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From: marms@sandia.UUCP (Mike Arms)
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.groups
Subject: Re: net.sources -> ?
Message-ID: <237@sandia.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-May-87 12:20:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: sandia.237
Posted: Wed May  6 12:20:39 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 9-May-87 01:20:26 EDT
References: <6095@hi.UUCP> <332@wolf.UUCP>
Reply-To: marms@sandia.UUCP (Mike Arms)
Organization: The Dark Gnat Returns
Lines: 37
Summary: We need an unmoderated sources group
Xref: mnetor news.admin:412 news.groups:777

In article <332@wolf.UUCP> billw@wolf.UUCP (Bill Wisner) writes:
>Yes, all sources groups are moderated. There was quite an uproar about this
>a while ago, I am quite surprised you missed it.


I, too, have been disturbed that the unmoderated net.sources group was
being replaced by the moderated comp.sources.misc group. As has been
pointed out, the moderator of the misc sources group will often not be
able to execute the packages and even do a rudimentary test for functionality,
completeness, or detection of "trojan horses".

So what do we get with this moderated misc sources group? One positive
aspect is that we only get code and maybe some bug fixes. We don't get
those stupid "request for Part n of m that didn't get to my part of the net"
or "will somebody please send me the sources to Hack|Rogue|UltraRogue|Empire|
Larn|Elm|Ispell|... as nauseum"! Our site likes to keep source archives,
so eliminating this noise is a plus.

On the other hand, we get none of the other usual benefits of moderation
while accepting the normal delays involved in going thru a moderator.
Wading thru all of the chaff in net.sources was made worthwhile by the
gems that could sometimes be found there. Often authors would post short 
utilities or early releases of large systems (UNaXcess). Also, if the
misc sources group was unmoderated, we could get those code postings
out of the system groups such as comp.sys.ibm.pc.

I would like voice support for changing comp.sources.misc from moderated
to unmoderated (sorry Brandon). I welcome all discussion of this topic,
pro or con. I do feel this discussion should be public rather than e-mail.
Thank you for your consideration of this topic.

-- 
Mike Arms
uucp:  ...{ucbvax | gatech}!unmvax!sandia!marms