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From: mjl@tropix.UUCP (Mike Lutz)
Newsgroups: news.stargate
Subject: Re: a simple alternative to moderation -- enforced self-moderation
Message-ID: <269@tropix.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Apr-87 12:08:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: tropix.269
Posted: Sat Apr 25 12:08:27 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Apr-87 20:41:49 EDT
References: <965@vortex.UUCP> <7946@utzoo.UUCP> <7947@utzoo.UUCP> <522@aramis.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: mjl@tropix.UUCP (Mike Lutz)
Organization: GCA/Tropel Div. Rochester, NY 14450
Lines: 28

In article <522@aramis.RUTGERS.EDU> webber@aramis.RUTGERS.EDU (Webber) writes:
>
>Moderation does not mean quality improvement, it just means that you
>end up with what the moderator thinks is the good stuff.  Remember
>Sturgeon's Law, that 90+% of everything is garbage, was generated in
>edited journals containing the publications of professional writers.
>Most people disagree about what is the good stuff.

In my experience, the information content in all the moderated groups
is significantly higher than in their unmoderated brethren.  What is
more, the information itself is of much higher quality.  The classic
example is mod.sources vs. net.sources: the simple fact that
an identifiable individual will actually *try* the code has led to
significantly higher quality in the former vis-a-vis the latter.  I
scan net.sources for the occasional jewel in the manure; I archive
the moderated group because the contributions are almost guaranteed
to be top-notch.  I think it is psychologically easier to drop
half-baked code you knocked-off yesterday into net.sources.  By extension,
it is easier to drop half-baked ideas into an unmoderated discussion
group.

Re: Sturgeon's Law -- I contend this applies to all submissions as a
whole.  Thus Lutz's Corallory: if two newsgroups, one moderated and the
other unmoderated, deal with the same subject, 95% of the garbage
appears in the unmoderated group.

Mike Lutz
GCA/Tropel, seismo!rochester!tropix!mjl