On 21 Apr 1998, Robert Steven wrote:
>> I think people are far too worried about this. The moderator should only
> remove posts that obviously do not relate to neuroscience (anything to do
> with money making scams, advertisements, aliens etc.) and let everything
> else ride.
This is precisely what the moderation of bionet.virology was supposed to
entail and nothing more.
The problem was moderator time, I think it ended up being shuffled down to
one moderator who caught the lot, and if the moderator was busy or absent
nothing came through, or it was in fits and starts. That was compounded by
people wanting reasonably swift replies to their post getting bored and
wandering off.
I'm not gainst moderation it would undoubtedly be useful, I just don't
want to see it come in and after a few months become inefficient despite
the best of intentions.
On a similar note would setting up a listserver, with a gate to USENET
mirroring the posts be a better way to do it. This is how alt.med.cfs
works. Anyone can read the posts there and reply to authors individually
but to post into the group requires you to go through application,
allowing control of post content that way.
> Let the moderation begin.
Well, I know a couple of friends of mine moderate newsgroups, or have
done, (related to the computer games quake and doom.) I'll talk to them
and see how much work they need to to, and how much time it takes for them
to do it.
Tim
When playing rugby, its not the winning that counts, but the taking apart
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