On moderating and other animals

[Anders Hultman <anders.hultman@unisource.se>]

Several (or at least a few) persons has suggested that RMG and/or LH
should be moderated to rise the s/n ratio. I don't think that's a good
idea.

* Someone would have to do the moderating. I think it's hard to find
  anyone that are willing to do that for free, and we, the .net 
  community can't pay him/her.

* The posting process would slow down considerably. A posting would 
  not appear to the readers until the moderator has screened it. That 
  may take several hours or even days if the moderator for some reason 
  is away from his/her mail. 

* However good a person the moderator is, the suspicion will always 
  exist that the moderator edits out posts that are on topic but don't 
  suit the moderator's tastes or opinions.

* Even if the s/n rate has dropped the last months it still is quite 
  high, compared to other news groups. If you don't like what's posted, 
  post something that you like instead of calling for moderating, 
  thought police or something else.

* The best way to deal with off topic posts is to simply ignore them.
  How easy that is depends on your software; I start with reading the 
  subject lines and don't even read posts that I *know* will be of no 
  interest.

* The second best way to deal with off topic posts is to *email* the 
  offender, politely explaining that his/her post is unwanted.

* The worst way to deal with off topic posts is to comment them in the 
  news group, adding only even more to the off topic posts.

(This is an on topic post since it deals with the future of RMG/LH)

anders
------------------------------
http://www.algonet.se/~anders/