X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,32452b2fbd2fbc6c,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-05-20 02:11:31 PST Path: gmd.de!nntp.gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!swrinde!emory!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!news.duke.edu!godot.cc.duq.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!ab5s+ From: Andre Beskrowni Newsgroups: alt.ascii-art Subject: moderation-YUK Date: Fri, 20 May 1994 04:36:57 -0400 Organization: Masters student, Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 80 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: po3.andrew.cmu.edu Hi everyone: All I keep hearing is that moderation is good because we won't have to see the same requests over and over, blah, blah, blah. Something everyone should keep in mind though (and maybe some one has already said this since I don't read EVERY post on this issue) is that everyone has had an opportunity to voice their opinions about where the future of this newsgroup should be: alt or rec. In voicing your opinions you have been doing two things that rec groups typically disallow. First of all, it could easily be claimed (by a moderator for instance) that the same thing is being said over and over again. "Fine," you might say, "the same thing _is_ being said over and over again and this is a prime example of why moderation is good." This is totally wrong! The reason there are so many posts on this issue is because so many people feel so strongly about it. This issue very important. Do you really want to risk the possibility that you might not be able to speak up on issues like this? It's not necessarily a bad thing that there have been so many posts saying the basically the same thing. It gives everyone who reads this newsgroup a feeling for how everyone else feels. Under moderation, we might have only seen half of these posts, or maybe none at all. It would be impossible to gauge your opinion in relation to everyone else's. I personally don't want my agenda set for me. I want to know my what everyone else's feelings are. Discussion is a good thing, especially for an arts forum. I don't think anyone would want their voice restricted due to a moderator's whim. The second conflict that all this discussion would have with a moderated newsgroup is the amount of attention it has taken from the real purpose of this newsgroup, which one would assume would be to view, distribute, promote, etc., ascii-art. Issues like this could easily be snuffed out because of their supposed irrelevance. But I think that just by looking at the response that this issue has generated illustrates that most of us don't see this as an irrelevant issue. However in a moderated newsgroup, this is not for us to decide. Here, if we think some topic merits discussion, we discuss it. In rec groups, we might want to bring up an item for discussion only to find that we aren't allowed because we are not keeping to the strict bounds that might be imposed by a moderator. How, then, would we be able to propose changes to the structure of a group? What if things were being run poorly and we wanted to address those problems? I think that is putting a lot of faith in one human being. Rec groups often forbid this kind of discussion, why would anyone want that? Just to not have to deal with seeing repeated requests? Geez, just skip 'em. No one is making you read them. These two problems are also accompanied by the strain that this puts on the moderator. He has to take the time to read everything, and make decisions about their fate. This is not a small task, especially with the number of posts that appear here daily. It's definitely a responsibility that one could tire of very quickly. I don't want to get too much into this topic though since it's been done. All I'm saying is that this IS NOT a "win-win" situation. True, things could work out fine, but I'd rather not chance it. I'd rather not take the chance that it could end up really sucking and undermining the promotion of ascii-art due to the potential strictness of moderation. By the way, before you even think it, these opinions have nothing to due with Scarecrow's character. I believe that he is fully capable of doing the job. I say this even though I don't know the guy at all. I honestly believe that he wants to moderate the proposed rec group because he loves ascii-art and wants do what he can to promote it. (I don't buy the line about self-promotion.) Nevertheless, he going to be subjected to a hell of a lot of complaints about what gets posted and what doesn't get posted, and these are going to make some not-so-easy decisons even harder for him. I really encourage you to think about how much of a voice you'll have under moderation. You may feel secure, but why? You are putting yourself at risk of losing your voice completely. Moderation sucks. It's about more than cutting down on repeated requests. Vote for a free ascii-arts group. (Sorry for being so long-winded.) Thanks, Andre Beskrowni