Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!well!pokey From: pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: How can a moderator take a vacation? Message-ID: <7755@well.UUCP> Date: 26 Nov 88 01:14:35 GMT References: <200@twwells.uucp> Reply-To: Jef Poskanzer Organization: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric, Ada Lovelace Cabal Lines: 72 In the referenced message, bill@twwells.UUCP (T. William Wells) wrote: }In article <7681@well.UUCP> Jef Poskanzer writes: }: Anyway, I was thinking more along the lines of a primary moderator and }: a backup moderator. Both would receive the postings, but the backup would }: normally throw them out. However, if the primary disappears for a while, }: or perhaps even goes on a real vacation, the backup would be able to take }: over with minimal fuss. } }This could be made to work. However, there are several things that }need to be dealt with for it to. The first is that the backbone sites }have to have the newsgroups aliased to both names. This ought not to }be anything more than an administrative problem. Yes, this was too obvious for me to mention. } The second has to do }with communication. Some method needs to be established so that the }backup moderator knows when to pick up the traces. Again, not too }much of a problem, just needs setting up the procedures. Yes, such procedures are easy to figure out and not particularly critical. Since we are getting explicit here, how about this: if the backup moderator doesn't see any postings in the group for a month, and checks an alternate news-reading site to make sure it's not a local problem, and can't get in touch with the primary moderator by PHONE (e-mail would be useless), then the backup takes over and the primary becomes the backup. What I meant by not particularly critical is that in the unlikely event that both moderators think they are the primary (perhaps both the net and the phone system got partitioned), recovery is trivial. And it's also not particularly critical that the backup take over instantly, since if he takes over AT ALL the net will be better off than it is under the current system. } There is }also the extra mail bandwidth. This can be serious when the newsgroup }deals with large things, as the source and binary newsgroups often do. No, I can't see this being a serious issue. We are talking about a few kilobytes per day for just the machines along the mail paths, which will be totally lost in the noise of the three MEGAbytes per day of news going to every machine on the net. }The main problem with this method is that the alternate moderator }can't get at messages related to the newsgroup that are sent to the }main moderator's personal account. I get quite a few of these, and I }don't suppose that I am unique. I can't think of any scheme that }doesn't require explicit handing-off by the moderator that gets this }mail to the alternate moderator. Oh, nonsense. That's what *-request aliases are for! }There is another, simpler, method: just have the moderator forward }his mail to the alternate moderator when he goes on vacation. I am not worried about real vacations. No one gives a hoot about postings stopping for two or three weeks, especially if the moderator posts a note first warning about the upcoming hiatus. The problem is with the multi-month, unplanned, unannounced, unexplained absences that I referred to as "vacations". Apparently you didn't not realize I was using the term sarcastically. Now the problem with your simpler method should be (once again) obvious: it requires the moderator to take action when he about to disappear. Since the disappearance could be due to his machine failing, or a newsfeed of his failing, or merely a sudden case of brain-lock, he does not know when he is about to disappear, and so cannot take any action. A more robust mechanism is necessary. --- Jef Jef Poskanzer jef@rtsg.ee.lbl.gov ...well!pokey "Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." -- Jim Horning