Here's another vote AGAINST moderating screen-l.
 
1) Sometimes discussions that are of apparent interest to many of you are not
of interest to me.  I suspect the opposite is also true.  Much as I like
Jeremy Butler from what little I know of him, I do not want to trust him (or
anyone else) with deciding what is and what isn't interesting.  If you don't
like a line of discussion, just hit the discard button . . .
 
2) Often long discussions can become MORE interesting as they go on (e.g. the
discussion about objectivity and documentaries that was going on a few weeks
ago).  I would be against setting any limits on length of conversations.
 
3) Finally (this may be a minority view) I even appreciate the responses
to filmographic requests.  First, I am often interested in these lists.
Second, I recognize that, if replies were not posted, EVERYONE would send the
same list of films to the poor person requesting them.
 
-- Ben Alpers
   Princeton University