Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!uunet!sco!gorn!ucscc!filbo
From: filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Bela Lubkin)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Effects of moderation (was Volunteer for rec.arts.movies.serious...)
Message-ID: <133.filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us>
Date: 5 Jan 90 18:16:35 GMT
References: <702@hq.af.mil>
Organization: R Pentomino
Lines: 26
X-Claimer: I >am< R Pentomino!

In article <702@hq.af.mil> Keneth Illgen writes:
>     Why do we need to have this group moderated? People write that a 
>moderator would be there to correct errors <maybe> and question what
>one might mean in a statement. To me, that doesn't seem like enough to
>show the need for a moderator.
>     Under what circumstances would a moderator of this group not post
>an article <with the exception of those articles that would not be related
>to movies whatsoever>? If I write an article regarding some aspect of a
>movie could I expect it to be returned if the moderator didn't consider
>it to be serious enough?

Moderation causes prior restraint.  It is not so much that the moderator
manually filters out flames and pointless postings, but that readers are
far less likely to post such articles in the first place when they
understand that a moderator will be screening their article before it is
posted.

Another effect is that if a simple question is posted and 15 people post
similar replies, a good moderator should post the first (or best) of
these and add a footnote that many other people also responded.  I'm not
sure how much of a concern that is in rec.arts.*, but it's quite a
problem in comp.*.

Bela Lubkin    * *    //  filbo@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us  CI$: 73047,1112 (slow)
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R Pentomino    *   \X/  Filbo @ Pyrzqxgl +408-476-4633 and XBBS +408-476-4945