Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!oliveb!bu.edu!bu-cs!buengc!bph
From: bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Moderating rec.arts.cinema
Message-ID: <5283@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: 15 Jan 90 06:34:20 GMT
References: <10954@attctc.Dallas.TX.US> <292@delta.cs.msstate.edu>
Reply-To: bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton)
Followup-To: news.groups
Organization: Boston Univ. Col. of Eng.
Lines: 38

In article <292@delta.cs.msstate.edu> peters@jester.cc.msstate.edu (Frank W. Peters) writes:
>In article <5246@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
>>I would be much more comfortable with something that resembles
>>comp.unix.wizards, where the sheer inapproachability of the
>
>Hmmmm.  Last fall on comp.unix.wizards someone asked how to tell a wizard...
>which led to a discussion of how to pronounce 'vi' which led to a discussion
[...etc. etc. I don't know why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she'll die...]

That particular round of lunacy was exacerbated by certain among
the c.u.w regulars who chose to stamp their little feet and
whine like net.newborns about how it wasn't making them happy.

A prompt posting of the canonical million-pronunciations
list kills those discussions toot-sweet, and two dozen
regulars emailing the list to someone naive enough to ask
the question teaches that person not only about that
question, but also about any other question that he could
have reason to feel might rather obviously have been asked
by someone in the past.

But then, just perhaps there is some tiny alteration
of the tone of the question, or some insight in the
neophyte's summary or subject line, but the moderator
sees only "how do you glyph 'splat'?" hears only the
screams of malcontents and compulsive elitists, and
applies his own fear of criticism.  Poof.  Some small
important part of the group has died, and only to save
a string of petty discomforts.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat
it, but those who force a prevention of history are doomed
to stagnation.

				--Blair
				  "I'd say something about Eastern
				   Europe, here, but that'd be
				   self-aggrandizing."