davisy@DOPEY.CS.UNC.EDU (York Davis) (03/09/88)
In an attempt to create an unmoderated newsgroup for the Sun-related
computer systems, I am posting this article.
The only newsgroup presently available for posting general
Sun-related news is comp.sys.sun, which is a moderated
newsgroup. An unmoderated newsgroup is needed, because
a) posting via the moderated newsgroup is slow
-- the moderator lets messages sit around
too long before posting to comp.sys.sun.
b) moderated newsgroups cannot be read and
processed on an article-by-article basis with
rn and various other news-reading programs.
c) Many people, myself included, object to
moderation on principle and to the moderation
in comp.sys.sun in particular.
2) I suggest comp.sys.sun.unmod as a name for this group.
To vote for the new newsgroup send email to:
davisy@cs.unc.edu ==> ARPA Net and CS Net
{...}!uunet!mcnc!unc!davisy ==> UUCP
I would like for anyone with suggestions or comments about such a
newsgroup to also send email.roy%phri@UUNET.UU.NET (Roy Smith) (03/21/88)
davisy@DOPEY.CS.UNC.EDU (York Davis) wants to create an unmoderated sun newsgroup. There already exists a moderated group, comp.sys.sun, which is just a redistribution of the Sun-Spots Digest mailing list. York complains about comp.sys.sun: > a) posting via the moderated newsgroup is slow -- the moderator lets > messages sit around too long before posting to comp.sys.sun. As far as I'm concerned, this is the biggest reason to go unmoderated. Sometime's it's weeks between the time I post an article and I see it come back to me on the newsgroup, after finding it's way to the moderator, getting digestified, etc. It really makes the group almost worthless. It's almost impossible to carry on a coherent conversation when the lag time is so great. If I have a problem about which I want to pick some brains, by the time my query gets out the the general public, more often than not I've found some way to solve the problem myself in the intervening couple of weeks. On unix-wizards, it's not uncommon to have an answer the next morning, or sometimes even later that day! > b) moderated newsgroups cannot be read and processed on an article- > by-article basis with rn and various other news-reading programs. Well, part of the problem has to do with the digest format, not with the moderation. You can have a moderatred, but not digestified group if you want. > c) Many people, myself included, object to moderation on principle > and to the moderation in comp.sys.sun in particular. I'm not sure moderation is always an evil thing. In many cases, it works very well (RISKS comes to mind). But in this case, I agree, moderation just doesn't work. The purpose of having a sun-specific group would be served much better if it were unmoderatred, like comp.unix.wizards. > 2) I suggest comp.sys.sun.unmod as a name for this group. Can't we come up with a better name? Maybe the thing to do would be to just make comp.sys.sun the free-for-all unmoderated group. Since it probably makes sense to keep the Sun-Spots Digests around, we could move that to comp.sys.sun.digest or comp.sys.sun.spots, or some other subgroup. -- Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
mikew@x2.wyse.COM (Mike Wexler) (03/22/88)
In article <1607@thorin.cs.unc.edu> davisy@DOPEY.CS.UNC.EDU (York Davis) writes: > a) posting via the moderated newsgroup is slow > -- the moderator lets messages sit around > too long before posting to comp.sys.sun. > b) moderated newsgroups cannot be read and > processed on an article-by-article basis with > rn and various other news-reading programs. > c) Many people, myself included, object to > moderation on principle and to the moderation > in comp.sys.sun in particular. >2) I suggest comp.sys.sun.unmod as a name for this group. Problem b is not because the newsgroup is moderated. It is because it is digest format. The are moderated groups that are not in digest format(comp.sources.unix,comp.compilers). I think problem a is at least partially due to the digestification. I remember the moderator say that he wanted to up the digest size so that he would catch up with his backlog quicker. I agree that digests are not a got format for USENET(they may be for mail/ARPANET). I therefore recommend that comp.sys.sun be "un-digestified". This should fix these two problems. I suspect the third problem would not be as bad if the first two are "fixed". I am also against have two groups for the same topic. I therefore recommend that if most people would like the list to be undigestified, they vote against a new newsgroup and for undigestification. -- Mike Wexler(wyse!mikew) Phone: (408)433-1000 x1330