Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!orcenl!bengsig
From: bengsig@oracle.nl (Bjorn Engsig)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Moderated C group ? (was Re: Posting)
Message-ID: <351.nlhp3@oracle.nl>
Date: 8 Jun 89 10:45:28 GMT
References: <1989May23.030223.24871@utzoo.uucp> <929@maestro.htsa.aha.nl> <13410@haddock.ima.isc.com> <934@maestro.htsa.aha.nl> <18230@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu> <13607@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Reply-To: bengsig@oracle.nl (Bjorn Engsig)
Organization: ORACLE Europe, The Netherlands
Lines: 36

In article <13607@haddock.ima.isc.com> karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer) writes:
>So, let's draw up a charter: The moderator shall not reject a question for
>being "stupid".  He/she may reject an *answer* for being wrong ("int is always
>32 bits") or redundant (the 25th consecutive posting saying "no it isn't"), or
>any posting for being inappropriate ("How do you pronounce `#'?").  Does this
>sound reasonable?
Yes Karl, it does sound reasonable, but I do not think that we can have the
same vivid group if it were moderated.  It is true that we sometimes have too
much garbage around here, but I wouldn't miss the sometimes very tight
discussions, which is not the same with a moderation.  You also have to
think about us here in Europe, where a moderation could easily lead to
two days delay.  These days, with the new mcvax-uunet link, the effective
delivery time is measured in hours, which enables us to take part in tight
discussions.

We still have the 'k' key, which is quite a good way to do your own moderation,
and maybe we should try (again) with some education of posters and in
particular "Re:"-posters.  Personally, I use the 'R' key more often than I use
the 'F' key, and let the original poster decide upon posting a followup.

I would definately vote against moderation and against creation of a 
parallel moderated group.  If you look at comp.unix, the S/N ratio is very
high, but it doesn't really help when the signal itself is close to zero.

Another idea that has been seen, is to make a distinction like
comp.unix.questions for novices and comp.unix.wizards for more experienced,
but since we cannot force guys like Doug, Chris, yourself and others to
read them both, we might end up with good questions without qualified
answers, or worse, with wrong answers.

Let us stick to the comp.lang.c, which we have learned to love and to hate.
It is a wonderful, vivid group.
-- 
Bjorn Engsig, ORACLE Europe         \ /    "Hofstadter's Law:  It always takes
Path:   mcvax!orcenl!bengsig         X      longer than you expect, even if you
Domain: bengsig@oracle.nl           / \     take into account Hofstadter's Law"