[KS] Administrative matters

[Robert Provine]

Dear Korean Studies List:

Although it is the practice that moderation policies are not discussed openly
on the list, an occasional reminder might be useful, and the recent exchanges
dealing with politics and North Korea are becoming a case in point.

This is a list set up for academic discussion of issues relating to Korean
studies, defined fairly broadly.  It includes discussions, job announcements,
announcements of conferences and new publications, and other such matters of
interest to scholars.  A background principle for the moderation process is
that the discussions should be acceptable in a respectable graduate seminar or
professional conference -- in other words, with the homework done, with
sufficient knowledge of a subject to speak on a basis of evidential data, with
an absence of personal polemic, and with a similar absence of ad hominem attack.

The recent exchanges on matters dealing with North Korea have come close to
leaving Korean topics altogether in favor of expressions of personal political
convictions and messages that are individualized responses more appropriate to
private email than to an international discussion list with over 750
subscribers worldwide.

It may sometimes happen that a message which doesn't really qualify will be
approved by the moderators, in the hope that its underlying issue will spark
an interesting and well-informed discussion.  Please, always use your
contribution to a discussion as a means to elevate its quality.

On a different matter:  you may not be aware that the list receives far more
spam than it does real messages for the list; you are being spared all this
junk by the moderators' intervention.  But we also get a good number of 
messages intended for the list but sent by non-members; these will routinely 
be discarded, regardless of message quality.

With best wishes -

Rob Provine