Xref: utzoo news.admin:3458 news.groups:5422 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ucsd!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu!karl From: karl@triceratops.cis.ohio-state.edu (Karl Kleinpaste) Newsgroups: news.admin,news.groups Subject: Re: Call for Discussion: Moderation of news.admin Message-ID: <22185@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 21 Sep 88 14:27:40 GMT References:<3147@utastro.UUCP> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Lines: 37 In-reply-to: werner@utastro.UUCP's message of 21 Sep 88 05:55:50 GMT werner@utastro.uucp writes: I've [suggested moderation of news.admin] several times already; given that not that many people read this group, I'd even suggest that it should not be put to a vote but simply be decided on by the backbone kabal - but they are hiding in their mailing-list and don't pay much attention to this group anyway ... False on two, possibly three, counts. First, the backbone mailing list hasn't had any traffic in, say, 6 weeks or thereabouts. Not a thing. You can't `hide' behind something which has not had any recognizable existence (recently). Second, `they' cannot be counted on for a single, collective opinion about anything. *I* read news.*; I even try to read at least a substantial fraction of every single posting except in very rare circumstances (e.g., empty MES attacks and the like). A number of other backbone folks do as well. There are some who more-or-less ignore it as a content-free flame-fest [mind you, I am not saying that their opinion is wrong], but I have no idea if that's even a substantial fraction, much less if it's a majority. Third, it is not clear to me that the `backbone' exists in any definable way at this point, other than as the mailing list alias @rutgers.edu. This is largley due to discussion in mid-summer on the list concerning whether it was `time to kill the backbone.' This was initiated by Spaf, and debated among a number of people for a week or two, and sometime thereafter Spaf made some mechanical changes to the canonical news.lists postings to remove references to `backbone,' generally replacing them with `well-connected hosts' or somesuch. Does the backbone exist? You tell me. One could always suggest, of course, that there has been no traffic in the backbone list for the last several weeks because there's been nothing in need of being addressed there. --Karl