[Sust-mar] sust-mar: message queue and quantity - results from member's feedback in May

[Peter Watson]

Hello Sust-Martians,

Back in May I sent out a plea for feedback regarding the increasing volume
of messages being submitted to sust-mar, sust-mar's one message a day rule,
and the growing backlog of messages awaiting moderator approval. The 
question
was whether we should allow an increase the amount of messages being sent 
out
on this list.

For those who may need their memories jogged, here is the original message
from our archives explaining the problem:

http://list.web.net/archives/sust-mar/2009-May/001839.html

Six months later, I finally give a big thank you to about 30 sust-mar 
members
who took time to send in their votes and thoughts!

In a nutshell, the vast majority of responders to that message were in
favour of a modest increase in the amount of approved messages. This would
mean more messages arriving in everyone's mailbox, but shorter queue times
and fewer messages waiting in queue.

The exact feedback results were as follows:

OK with general increase - 13 votes
Increase to 10 messages/week - 8 votes
Increase to 2 messages per day - 4 votes
Increase to 3/day or whatever volume necessary - 2 votes
Increase and use daily digest option - 3 votes
Staying at 1 message per day - 2 votes

In June, very soon after my message was sent out and all your responses
tabulated, and after the record setting volume in April and May, the number
of messages sent in to sust-mar dropped off significantly, back to a level
that an average of one message a day dealt with comfortably. This was part
of the reason why I haven't followed up since that survey.

At present I'm thinking that we may only need to increase the message
volume from time to time, temporarily, in especially high volume periods.
For the most part I'll just keep the maximum one message per day rule unless
the message queue starts to become unruly, and then it will stay increased
only until the backlog is under control.

If we ever get to the point where the we need to permanently send out more
than one message per day to keep up with the submitted message volume, we
have two options:

We can just increase it to two or more a day. Many (but not all) of
you would be ok with that.

We could also change the way the daily digest is set up (as three members
suggested). Instead of having it as an option that compiles messages every
few days and sends them all out together, it can be configured to send any
number of messages as one compiled daily message. This would mean changing
everyone on sust-mar to the daily digest.

Co-moderator Paul and I have discuseed this at lenth and actually prefer
reconfiguring the daily digest as the best long term solution. Most lists I 
know
of compile multiple messages daily, and the daily digest option is there for 
this
exact purpose.

Since the volume settled down over the summer and continues to be ok at 
one/day
average for now, my feeling is that this change is not necessary yet, but 
can be noted for future
consideration if needed. We will always consult sust-mar members before 
making any significant
changes to the list.

As always, we welcome feedback. To reach the moderators, email us at:
sust-mar-owner at list.web.net

Note that this is different than the message submission address!

Until then, please welcome the oncoming colder weather. Sustainably yours,

Peter