Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!xanth!kent
From: kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu (Kent Paul Dolan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Comp.sources.amiga
Message-ID: <5100@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 29 Apr 88 07:15:03 GMT
References: <3696@cbmvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan)
Distribution: na
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 82
Keywords: Please keep non-discussion postings out of comp.sys.amiga, too
Summary: Let's NOT unmoderate comp.sources.amiga

In article <3696@cbmvax.UUCP> andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel) writes:
>
>Due to the problems that the amiga source newsgroup
>has been having (to the point where sources and binaries 
>are beginning to appear here once again) possibly the
>sources group could become unmoderated ?  That might
>reduce the backlog somewhat.  Which might let them
>concentrate on the binaries group, which is (in my opinion)
>the one that needs moderation.  If you have source, after
>all, your trust level is higher than when faced with a
>mystery binary.  ("Run me and I'll reorganize your hard disk")
>
>Aside from the problem of non-sources appearing there
>(which would have to be handled by group pressure, much
>as the way the new tech group is being handled, at least
>until we have news software that can automatically direct
>followups to a different newsgroup) and a possible increase
>in the number of sources that get posted (which may not be a
>bad thing) why not ?
>
>		andy
>-- 
>andy finkel		{ihnp4|seismo|allegra}!cbmvax!andy 
>Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
>
>"C combines the power of assembly language with the flexibility of
> assembly language."
>		
>Any expressed opinions are mine; but feel free to share.
>I disclaim all responsibilities, all shapes, all sizes, all colors.


Please, NO!  We already have (again; twice a year cycle?) reports of
sites losing comp.sys.amiga because the "five day storage requirements
for articles is too high", and right into the teeth of that, kim had
to post 554K of arp stuff in the wrong newsgroup, which, among other
things, blew away the info-amiga internet gateway for a week.

Could we PLEASE try a little self discipline here?  The discussion
groups are not for posting software and docs, they are not for design
sessions and long drawn out arguments that belong in email, they are
places for brief questions (and brief answers only if email is _very_
_obviously_ inappropriate, or just can't be made to work after
actually trying a couple of times to build a working address from the
article header information) and announcements of interest to the Amiga
community.

I think we ought to try "answer by email, only original questioner
gets to put (a summary of the answers) on the net, and if she doesn't,
ignore succeeding questions" as the default behavior, and see if we
can cut the "one question to fifty answers, most of them wrong"
interaction ratio here.  I don't just preach that line, lots and lots
of you have gotten email help from this mailbox.  My Amiga and I are
constant companions, but I don't even pretend to read most of the
articles here any more.  I just automatically hit "k" the fourth time
I see the same subject after "Re:", and I bet I'm pretty typical, so
if you are publishing the twentieth followup, you are writing for an
audience of one.

If we open comp.sources.amiga to free-for-all posting, we are going to
lose the group; many sites already refuse to carry it because of the
volume.  The moderators have been providing lots of services; quality
control like compiling and testing software, repackaging it in user
friendly packages, and, VERY important, buffering the group volume to
prevent blowing away site file restrictions.  They seem to have their
posting truncation problems isolated and fixed, and the pipeline is
pumping again (to the detriment of my sleep and blank floppy supply
;-) so let's not toss in a monkey wrench right now.

No one is so much in need of either free software or free fame that
even a six week break in posting is life threatening.  Besides
everything else, both posting software/docs in the comp.sys.amiga
discussion groups and unmoderated posting in comp.sources.amiga means
we lose the archive facility the moderators are struggling to set up
even as we post.

Andy, you are a great guy to have around, you do a wonderful service
to the USENet Amiga community, I love you like a brother, and with 40
meg of compressed, arced, or zooed 1200 baud downloads sitting next to
me here on floppies, I'm an Amiga source/binary/docs junky of the
first order, but this is a BAD IDEA.  Sorry!

Kent, the man from xanth.