Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!emory!rsiatl!jgd From: jgd@Dixie.Com (John G. DeArmond) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Rich $alz is still alive ??!!!??!! Message-ID: <5196@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> Date: 2 Dec 90 08:45:10 GMT References: <15169@cs.utexas.edu> <21867@well.sf.ca.us> <1990Dec1.214327.15430@NCoast.ORG> Organization: Rapid Deployment Systems (making go-fast things and things that-go fast) Lines: 61 allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR) writes: >| } yes, I see a symptom of the problem that we have not instituted >| } a methodology of having multiple moderators share the load and >| } to guarantee "continuity and reliability of service". >At the risk of being flamed: No flames, just a proposed solution. [Why it would not work deleted ] >I therefore repeat my earlier response to Jef, expanded: if you think you can >make a multiple moderation scheme work, create a newsgroup using it and show >me --- and the rest of the Usenet --- that it works. As it stands, trying it >on .misc or .unix when they're already drawing flames from readers is a recipe >for completely destroying the groups. Something *proven* to work, on the >other hand, can be retrofitted once it has been proven. The problem is that your model for multiple moderators is flawed. Here's how to set it up so that nothing existing now is broken. Establish a moderator and a host and one or more co-moderators. All submittals go to the moderator at the designated host. The submittals are distributed to the co-moderators via mail either manually or automatically by walking a list of co- moderators with a "Deliver" script. The co-moderators do the moderating and packaging and mail the ready-for-posting files back to a special uid on the moderating host. A "Deliver" script for this uid receives the mail, validates the sender as an authorized co- moderator (Snefru?), adds the "Approved:" and archive number lines and pipes it to recnews. With a little more work with Mr. Cron, the post could sit in a queue for a designated number of days for review by the moderator and be posted automatically at the end of the queue time unless he killed it. This entire scheme can be set up in a matter of hours using Smail and Deliver and a few shell scripts. I manage a couple of mailing lists and an NN source archive from this site using these tools. It would almost completely unload the moderator while still having all posts come from one site. The only disadvantage is that each package has to traverse the mail 2 times but even for UUCP sites with telebits, the load would be insignificant. And if someone like UUNET volunteered to be the host as it has for .misc, the performance issue would disappear. I don't have the time to volunteer to be the moderator but I'd be willing to consider being the host machine, especially if UUNET and I could work out a deal relieving me of the cost of the mail traffic. Since comp.sources.unix is effectively dead now, we have little to lose by trying something new. John -- John De Armond, WD4OQC | "Purveyors of speed to the Trade" (tm) Rapid Deployment System, Inc. | Home of the Nidgets (tm) Marietta, Ga | {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd | "Vote early, Vote often"