Re: FAQ: New to alt.ascii-art? Read me first!

Andreas Freise (ad...@mpq.mpg.de) wrote:

>Colin Douthwaite wrote:

>> 11  What happened to rec.arts.ascii?
>> ====================================
>[snip]
>> In the case of rec.arts.ascii, the moderator was Bob Allison (otherwise
>> known as `Scarecrow'), and he retired from the job in November 1993.
>> That's why there aren't any messages in the newsgroup any more.

>> *********************
>> On Tue, 25 Nov 1997  ber...@netcom.com (Don Bertino) announced
>> that he was returning for a second term as moderator of the
>> rec.arts.ascii newsgroup which is now back on line.
>> *********************
>
>There we have it. Colin, I believe that you got the numbers wrong
>here. Do you mind using the following instead?
>
>
>       In the case of rec.arts.ascii, the moderator was Bob Allison (otherwise
>       known as `Scarecrow'), and he retired from the job in June 1996. The
>       newsgroup was inactive from December 1996 until November 1997. Don Bertino
>       (ber...@netcom.com) is at the helm as moderator. Post away.
>
>(Or at least change the 'November 1993' to the correct date, please!!)
>The above is the version Joan and I use on our sites.


I have been very reluctant to modify the new FAQ in any way in the 
absence of, and without permission of its original author. So I 
simply added the comment about Don Bertino's (unexpected) resumption 
of the moderator duties for rec.arts.ascii which happened after the 
FAQ author had departed on vacation.  

( You probably also noticed that I left the FAQ author's footnote 
  about going on vacation till 1998 in the FAQ version that I posted.) 


You are correct about the 1993 date error in the original FAQ.


My chronology of events is:

|  The unmoderated newsgroup, alt.ascii-art, was created by Joel Furr
|  in September 1993.

|  The moderated newsgroup, rec.arts.ascii, was created in June 1994
|  with Bob Allison ( Scarecrow ) as Moderator.

|  In July 1996 Don Bertino took over as Moderator of rec.arts.ascii
|  with Allen Mullen as deputy moderator.

|  On 23 Dec 1996 the last posting from the moderator, Don Bertino,
|  appeared in rec.arts.ascii and since that date the newsgroup has
|  had no traffic.

| On 25 Nov 1997  Don Bertino announced, in rec.arts.ascii, that he 
| was resuming duties as moderator of the rec.arts.ascii newsgroup 
| and so traffic in rec.arts.ascii resumed on that date.  


Here is Don Bertino's announcement which was posted only to
the rec.arts.ascii newsgroup and may not have been seen by
readers of alt.ascii-art:

====================================================================
Newsgroups: rec.arts.ascii
From: ber...@netcom.com (Don Bertino)
Subject: ADMIN: rec.arts.ascii back online
Message-ID: <ber...@netcom.com>
Sender: ber...@netcom15.netcom.com
Organization: Netcom On-Line Services
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 06:29:28 GMT
Approved: ber...@netcom.com

Yes, rec,arts.ascii is alive and kicking.  My apologies for letting 
in go to the shape it is in today.  I will work hard to get back to 
the point Bob A. had it.  

So without much more ado.....  Here are the backlog of articles. A 
few at a time.  

don
--
ber...@netcom.com      ____/^\_____________________________________      
Disney ascii art &    / \              || FDC  MCP ||              / \   
animations are at  <______\   [] [] [] || [] [] [] || [] [] []   /______>
http://www.calweb.com \----------------||----------||----------------/===
/~bertino===============\______________||__________||______________/=====

=========================================================================


Now that Krogg is posting the FAQ to the newsgroups regularly I may 
just omit posting the new FAQ and post the "ancient" FAQs once a month. 

It is always preferable if the FAQ Author/Maintainer posts the FAQ and 
its updates, but it does not really matter who does the regular 
postings.  I posted the old FAQs because the original authors/maintainers 
no longer posted them.  


Please understand that any postings I make are not "official postings" 
because this newsgroup, alt.ascii-art, is unmoderated and 
no one holds office or controls what gets posted. Conversely, 
moderators of moderated newsgroups have total jurisdiction on what 
is posted.  

Curiously though...articles _crossposted_ to alt.ascii-art _AND_ 
to rec.arts.ascii first go to the Moderator of rec.arts.ascii and the 
article will only appear in the unmoderated alt.ascii-art newsgroup
if the rec.arts.ascii moderator approves the article. 

Moderated newsgroups take preference on crossposted articles and a 
moderator has no obligation to inform posters that their article is
not acceptable. If the article is rejected it will not appear in
any of the crossposted newsgroups. If crossposts include more than
one moderated newsgroup then the first moderator to receive it 
decides its fate...he does not have to pass it along.

In my view the Usenet Moderation System is a complete lulu and I never 
intentionally post articles to a moderated newsgroup.  

Bye,