chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (06/05/85)
Due to the lack of volume on mod.singles, I am forced to believe that the
users of the net don't really see a need for it at this time. Generally, I
agree with that thought, and so I am proposing that the moderated group
mod.singles be removed from the network until such time (if any) that it
does become neccessary. Unless someone comes up with a good argument
against it, or is willing to take over as moderator, I plan on sending out
the rmgroup message in a week or so.
This decision is based on a lot of factors, the strongest one being that I
find my time shifting strongly away from the network into other areas (like
working for a living) and I don't want to leave dangling responsibilities
or loose ends should this trend continue. Normally, I'd request a
replacement moderator, but the fact is that there doesn't seem to be a need
for one -- in the 6 months or so of the mod.singles experiment, a total of
about 28 articles were posted (including moderator administrivia) and most
of those were simply used as anonymous shields by net.singles readers. I'm
willing, based on my judgement, to continue posting anonymous comments for
readers of net.singles, but I don't think that is enough of a justification
for the continuation of the newsgroup. In general, I think the experiment
with the moderated groups is a qualified failure. We've shown that
moderation can work (and work well in certain areas such as mod.map.uucp
and mod.newslists) but that the general case isn't wanted and may not
really be needed for usenet and doesn't work in the current environment.
I think that mailing lists, such as mail.feminists, are a good alternative
to the concept of moderated groups, and many of them that I know about seem
to be working out quite well. I will continue to do what I can to support
mailing lists, including my regular posting of known mailing lists that
gets sent out to mod.newslists.
If you have any comments, please MAIL them to me. If it seems neccessary,
I'll summarize to the net, but lets not make the volume problems any worse.
chuq (current and soon to be ex- mod.singles moderator)
--
:From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
The offices were very nice, and the clients were only raping the land, and
then, of course, there was the money...