rgreene@bnr.ca (Bob Greene) (04/25/91)
Approximately one week ago, I sent the following message to comp.sys.sun, alt.sys.sun, and news.groups: | From: rgreene@bgrgs1.bnr.ca (Bob Greene) | Subject: Call for Discussion: Change in comp.sys.sun | |I'd like to officially call for discussion on changing the status |of comp.sys.sun from moderated to unmoderated. I've had a lot of |people (more and more each day it seems) ask me about this - and |I've given them the standard response: "Well, I've surveyed readers |of comp.sys.sun before and it has always been in favor of |moderation, sometimes as much as 3:1." | |Anyway, as usual, the people that want change are much more verbose |about it than those willing to live through things they way they |are, but those that wanted change finally got verbose enough that |I feel it's my duty as moderator to take a binding vote. If |moderation is doing a dis-service to this newsgroup, then by |all means we should kick the moderator out on his rearside :) :). | |So: pro's and cons' of moderation (I guess this applies to almost |any newsgroup): | |Pros: increases S/N ratio | moderator can reduce duplicate querys | moderator can reject inappropriate postings | moderator can answer some simple querys | reflected moderated digest to non-Usenet news subscribers | |Cons: the moderator is pretty slow turning articles around | moderator may reject articles with some value | |I may have missed a few. I would like to hold a discussion over the |relative merits of this for comp.sys.sun over the next couple |of weeks (I haven't read this group in a while, so I forget how |long the time periods are) and then hold an official binding vote; |if the vote is in favor of non-moderation, I will issue a new |rmgroup changing it's status to such. Since that time (mostly because I erroneously specified followup to poster instead of news.groups, I have received a couple of replies by email: |From: tarsa@decvax.dec.com (Greg Tarsa) |Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1991 11:06:33 -0400 | |I prefer the moderation, even with the slower turnaround times, even |with the occasional long lapses. | |For unmoderated discussion, I monitor alt.sys.sun. | |Keep up the good work. | |Greg |Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1991 21:07:46 -0400 |From: Mark Prior <mrp@ucs.adelaide.edu.au> | |I would rather have a delay while you wade through all the rubbish |than get inflicted with it myself :-). I already have enough trouble |with all the rubbish in sun-managers and certainly don't want |sun-spots polluted in the same manner. |Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1991 18:03:46 -0400 |From: ekrell@ulysses.att.com | |I don't know. I already get sun-managers and sun-nets, both unmoderated. |If c.s.s is to remain moderated, its charter should change. It doesn't |make sense to post "help me" messages to c.s.s if it takes a week or two |(or more) to get them distributed. When people are having problems, |they need immediate help and they can go to sun-managers for that. |The question is : what should the purpose of c.s.s be? I'm not sure |I know the answer. |Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1991 20:32:41 -0400 |From: dan@sun.com | |Frankly, comp.sys.sun was quiescent for so long that I began |checking around to see if an upstream link was broken |or if someone had accidentally rmgrouped it. | |Also, since it is a moderated group, very interesting |questions never seem to have their replies posted. |I think people must respond directly to the person |asking the question rather than following up to the forum. | |I would very much like to see an unmoderated comp.sys.sun. |Date: Sun, 28 Apr 1991 04:49:16 -0400 |From: eirik@theory.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Eirik Fuller) | |Keeping the archival feature of comp.sys.sun even if it becomes |unmoderated sounds good, but it seems as though archives are one place |where the effect of moderation is especially handy. There is |certainly no need for timeliness in archives. :-) Additionally, the following notes were posted on new.groups: |From: kaul@icarus.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rich Kaul) | |I'd rather see a "split." Unmoderate comp.sys.sun and leave a |moderated version (comp.sys.sun.digest?) that provides a service |similar to comp.sys.sun for those who are unwilling to wade through |the volume that an unmoderated group will generate. That should leave |everyone happy. |From: feigin@inf.ethz.ch (Unix Engihacquer) |Subject: Re: Call for Discussion: Change in comp.sys.sun | |I think this is a BAD idea. We already have an unmoderated newsgroup |for suns. I think that most people reading/posting to both |comp.sys.sun and alt.sys.sun have some decency (more than just some, |since the S/N ratio is pretty high, about 80 db or thereabouts :-}. |However, I would really hate to see comp.sys.sun turn into rec.audio |or alt.sex, where the S/N ration is more like -6db. | |Please keep comp.sys.sun moderated. |From: mcneill@eplrx7.uucp (Keith McNeill) |Subject: Re: Call for Discussion: Change in comp.sys.sun | |comp.sys.sun has outlived it's usefullness as a moderated group. It should |be unmoderated on the USENET side. I have no opinion on the mailing list |side. | |Before it becomes unmoderated, it needs to be split up. The unmoderated |traffic would be too much for one newsgroup. So I propose the following |groups: | | comp.sys.sun | comp.sys.sun.advocacy | comp.sys.sun.announce | comp.sys.sun.applications | comp.sys.sun.audio | comp.sys.sun.games | comp.sys.sun.graphics | comp.sys.sun.hardware | comp.sys.sun.introduction | comp.sys.sun.marketplace | comp.sys.sun.misc | comp.sys.sun.multimedia | comp.sys.sun.networks | comp.sys.sun.os | comp.sys.sun.programmer | comp.sys.sun.reviews | comp.sys.sun.tech | comp.sys.sun.utilities | comp.sources.sun /* which is already there */ | |The names are derived from the amiga groups. I changed a few of the names |and added a few. | |This is a lot of groups but it should keep the traffic in the individual |groups down to a readable level. With such a scheme people will be able |to read what interests them. There doesn't appear to be a lot of feeling in this one (compared to some of the news.groups battles I've seen), so if no real controversy arises, I would like to call for votes on unmoderating comp.sys.sun on May 6, 1991. The voting period will be between 5/6/91 and 5/30/91. Again, please direct all followups to news.groups. Bob Greene Sunspots (comp.sys.sun) Moderator ESN 446-7396 LAN/WAN Engineering and Support (214) 907-7396 Bell Northern Research, Richardson, Texas, USA rgreene@bnr.ca