Moderation

[Paul Leyland]

> When messages are referred to me for moderation I apply the guidelines
> set out in the list information page, which I reproduce below. These
> guidelines have been in operation, as far as I know, since the list
> was originally set up.

Correct.  Brian Gladman and I agreed them before I created the list at
Oxford all those years ago and there have been only very minor tweaks since
then.

> > The language of the list is English, though American and other
> > variants of English are acceptable.

I wrote that sentence in that form deliberately to poke fun at our colonial
cousins.  None of them seem to have been offended; certainly no offence was
intended.  The rule has been remarkably well followed; we once had some
Welsh posted (in context, I have to say) and perhaps a couple of other
Indo-European languages.  On each occasion an English translation was made
available or was immediately apparent from context.

> I see no reason why a message that is on-topic and presented in
> English and another language (even if the translation to English is
> automated and imperfect) should not be acceptable. I believe that
> messages entirely in languages other than English will not be of use
> to the majority of subscribers, and so should be discouraged.

I agree entirely.  Someone who is sufficiently fluent in English to be able
to read the bulk of UKcrypto traffic ought to be able to translate or find a
translation so that those who are not sufficiently fluent in their language
can work out what's going on.  Such a translation need not be a literary
masterpiece; Babelfish standard is almost always adequate.  Although I can
handle French and German well enough, I'd have real trouble with Polish or
Korean to pick a couple of examples.

Sorry to go on at length about what is essentially an administrative matter
but I do believe that the traffic on a list devoted to *UK* crypto should
not become an exercise in cryptanalysis for those Brits who are lamentably
poor in anything other than English.  Oh damn!  I've now mortally offended
the Welsh and Gaelic speakers...


Paul