Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!brandx.rutgers.edu!webber From: webber@brandx.rutgers.edu.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: EndOfSourcesList+AnnouncementOfNetOmbudsman Message-ID: <267@brandx.rutgers.edu> Date: Mon, 29-Jun-87 05:30:16 EDT Article-I.D.: brandx.267 Posted: Mon Jun 29 05:30:16 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 30-Jun-87 01:54:11 EDT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 213 Keywords: solving the moderation bottleneck [The following 200- lines announce the death of the sources mailing list and the creation of a net ombudsman that indirectly handles the problem of finding an outlet for unmoderated sources. In particular, this message gives a procedure for getting a message posted when you don't feel like sending it to one of the Usenet moderators and you don't want to fake an approval.] Hi. Over the past month, an attempt was made to find out if there was sufficient justification for the creation of an unmoderated sources group by the tried and true method of creating a mailing list and seeing if traffic justified it. Well, traffic justified it. Indeed with no traffic at all, many backbone sites contacted me indicating that it was too much and that I couldn't send anymore through their sites. Further, in spite of the existance of things like netlib and the way sources get to moderated groups, I was assured that mail cannot support such a list without getting permission of all the intermediate sites. So, it looks like creating a sources mailing list just won't fly. Sorry and much thanks to the 100+ who showed support. In the words of one backbone site, the list is now nuked. According to a rumor posted to the net by gnu!gilmore and consistant with a similar posting by hao!wood earlier, it would appear that the backbone has been poised in favour of such a list for a number of weeks but can't get its act together to actually create it. The mailing list plus vote of 100+ would justify it regardless of the question of the wisdom of having done the moderation in the first place. However, no replies have resulted from any of the times I have notified spaf@gatech of the size of the vote. The interesting question is how could such a vote be ignored. The answer is that the backbone is not a governing agency of usenet, but is rather the collection of sites that spaf@gatech tends to interact with regularly. In turn, spaf@gatech is not the ruler of usenet, but is rather someone who has done alot of good things for usenet and sends out alot of reliable information, to such an extent that by inertia and laziness of most of the usenet sites, he is in effect administering most of the news on usenet. This means that if you have a disagreement with the backbone sites, the only way you are going to get them to change is if they decide they didn't really want to do what happened in the first place. If it was done intentionally, you are just shouting down a well. Sine the Usenet is an anarchy in which everyone can do whatever they want one would presume the above was not a necessarily bad thing. However, since the vast majority of the net wish to appear reasonable and civilized and fear any kind of united opposition from the net, this means that as long as they are getting something from their connection to Usenet, they won't squawk too loudly as they loose more and more bit by bit. However, these fears are groundless, since the backbone sites have neither the time nor organization to actually control the entire Usenet in the face of determined reasonable opposition. Thus, what the net needs is a `net ombudsman' whose purpose is to minimize the empact on the net of some of the more foolish actions we have seen recently. Until others volunteer to cover this duty, I will be handling it. Just as in the case of the backbone, it is possible for any site to go its own way and completely ignore what I do. However, just as with the backbone, I will try and make sure that it is easier for them to go along. [Incidently, co-ombudspeople are also welcome.] My first action is to address the problem of net moderation. The problem is that for certain topics, there is no reasonable alternative to posting to a moderated group. Usenet has traditionally been unmoderated. While the creation of moderated groups is plausible for certain low traffic topics, the attempt to use them as replacements for previous large unmoderated groups is unsupportable. While there are clearly people who prefer moderation, this does not justify taking away the unmoderated group from the mass of people who were happy with what was going on, even though it may justify the creation of parallel moderated groups on some topics. Always remember that no site is required to carry all groups (although most people seem to carry as much as they can afford -- so it must be good stuff). My solution: if someone sends me a message that seems to me to be relevant to a moderated group where there is no unmoderated alternative, I will post it there. Implementation: Send your postings to: rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber Indicate which group you want them to go to and what subject line you want. Don't forget to sign your messages. Anonymous postings will be handled slower. I reserve the right to reject postings without explanation. I will acknowledge requests for postings when the return mail paths work, but keep your own copy as I will probably not return it in toto. Details: 1) The messages will be clearly marked as having been approved by me, both on the approved line and at the top of the message body. 2) The message will not be edited, if it is below standard for the group I send it to, that is the author's problem. 3) The message will be posted Distribution: usa . The reason for this is that it has been brought to my attention by the gateway sites that places like Europe and Austrailia are not really on the Usenet due to economic problems with international communication at the rate of 2 meg per day, but are instead closer to the status of BitNet, ArpaNet, and various other nets that gateway into Usenet. 4) The moderators of groups I post to will not be contacted prior to the posting. In order to determine what is appropriate for a given group I will use the comments in the List of Active News Groups in conjunction with whatever materials the moderators may choose to send me. 5) The entire message will get posted, so don't send me justifications unless you want them posted also. I am assuming that the authors do not object to posting in the group they indicate, but just would prefer someone other than them had a look at the message first and handled the actual mechanics of posting. It is not necessary for the posting to have been previously turned down in order for me to post it. While the above may seem somewhat arbitrary, I have noticed that it works well for the backbone and am not inclined to change until experience shows otherwise. However, because I am a busy person, I will take the time to actually go through the list of moderated groups and indicate which ones I view as subject to postings from me in my role as Ombudsman and which groups have legitimate unmoderated alternatives. [Incidently, I personally encourage people to contemplate the significance of posting to a Moderated Group versus posting to Its Alternative.] Moderated Group with Reasonable Alternative The Alternative -------------------------------------------- -------------- comp.ai.digest comp.ai comp.binaries.amiga talk.bizzare comp.binaries.atari.st talk.bizzare comp.binaries.ibm.pc talk.bizzare comp.binaries.mac talk.bizzare comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes comp.bugs.4bsd comp.compilers comp.misc comp.dcom.telecom comp.dcom.modems comp.doc.techreports sci.research comp.graphics.digest comp.graphics comp.hypercube comp.arch comp.laser-printers comp.text comp.mail.elm comp.mail.misc comp.newprod misc.forsale comp.org.fidonet comp.sys.ibm.pc comp.os.os9 comp.os.misc comp.os.research comp.arch comp.protocols.kermit comp.protocols.misc comp.risks comp.misc comp.society comp.misc comp.std.c comp.lang.c comp.std.mumps comp.std.misc comp.std.unix comp.unix.wizards comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest comp.sys.ibm.pc comp.sys.m68k.pc comp.sys.misc comp.sys.mac.digest comp.sys.mac comp.sys.masscomp comp.sys.misc comp.sys.sequent comp.sys.misc comp.sys.sun comp.sys.misc comp.sys.workstations comp.sys.misc comp.text.desktop comp.text comp.unix comp.unix.wizards misc.handicap sci.med misc.psi talk.bizzare news.announce.conferences sci.research news.lists news.misc rec.arts.movies.reviews rec.arts.movies rec.food.recipes rec.food.cooking rec.guns rec.misc rec.humor.spc rec.humor rec.mag.otherrealms rec.arts.sf-lovers rec.music.gaffa rec.music.misc sci.med.aids sci.med soc.human-nets news.misc soc.politics talk.politics.misc soc.politics.arms-d talk.politics.misc soc.religion.christian talk.religion.misc Moderated Group without Reasonable Alternative Plus Description ----------------------------------------------------------------- comp.doc Archived public-domain documentation comp.mail.maps Various maps, including UUCP maps comp.sources.amiga Source code-only postings for the Amiga comp.sources.atari.st Source code-only postings for the Atari ST comp.sources.games Postings of recreational software comp.sources.mac Software for the Apple Macintosh comp.sources.misc Posting of software comp.sources.unix Postings of public-domain sources news.announce.important General announcments of interest to all news.announce.newusers Explanatory postings for new users Considering the nature of the above list, it is no real surprise that sources was the first place where the problem was noticed. Of course, as the participants in various groups changes, question of whether or not some specific group has a reasonable alternative or not may change. As with all things on usenet, the above is subject to change without notice. Incidently, spaf@gatech (a moderator) has announced, in the list of moderators, the policy of referring all disagreements with specific moderators to the moderators' mailing list. This is akin to letting legislators set their own salaries. A copy of this action is going to all the relevant parties, i.e., moderators@cbosgd.att.COM , backbone@gatech.edu , spaf@gatech.edu , news.admin , news.sysadmin, news.misc , news.groups , and news.stargate . Incidently, it is going to the stargate group because stargate is in the process of trying to replace the backbone and they are planning on carrying only the moderated groups (and hence a rather lengthy discussion of moderation has already occurred there). It was not sent to news.announce.important because so few people are interested in the politics of the net, that it certainly isn't justified in being blasted at everyone. It has not yet appeared on news.announce.newusers because policy isn't yet stable enough to be other than confusing to new users. Due to a bug in postnews (which has been reported), it was separately posted to comp.sources.d . As things settle out, a revised copy will appear in those places where moderators are in control of the only reasonable outlet for a discussion. ---- BOB (webber@aramis.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!webber)