Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!husc6!uwvax!rutgers!bellcore!tness7!texbell!ssbn!carpet!bill From: bill@carpet.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Call for Discussion: Moderation of news.admin Message-ID: <158@carpet.WLK.COM> Date: 25 Sep 88 01:03:24 GMT Article-I.D.: carpet.158 References:<2728@tolerant.UUCP> <155@carpet.WLK.COM> <6655@chinet.UUCP> Reply-To: bill@ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) Distribution: na Organization: W.L. Kennedy Jr & Associates, Pipe Creek, TX Lines: 71 >In article <155@carpet.WLK.COM> I wrote: [ deleted what Patricia isn't talking about ] >>up to us. If we react we make it fun and those not amused want to puke. >>If we ignore, it's not fun and we can get back to the dreary business of >>news administration. In article <6655@chinet.UUCP> rissa@chinet.UUCP (Patricia O Tuama) writes: >You are missing the point entirely. No one posts to news.admin to be >entertained. The reason we posted to this newsgroup was because it is >read by sysadmins. Obviously the power behind Usenet resides here. >And if you want to address sysadmins as a whole on a particular issue, >this is obviously the place to post. I don't think I missed the point at all, and I whole heartedly disagree with "the power behind Usenet resides here". It may be "read by sysadmins" and I'll not split hairs by insisting that news admins and sysadmins aren't the same folks, frequently they are. The "power behind Usenet" resides in an unwritten and often unspoken sense of fair play, interest in information exchange, and all around good citizenship. The SA's and news admins don't wield much power at all. We have mostly custodial duties and our power is what ever our employers/budgeters want us to have. Sure, we can stop an account, nuke a newsgroup, but it's not omnipotent, nor are many of us free to be arbitrary or unilateral. We still have users (the only reason we exist) and supervisors. The "power" resides elsewhere. >A number of netters seem to be under the impression that this Portal biz >is very recent, that it began in alt.flame in just the last month or so. >But it isn't a recent problem, this has been building in a number of news. >groups for at least the last three or four months. It didn't *start* in >alt.flame, it ended up in alt.flame. > > at that point trish, concerned I suggest that the news reading community and users in general wield a lot more "power" than the admins. An abusive site or user can be dealt with far more effectively if politely informed that they are out of line. If they persist in anti-social conduct then the reminders can become more firm, still polite, and the issue can be taken up with your own admins. Mail is a lot less efficient way to communicate with a large number of people, but you don't need to communicate with a large number of people, just the abusers. Mail is a lot harder to sluice out and ignore too. Handling rudeness on the net is a lot easier than on the highway or subway, you have a pretty reliable way to be sure that your opinion and reaction reaches the individual you think is responsible. I applaud Portal's published policy. I'll suggest/speculate that it was implemented not because there was a lot of arm waving in net newsgroups, but because they got a lot of individuals applying peer pressure. You can do that all by yourself or along with anyone else who shares your view. The admins can't do it for you, we can only exert enough authority to fulfill our responsibility and then only at our own site. There are many more of you than there are of us (except each of us is one of you :-) and that much pressure gets noticed. That's where the "power" is, not flooding newsgroups with things that aren't within the reach of the readers. I took that long to say it because I claimed that the inappropriate postings were to entertain the poster. I'm still inclined to think that. If, as Patricia suggests, it's a plea for assistance, then the length of my followup is probably appropriate. With regard to the "power" of an adminis- trator, I think I'm pretty hefty, I bought and maintain three usenet sites, I don't have a supervisor or any subordinates. If you are everything from the board chairman to the janitor you must be pretty powerful right? Nope, I can't do a thing about an abusive site or user other than what every news reader on the net can do, discourage, ignore, and try to help when possible. My apologies for having said so much about something other than news administration. On the other hand I still catch hell if the news doesn't flow... :-) -- Bill Kennedy Internet: bill@ssbn.WLK.COM Usenet: { killer | att | rutgers | uunet!bigtex }!ssbn!bill