Moderated List

Denny writes:

We need to find or create a moderated list for the pilots who follow
this group...
I'm willing to even kick in a few bucks to make it happen...

Moderated lists almost invariably die a slow death. Moderation is censorship
and is never very popular, and moderation is a very difficult and
time-consuming job that most people cannot handle. Lots of people want to
have the authority of moderators, but virtually none want the responsibility
or the ethical obligations.

That is why virtually all newsgroups on USENET are unmoderated.

On Fri, 02 May 2008 16:57:05 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote in :

... There is a formal process to create a newsgroup under the big-8. You
can read about it he
http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/big-eight.html

The first line of that FAQ notes that it is now obsolete.

There is a slightly revised--but still complex--system
that has taken its place:

http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php

You may have to try this twice to get the page--it times
out on me pretty regularly.

... Basically, there needs
to be formal discussion that complies with the guidelines, and a vote.

True.

The vote is now by an eight-member board. That sidesteps
some problems but causes others.

Personally, I prefer to accept the noise if means avoiding censorship.

I have served as a moderator for 10 years and I do not
view what we do as "censorship." YMMV.

Having said that, I know full well that moderation produces
a very different kind of group and that it does not cure all
ills.

In any event, any public display of frustration, perplexity, or
against (as is implicit in this message thread) only serves to
reinforce the behavior of those whose only purpose is to be
ignominiously disruptive.

Well then, you've just violated your own rule. ;o)

The most successful attack against the trolls is passive and
necessarily limited to being only two pronged:

1. Do not respond to them, nor show dismay, nor outrage.
2. Post ON-TOPIC articles to increase the newsgroup's
signal-to-noise ratio.

I back that strategy. If I had known in 1998 what I know
now, I probably would not have volunteered to act as a
moderator. Live and learn.

Obligatory rec.aviation.piloting content: ...

It is virtually impossible for any newsgroup not to talk
about the health of the newsgroup from time to time. Using
consistent subject lines will help people decide whether
they want to read the thread or not. So I'm not going to
tack on anything about my most recent adventures in
General Aviation (they aren't all that recent).

Marty
--
Big-8 newsgroups: humanities.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, talk.*
See http://www.big-8.org for info on how to add or remove newsgroups.

gregvk wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote in news:fvfkio$shp$1
@blackhelicopter.databasix.com:

Larry Dighera wrote in
:


Denny, Denny, Denny.... A moderated newsgroup is going to cost more
than mere money. It's going to require someone with vision to draft
an acceptable charter, but more difficult, it's going to require a
full-time moderator or group thereof whose censorship evenhandedness
and impartiality are acceptable to the readership.

Hey, I'll do it.


Bertie

I'll get you started with The Rules.

Rule #1 - Discussing moderation is forbidden because it just makes
people get upset. Those who discuss moderation will be banned from
Usenet for at least 6 months. Anyone who attempts to circumvent the
ban will be reported to the authorities and prosecuted for misuse of
an automated information system.


I was just gonna kick out peopel who flew cherokess, but anything that
starts an argument is good , so your idea flies.


Bertie

On May 2, 8:20*am, Gig 601Xl Builder
wrote:
tman wrote:

I don't know if you've ever been involved with a moded newsgroups I have
and they usually die out at some point and it usually because of
someones ego.

Most of the type specific groups I've been involved in have been
moderated. They work because the moderator exercises an extreme amount
of restraint. Most would argue they wish the moderator would kick
people off sooner but I think the greater good is best served when he
does not. Its too easy for a moderator to kick someone off because
they don't agree with his opinion.
In fact, the most successful moderated groups seem be those where the
moderator is nearly absent and only gets involved after several
complaints. An active moderator deleting posts etc just leads to
frustration.

-Robert

Gig 601Xl Builder wrote:


I don't know if you've ever been involved with a moded newsgroups I have
and they usually die out at some point and it usually because of
someones ego.

Hey not this one:
http://groups.google.com/group/misc....ial-plan/about

Reading through a lot of the responses, I'd say that getting a new NG
"approved" is a non-issue, and I personally have the resources to make
the technical end of it be a non-issue.

The challenge is finding a group of 3-4 moderators for redundancy and
workload sharing that have the right attitude to "moderate", and not
"censor".

One of the notable things on m.i.f-p is that it is not moderated for
correctness or quality of content, it is moderated to filter out the
chaff, flames, structurally poor postings (e.g. no trimming), O/T stuff,
spam, etc. I think it's this liberal moderation policy that has
resulted in the m.i.f-p's group's longevity and success.

Just for an at-home example, Most of Mxsm...'s initial posts, and
on-topic followups would be allowed in a "well-moderated" group (but not
the flames that he baits). One may not agree with him, think he is
right, think he is beautiful, has an ATP, or speaks from any authority,
but the discussions do (often) start out on topic.

Bottom line is that success lies in getting enough of the right moderators.

Denny schrieb:
We need to find or create a moderated list for the pilots who follow
this group...
I'm willing to even kick in a few bucks to make it happen...

for a start don't use google-groups (but a real newsreader connecting to
a real newsserver) and filter out any postings coming from there.

denny

#m

"author's full name, residential address, telephone number, and IP address"

I'm sure there is a spammer's database out there somewhere.

Why don't you just go ahead and send them all of that information so they
won't have to waste time crawling newsgroups to get it?




"gregvk" wrote in message
...
Bertie the Bunyip wrote in news:fvfm2v$shp$9
@blackhelicopter.databasix.com:

gregvk wrote in
:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote in news:fvfkio$shp$1
@blackhelicopter.databasix.com:

Larry Dighera wrote in
:


Denny, Denny, Denny.... A moderated newsgroup is going to cost more
than mere money. It's going to require someone with vision to draft
an acceptable charter, but more difficult, it's going to require a
full-time moderator or group thereof whose censorship evenhandedness
and impartiality are acceptable to the readership.

Hey, I'll do it.


Bertie

I'll get you started with The Rules.

Rule #1 - Discussing moderation is forbidden because it just makes
people get upset. Those who discuss moderation will be banned from
Usenet for at least 6 months. Anyone who attempts to circumvent the
ban will be reported to the authorities and prosecuted for misuse of
an automated information system.


I was just gonna kick out peopel who flew cherokess, but anything that
starts an argument is good , so your idea flies.


Bertie

Rule #2 - An article will not be approved for posting unless the header
contain's the author's full name, residential address, telephone number,
and IP address. Posting false or unverifiable information is both
bannable
and prosecutable as fraud.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Denny writes:

We need to find or create a moderated list for the pilots who follow
this group...
I'm willing to even kick in a few bucks to make it happen...

Moderated lists almost invariably die a slow death. Moderation is
censorship and is never very popular, and moderation is a very
difficult and time-consuming job that most people cannot handle. Lots
of people want to have the authority of moderators, but virtually none
want the responsibility or the ethical obligations.

That is why virtually all newsgroups on USENET are unmoderated.


Moderation keeps morons like you out. You are nothing but a liar. Every
time you claim to have flown, you lie. You do NOT fly. You're a total
fraud. You don't know **** from shinola about aviation.

Jay Maynard wrote:
The problem is not bottom posting. The problem is a total and utter lack of
trimming.


That is my personal bugaboo. I learned long ago that quotations weren't
supposed to be an archive of the conversation but merely a reference point for
your answer. How many layers of crap do there have to be before I give up? My
screen resolution is 1280X 1024. If I don't start to see some new material on
the page, I won't scroll down to try to find it. I just move on to the next
message.

It seems to me if an author wants somebody to read his words of wisdom, he'll
make it easy to find them. Otherwise he's done nothing more than fart in a
gale.

We don't need moderation. We just need folks to pay attention to what they're
doing.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

On 02 May 2008 18:14:00 GMT, gregvk wrote in
:

Newsgroups: rec.aviation.piloting,alt.usenet.kooks