[Harp-L] harp-l policy query?

[owner-harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx]

Paul Routledge wrote:

"Harp L should I believe be a place where we can all come together to
listen and learn from each other...I think it's about time that everyone
acted like mature adults and less like bickering school children."

Follwed by Keith Dunn's comment:

"This is something that keeps many of us from posting here on a regular
basis and drives others away completely."

I can't tell you how disconcerting this is.  Ben and I spend countless
hours fussing about just these issues.  It was very nice to hear Richard
Hunter's recent comment

"I'll start by noting what a relief it is to be able to talk about stuff
like this without everybody (including me) going berserk.  This list has
certainly become a very nice place to visit."

The question is are things better than they used to be?  I really don't
know.  I think they are but from the recent feedback maybe others don't. 
We lost a subscriber in this most recent skirmish.  The collective we gets
it from both sides.  There is a sizeable contingent that feels that the
administration of this list is too controlling and that we exercise
censorship of the posts.  Maybe we are too controlling, hard to know but
we do not censor posts.  There is no prior restraint on harp-l.

The lack of prior restraint makes things difficult from an admin stand
point.  I can't or won't take away what has already been said so I'm left
with guessing about what might get said and jumping in early off list to
try and straighten things out before everyone goes "berserk".  You want to
talk herding cats.  I'm not quite sure about where I'm going here other
than I'm pretty upset to learn that people don't feel safe posting here. 
It's a situation I'd like to address if it's at all possible.  If anyone
has any constructive suggestions about how to deal with these issues we'd
be more than happy to hear them.  Thanks, fjm harp-l-listowner