Xref: utzoo comp.mail.uucp:5558 comp.sources.d:6004 comp.unix.questions:27231 news.sysadmin:3404
Newsgroups: comp.mail.uucp,comp.sources.d,comp.unix.questions,news.sysadmin
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!shurr
From: shurr@cbnews.att.com (Larry A. Shurr)
Subject: Re: Rich $alz is still alive ??!!!??!!
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, OH (actually an AGS consultant)
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 90 17:50:30 GMT
Message-ID: <1990Nov29.175030.18506@cbnews.att.com>
Followup-To: comp.sources.d
Summary: Solution too sensible
References: <1990Nov24.163906.19793@chinet.chi.il.us> <971@iiasa.UUCP> <1990Nov28.020040.5518@looking.on.ca>
Lines: 52

In article <1990Nov28.020040.5518@looking.on.ca>, brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
} USENET is now a few times larger than when most of us moderators signed on.
} [Moderators are out of time, quitting, and they keep getting abuse]

} Source and binary group moderating is probably one of the toughest jobs.
} [Lots of things to take care of]

} When it comes to source and binary moderating, it may be the case that you
} start to get what you pay for.  The people doing it should get some
} compensation.  I know Rich is against this, but sometimes I think it may be
} the only way.   If there are 30,000 readers for a source group, then a
} pittance of few dollars/year would hire a good moderator.  I doubt it will
} happen, though.

Nope, that solution is too sensible... not allowed...

What?  OK!  OK!  :-) :-) :-), just a little levity, alright?

Seriously, though.  This is a problem which I think we need to confront.
'Course in saying that, I'm likely to get a response saying "Fine!  You
confront it," but Elm has a 'D' key and rn has a 'K' key for situations
like that.  

I don't moderate anything on the net, but I've noticed that despite my
increasing selectivity, I'm still saving more than I have time to "self-
moderate;" i.e., evaluating what I've saved and deciding what to keep.
At that, I have the advantage of getting my stuff largely from moderated
sources from which much chaff has already been eliminated or from ftp
sources where I specifically choose the items.  

The point is, if I have difficulty coping with the flow I pick out of the 
stream just for myself, what must it be like for someone, who's receiving 
a flood of submissions, from which they must pick and choose what to pass 
on to us?  Where would they find the "spare" time for that activity?  For
the PC and MAC worlds, there are whole profit-making enterprises employing 
people full-time to perform an equivalent task (I realize that many of 
these "shareware distributors" are not really very serious enterprises and 
may be wanting in their ethical practices, but others are quite serious 
and really do what they say they do).

I don't have the resources to commit to moderating a newsgroup and I sure
as heck can't commit a client's resources.  Even if I had the resources, I
don't know when I would find the time to do it.  Since I'm not indepen-
dently wealthy, I can't hire anybody to do it.  Any proposals for how to 
fund a moderation project?  (That question probably won't go anywhere,
either).

regards, Larry
-- 
Larry A. Shurr (cbnmva!las@att.ATT.COM or att!cbnmva!las)
The end of the world has been delayed due to a shortage of trumpet players.
(The above reflects my opinions, not those of AGS or AT&T, but you knew that.)