Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:13283 comp.binaries.ibm.pc:602 Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!rutgers!mtune!codas!usfvax2!tscs!gerard From: gerard@tscs.UUCP (Stephen M. Gerard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Moderation of comp.binaries.ibm.pc Message-ID: <183@tscs.UUCP> Date: 16 Mar 88 03:20:36 GMT References: <2133@polya.STANFORD.EDU> <12576@sgi.SGI.COM> <9901@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP> <10705@ut-sally.UUCP> Reply-To: gerard@tscs.UUCP (Stephen M. Gerard) Organization: Total Support Computer Systems, Tampa, Florida Lines: 78 In article <10705@ut-sally.UUCP> nather@ut-sally.UUCP (Ed Nather) writes: > >I personally see no need for a moderator here. Everybody crabs about >including discussions in the group, but I assume they have an "n" key on >their keyboard. This is NOT the point! Granted, if you were simply reading articles you can use the 'n' key to skip to the next article. If you are a system administrator and wish to archive binary files so that others may benefit from their existance, it is a great pain to eliminate the discussion and other unrelated articles from your archive. Having to resort to using a command such as 'find . -type f -size -5 -exec /bin/rm {} \;' to reduce the clutter will eliminate most of the *noise* but also might eliminate important bug fixes. Ideally, there should be four related groups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc Binary postings and documentation. comp.sources.ibm.pc Source code and documentation. comp.bin-src.ibm.pc.d Discussion and announcements of future releases of software to either the binary or source newsgroups. comp.sys.ibm.pc Discussion of ibm pc hardware and commercially available software. This group should not contain software and should consist of discussion and other question and answer related discussion. If there is not enough support for both a binary and source newsgroup, then the two could coexist in 'comp.binaries.ibm.pc'. Others have stated that the moderator should eliminate 'virus' software. I say that this is IMPOSSIBLE!!!!! Nobody without going to extreme amounts of work could possibly even come close to eliminating the danger of a 'virus'. There is no possible way that a moderator of any group could possibly test each and every piece of software that is mailed to him/her. The idea that the person who would be doing this *favor* for us out there would have to continually back-up and restore their machine is absurd. Then of course, if someone did volunteer for such a task, it would become a contest between the hacker and the moderator to see who could outsmart who. The real reason to have a moderator, in my opinion, is as follows: + Insure only binary or source postings + Offer a standardized format for such postings + Eliminate numerous repostings + Eliminate obvious Copyright infringements As I stated in a previous posting, a good header with useful information in a standardized format would be a great improvement. Computers, if nothing else are organized. Why should we toss software into a newsgroup in the same manner that we toss our socks into a drawer? :-) Let's get this thing going. For those seriously interested in becoming the moderator of this group. Post a message detailing your reasons for wanting to become the moderator. Please include how long you feel that you will be able to hold the position as well as the amount of time you are willing to donate to the cause. It also might be useful to include the name of the person or persons with the say so to approve you as moderator so that we may forward our wishes to the appropriate person(s). I will help in any way that I can, short of being the moderator, I just don't have that much time..... One last point. Does the discussion of a moderator belong in 'comp.binaries .ibm.pc'? I think for the moment it does. There are people who always read all of the articles in the binary group but do not always have time te read all of the articles in 'comp.sys.ibm.pc' before there machine expires them. I sometimes fall into this catagory, and I bet I'm not the only one. After all, we are talking about the future of this group, it only seems fair that it should be in this group as long as the group remains unmoderated. Steve ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stephen Gerard - Total Support Computer Systems - Tampa - (813) 876-5990 UUCP: ...{codas, gatech}!usfvax2!tscs!gerard US-MAIL: Post Office Box 15395 - Tampa, Florida 33684-5395