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From: dmt@mtunb.ATT.COM (Dave Tutelman)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Moderated lists - just say "no"
Message-ID: <1133@mtunb.ATT.COM>
Date: Wed, 18-Nov-87 17:48:17 EST
Article-I.D.: mtunb.1133
Posted: Wed Nov 18 17:48:17 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Nov-87 13:57:26 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems - Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 58


Well, after my most recent experience, I think I'll not post any more to
comp.source.misc, or at least not as long as it's moderated.  My complaint
isn't with Brandon; he's doing the job as well as it can be done.  My tale
of minor horror would have occurred as long as ANY moderator were in Brandon's
shoes.  Here's the story:

I had an opportunity to post a program that would be of use to readers
of some newsgroup.  (In this case, it was misc.wanted, but next month I'll
have a program for rec.bicycle so it's not an isolated case.)  Since
it was neither a major program nor a UNIX program, it seemed like a good
idea to post to comp.sources.misc.  What I did (hey, it seemed like a
good idea at the time  :-) was to:
   -	Post a shar of the source to comp.sources.misc.  This was already
	over 50K; couldn't add the executable for those without TPascal.
	Therefore, label it Par 1 of 2, and....
   -	Post a uuencoded arc of the MS-DOS executable as part 2 of 2
	to comp.sources.misc.
   -	Post an announcement of the availablility of the program to
	misc.wanted, where the request first appeared and the discussion
	was taking place.

The result of this seemingly reasonable act was:

   -	The announcement appeared immediately in misc.wanted.

   -	Since comp.sources.misc is moderated, it was a week before the
	ammounced program appeared.  Lots of Email in my box of the
	form "I didn't see it; where is it?"

   -	Source is posted, labeled "Part 1 of 2", as I had titled it,
	together with a note from Brandon saying that the executable
	would be posted to comp.binaries.ibm.pc.  More mail in my
	box from people not realizing that Part 2 was the aforementioned
	executable:  "I missed Part 2; could you send it."

   -	You may remember that Brandon was having trouble convincing his
	mailer that comp.binaries.ibm.pc existed.  Thus it is a week later
	that executable appears in comp.binaries.ibm.pc,
	labeled "Part 2 of 2".  More mail:  "I missed Part 1; could
	you send it."

Thus three closely related postings appeared over three newsgroups
(I had only intended 2) over the space of almost three weeks.  The rules
were followed perfectly, and their application had removed much of the
value of the posting and confused a lot of people.

NEXT TIME, I'll "just say no" to moderation, and post the whole thing
in the relevant newsgroup (misc.wanted or rec.bicycles).  Any flames
about the appropriateness of putting programs in those newsgroups
will go straight to ramdisk to be read next week   :-)

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|    Dave Tutelman						|
|    Physical - AT&T  -  Lincroft, NJ				|
|    Logical -  ...ihnp4!mtuxo!mtunb!dmt			|
|    Audible -  (201) 576 2442					|
+---------------------------------------------------------------+