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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!houxz!vax135!floyd!cmcl2!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!werner
From: werner@ut-ngp.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.news.group
Subject: Re: net.general [follow-up to article by nathanm@hp-pcd]
Message-ID: <672@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Jun-84 23:12:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.672
Posted: Mon Jun  4 23:12:15 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Jun-84 05:56:26 EDT
References: <700003@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Organization: Comp. Center, Univ. of Texas at Austin
Lines: 47



Nathan's posting to net.general, calling attention to recent abuses of
net.general, leads me again to suggest, in all seriousness, that postings
to some groups (like net.general), be moderated by the system administration
of each machine.  No message should be allowed to propagate out of a system
without the approval of a knowledgable and responsable net-member.  That
is the only way we can protect this community from some few rotten apples
who cause a lot of grief and troubles in no time in an open network like
ours.  We have seen a few instances of messages already, which caused a lot
of fear for the continuing existence of this "free" net, and we should not
wait to do something until some unfortunate event will force us to drastic
measures, or to witness a forced break-up of the net or forced departure
of some sites. An unfortunate specific case, I remember, is when a user at
one site posted some inappropriate ethnic "humor" which resulted in such an
uproar that management decided to withdraw their machine from further
participation in the net, to the detriment of many, I am sure.

And, to add a suggestion, how this may  be achieved, a few ideas, which,
unfortunately, can not address technical details of implementation under
UNIX due to lack of knowledge on my part:

Already some sites, particularly universities, restrict the account's
capability to post messages a) at all  b) to some news-groups c) to local
distribution d) outsite the local net only with approval by some authority.
Recently, I've also seen a header line "Approved by: ...", which suggests
that some sites already have implemented an approval system.

Would it be hard to have the software check an account attribute, 
controlling the user's capability for achieving wide distribution
for his articles?  Would it be hard to allow an authorized account
to "approve" distribution of someone else's article, during the process
of reading the news, in response to a special prompt, maybe, to solicit
such approval? Wouldn't it be wise to agree and encourage, that "net-wizards"
SHOULD kill inappropriate articles no matter where originating to limit
their distribution?

These are all half-baked ideas, to encourage a discussion, no more ... ok, now
you can pounce on me, if you care to do so.

BTW, I do not encourage restricting posting privileges or killing of articles
LIGHTLY, but would like to see the capability to approve assigned to most
users of some experience and local standings, so that article propagation
is not delayed unneccessarily.

	werner @ ut-ngp