5 years have been basically happy, so no changes unless a poll
shows otherwise.

There is an old saying that "with freedom comes responsibility". We could
lock the list down so tight with moderation 10 ways from Sunday, but lots
of freedom restriction for people to use the resources for letterboxing
purposes (for example, we could ban file uploads, and all that letterboxing
content would go away), or better yet, we could nuke the list, the most
extreme example, no freedom, no responsibility.

And on to other topics --

* When is the last time you have _thanked_ the _volunteer_ moderators for
what they _do_ do? Perhaps they don't do anything worthwhile. Always
a possibility. But like acting, you never notice good acting, but
immediately notice incompetent acting.

* We could make this a pay to play service, and perhaps improve it. I
think the general consensus is that LbNA is better as a commercial-free
service, tho. Remember, no one that works around here makes a dime off
of the list or the website, but it costs time and money to do both.

* Many people are burnt out of the letterboxing vs geocaching thing. This
is now being deemed off-topic until further notice. Some people like to
geocache. Some people like to letterbox. Some people like both. Some
like neither. Some thing one group is better than the other. Some think
one group trashes the environment more. Some think both trash the
environment. Some think neither do. Some like the music of Blink 182.
I don't think there is much more that can be said on letterboxers vs
geocachers, so doing so is an invitation to be moderated. Many people
are just sick of this endless us vs them thread coming around.

* Many people are burnt out on off-topic posts. The list has always been
loose and allowed off-topic within reason, but I agree that certain
off-topic is pushing the bounds of "related off-topic ok within reason".
Don't be mad at me if I warn or moderate you for clearly off-topic
content. We have to balance the desires of off-topic posters with those
who only want letterboxing content, and it is not an easy line to walk. I
am just the messenger, and do not wish to be shot. To be frank, I think
we've done a decent job of it in the past 5 years. It seems, however,
the days of carefree, loose community are over. Which is sad, because
it is possible with three things: tolerance, restraint, and common sense.

* I've been asked to remove jpgs related to geocaching. I've already spent
an hour an a half on this, and my family wants me to do stuff with them,
so I will do it later (I have not looked at these either). For now, don't
click on them, or perhaps Mischief can remove them. (I have not seen them
and can not judge whether they are on-topic. Mishief can make that judgement
if urgency on the matter is required).

* Keep in mind that it is alot for a moderator to check the upload section
every day (or even every week). I have a phone modem, living in a rural
area where broadband is unavailable. That's the reality. If something
looks off-topic, DON'T CLICK ON IT. If the spammers cleverly disguise their
spam as on topic, that is a risk of the internet, and the moderators cannot
prevent that without (in the end) shutting down the list.

* People have volunteered to be moderators. Believe me, I don't want it,
but always thought I did a pretty good job (of course, it was easier when
it was only 10 people who understood the way things work). I will consider
what I will do. At the very least, I (along with the other moderators)
will consider the offers of help we have already received.

* I will not be checking LbNA e-mail or the files section for a while.
Consider this a warning if you want to.

* This topic is now deemed off-topic.

Randy
List Manager and co-moderator