furuta@CS.UMD.EDU (Richard Furuta) (03/15/91)
Laser-lovers (aka comp.laser-printers) is a moderated mailing list (newsgroup for Usenet readers). Because the messages distributed over laser-lovers reach the readers by many different means, my policies on accepting or rejecting messages for redistribution are based on the union of the different transport mechanisms' policies (to the best of my knowledge). In general, rejected messages are dropped silently, at least from the point of view of the originator, because sending back explanations of rejection actions would require more time than I have available to spend. Consequently, I would like to sketch out my moderation policies in this message, for the benefit of the readership. In general I currently take a minimalist approach to moderation: in other words, almost all messages are retransmitted without modification. A negative side-effect of this is that certainly frequently asked questions keep coming back regularly. If anyone would like to volunteer to put together a document answering such frequently asked questions, this certainly would be appreciated. I automatically reject any messages that are "advertising" in nature. This means that I do not permit postings that advertise a system for sale, that boil down to marketing announcements for some company's product (particularly when posted by someone at that company), etc. I do permit messages from employees of a company providing technical insight into some aspect of their product's operation, messages providing (unbiased) evaluations of a product or comparisons of several products, etc. I also try to catch repetitious messages and messages with negligible technical content. For example, if there are a bunch of messages giving similar answers to a question, I will usually only post those that add information to those that have already appeared. I also do not post messages saying "I'm interested too." I will not post messages that seem to me to be purely ad hominem attacks. For our Usenet posters, I would like to discourage cross posting between comp.laser-printers and other newsgroups. If your question is broad enough that you can't figure out which group to send it to, please try focusing it before sending it to comp.laser-printers, or else try sending it elsewhere first. --Rick