roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (08/07/88)
rsk@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Rich Kulawiec) talked about moderated
newsgroups, including the results of his poll on whether all newsgroups
should be moderated. Near the end of his article, he said:
> 4. Finding "good" moderators is difficult.
which leads one to ask "why is finding good moderators difficult?" My
answer to that is twofold. First, you need to identify people who will do a
good job. This essentially boils down to being timely and being fair.
Second, you have to convince people who meet those criteria that it
is worth their investment in time to be a moderator. Being a moderator
means constantly being in the hot seat; if you find yourself snowed under
for a few days and can't find the time to run the group, you get flamed for
being lazy and/or irresponsible. If you reject someone's posting, you get
flamed for being dictatorial. If you let through something of marginal
value, you get flamed for being too tolerant. But, worst of all, if you run
your group like clockwork, and have that magic touch which lets you both
reject postings with tact and know exactly which postings to reject, what do
you get? Silence. While silence is certainly better than flamage, it's
sure not as nice as getting the recognition you deserve.
All of which brings me to the (first annual?) "Moderator of the
year" awards. To participate, this is what you have to do:
1) Send mail to me at one of the addressed below.
2) List, in order, your 3 favorite usenet newsgroup moderators. I
don't get the alt or talk groups, but don't let that stop you from voting
for an alt or talk moderator (is there such a thing as a moderated talk
group?!) Many of the moderated usenet groups are really arpanet mailing
lists; they are certainly fair game as well.
3) Put "moderator of the year vote" in the subject line so it'll be
easier for me to sort things out. If you don't do this, I'll probably still
count your vote, but why chance it, eh?
4) Feel free to include comments as to why you think a particular
person deserves the praise you're giving him, but please keep your comments
short and make sure you keep them well clear of your votes. Like Rich, if
you don't clearly specify your votes, I'll intuit them if it's obvious, but
I won't waste any energy trying to guess what you probably meant.
I'll collect votes until September 1st (3-1/2 weeks from the day I'm
posting this), tally the votes, and post the results. A moderator will get
3 points for a first-place vote, 2 points for a second-place vote, and 1
point for a third-place vote.
--
Roy Smith, System Administrator
Public Health Research Institute
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net
"The connector is the network"