> bionet.general seems to get increased amounts of unsoliticed advertisement.
> To avoid this (and to force people to advertise via net.bio.net) I propose
> to make this newsgroup moderated.
>> I would volunteer for moderation. (At least around here b.general traffic
> seems manageable.) (Disclaimer: I have never before moderated a newsgroup.)
>> Comments? (RFD means "Request for discussion".)
>> --Cornelius.
Cornelius,
bionet.general is supposed to be our free speech area in the
biological sciences. Moderators take on legal liability for
approving/disapproving posts even if you say that you are only
filtering out ads. The hierarchy needs an outlet where people who
have gripes can assume sole responsibility for their own behavior. We
are happy to moderate every group in the hierarchy except for one for
the above reason, and bionet.general was designed to fit that bill.
The junk mail that comes along with it is an unfortunate price. I do
not have the time to track down chain letter scams, but will file
protests on any company launching unauthorized promotions to
biologists.
bionet.general is also one of the few bionet groups that I look at by
e-mail, so I too get the junk in my mailbox. Deleting the spam is
trivial. In fact, my method of reading is to scan for e-mail headers
directed to the bioforum address, delete *everything*, and then
*undelete* any post that has an interesting subject line. Makes
perusing the group really quick. I do this for most mailing lists
that I follow outside the BIOSCI system too, regardless of their
signal-to-noise ratio.
If you want to help moderate a newsgroup, I would much prefer your
energies directed to one of our other groups that tries to focus more
on defined professional discussions where readers have a much bigger
reason to be annoyed at off-the-topic posts. Please look at the info
sheet on http://www.bio.net/ and let me know if there is anything of
interest.
Sincerely,
Dave Kristofferson
BIOSCI/bionet Manager
biosci-help at net.bio.net
