[comp.sources.d] moderation of alt.sources vs. automated harangues

kjones@talos.uucp (Kyle Jones) (10/14/89)

In article <2024@convex.UUCP> tchrist@convex.com (Tom Christiansen) writes:
 > I've been getting a lot of hate mail, most of which is automatic,
 > by self-appointed moderators of alt.sources for a comment I 
 > posted there.  And I'm pretty tired of it.  
 > 
 >     I CAN'T CANCEL THE DAMN MESSAGE SO GET OFF MY BACK!!!
 > 
 > I've tried and our news software is in some state of hosery
 > which disallows this practice.  If you think alt.sources
 > should be restricted, moderate it.  If not, stop bitching.

I agree.  If alt.sources was supposed to be a magical forum where
everyone is Good and no non-source postings would occur, then I'd say
the experiment has failed.  People will forget to edit the newsgroups
line when responding.  New users will emerge who don't know about the
sources-only rule, or who've never heard of alt.sources.d.  And some
people steadfastly refuse to stop posting discussions to the source
groups no matter how much you plead.  Or harangue.  The latter may
deserve "hate mail" but certainly not the others.

So moderate alt.sources.  But do it the way comp.sources.misc was
originally going to be moderated: Axe non-source postings, and THAT'S
ALL.  Malcontents still can thwart the moderation scheme, but the main
problem is articles posted by accident, or because of ignorance.  The
occasional miscreant can be cut off.

kyle jones   <kjones@talos.uu.net>   ...!uunet!talos!kjones

  "Come to the edge," he said.
  But they held back.  "It's dangerous," they said.
  "Come to the edge."
  "But we might fall..."
  "COME TO THE EDGE!"
  So they came to the edge.
  And he pushed them...
  And they FELL...

	--Hume Cronyn for SIGNET Bank (a pessimist's reprise)

news@laas.laas.fr (USENET News System) (10/26/89)

Well, why not have an automatic filter program as moderator.  It would
check whether the posting has lines of the form #!/bin/[c]sh, 'cut
here', etc., and would only post those that conform (genrated by your
favorite `shar' program :-).  The others could either be automatically
posted to alt.sources.d, or if they contain flamage (nice new word,
huh?) then the filter could reply with a tasty hot flame of its own,
or pass the posting along to the USENET oracle server.		:-)  ;-(

Happy Halloween,


Ralph P. Sobek			  Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own.
ralph@laas.laas.fr			   Addresses are ordered by importance.
ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!mcvax!laas!ralph		If all else fails, try:
SOBEK@FRMOP11.BITNET				      sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU
===============================================================================
Upon the instruments of death the sunlight brightly gleams.   --   King Crimson

allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) (10/30/89)

As quoted from <459@laas.laas.fr> by news@laas.laas.fr (USENET News System):
+---------------
| Well, why not have an automatic filter program as moderator.  It would
| check whether the posting has lines of the form #!/bin/[c]sh, 'cut
| here', etc., and would only post those that conform (genrated by your
| favorite `shar' program :-).  The others could either be automatically
+---------------

I could find a use for that [ ;-) ], but alt.sources?  Foo.  One of the
reasons for alt.sources is the fact that things sent to us moderator types
have to include shars, fancy auxiliary headers, etc.; if I have a small-but-
useful script I'd like to share with others (as with "bg"/"fg") I don't see
much point in adding baggage that doubles the size of it.  :-(

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery:  allbery@NCoast.ORG, BALLBERY (MCI Mail), ALLBERY (Delphi)
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>>>	 Shall we try for comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac next, Richard?	    <<<