sdo@u1100a.UUCP (Scott Orshan) (08/14/84)
Mark Horton proposes a parallel, moderated set of newsgroups for
some of the higher volume groups. I'd like to see this as well,
and I'd like to add to his suggestions of the moderator's functions.
The moderators should filter the high volume groups for appropriate
articles. They should also accept mailed articles as is done
with net.announce. They can also filter out all but the first
of the many correct responses that any question generates, as
well as all of the incorrect responses. If it isn't obvious
which is which, one of each can be posted.
If there are enough hours left in the day after this,
they can mail to the authors of the inappropriate articles
(wrong newsgroup, too many groups, abusive, illegal requests)
and try to suggest corrections to their behavior. This kind of
sounds like the net-police, but undesirable behavior can
be corrected with immediate and consistent corrections.
Since moderators are not perfect, I propose that there be
a rule that anyone whose article is rejected be allowed
to re-submit it and have it published regardless of the
moderator's views. If someone really has a point to make,
and still wants to say the same thing a couple of days later,
they should be allowed to. This could take the form of
specially marked articles, or even a "letters to the
moderator" column.
What type of people should the moderators be? They should
all be like Mark, but then, if there were more people like
Mark, we wouldn't have these problems. They should be able
to put up with abuse from authors of rejected articles.
They should have enough free time so that the articles
have a minimum of delay. Their sites should be at or near
a backbone site, and have multiple feeds and feed multiple
sites. This will both speed the news propagation, and allow
for link failures. They should provide backup people to
take over when they are unavailable. Ideally, someone else
should have to approve any of the moderators' own articles.
If you think that I'm volunteering for the job, maybe I am,
but not right away. I'd like to see how it works out for
some other sucker OOPS I mean concerned user who can devote
the time and effort necessary to do a good job at this.
--
Scott Orshan
Bell Communications Research
201-981-3064
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