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Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!scs!spl1!laidbak!att!pacbell!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!h.cc.purdue.edu!s.cc.purdue.edu!rsk
From: rsk@s.cc.purdue.edu (Wombat)
Newsgroups: news.admin,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Moderating comp.sources.amiga
Message-ID: <3108@s.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 3 Jun 88 13:40:45 GMT
Article-I.D.: s.3108
References: <2065@sugar.UUCP> <407@jc3b21.UUCP>
Reply-To: rsk@s.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Wombat)
Organization: Purdue Computing Center Unix Systems Staff
Lines: 34
Summary: Please be careful about the facts.

In article <407@jc3b21.UUCP> fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) writes:
>This would really be great.  I understand the problems with delays are the
>result of limitations at Purdue, not the moderators.  They are trying to do
>the best job they can within the limits of their system but I think we need
>someone who can get source out to the net quicker.

Not quite true, and I should know: I'm the news administrator for the
machines that the moderators use.  It is true that there were some initial
difficulties in getting the moderated group(s) working here; these were
due to incompatibilities between the way news 2.11 handles moderated groups
and the way our local code restricting posting access to Usenet works.
The time it took to resolve those difficulties (and the resultant delay
in getting the group started) is my responsibility.  However, it has been
quite some time since this took place.

Since then, the only "limitation" that's been placed on them (and frankly,
I don't consider this a limitation at all) is that I've asked them to even
out the "bursty" flow of traffic in the amiga groups.  To explain: we do
not have any direct UUCP connections at PUCC, and rely on our on-campus
neighbors for our Usenet connectivity.  It seems to make life somewhat
easier for them if large source/binary postings are spread out over a period
of hours/days rather than sent in huge multi-hundred-kbyte chunks with
large gaps between them.  So, I've asked the moderators of the amiga groups
to try to smooth the traffic flow a bit when possible; this doesn't mean
that I've asked them to slow down the groups.  Additionally, since this
is quite easy to do (via "at" and other mechanisms), I don't consider
this an impairment of the group's functionality.

Have any of you tried mailing a note suggesting these improvement to the
moderators themselves?  Sometimes a well-phrased polite note can bring about
the changes desired without too much trouble...
-- 
Rich Kulawiec, rsk@s.cc.purdue.edu, s.cc.purdue.edu!rsk
PUCC Unix Staff