TALK - What a moderator deos

In article <Co3...@brunel.ac.uk>, DR J <me9...@brunel.ac.uk> wrote:
>
[3-D art and talk about it]
>
>Now for the discussion bit. I see that there has been a request for
>discussion over creating a moderated rec ascii newsgroup and I was wondering
>if somebody (i.e. you, Scarecrow!) could clarify the role of the moderator.
>
>For the time that I've been reading alt.a-a, the only letters that I haven't
>wanted to see are the 'lose money fast' ones and the occasional flame bait
>stuff that appears from time to time. Am I right in thinking that the group
>moderator would simply cut these letters out?
>
>One guy who wrote in seemed to be worried about the power exercised by the
>moderator. I'm happy as long as all the posts are vetted for relevance. The
>group is about art, so any pictures, requests or discussions about ascii art
>should be allowed in. I guess there will be some protests about taste, but
>has anybody really come across any ascii art that was tasteless or offensive?
>
>Just my 2p. (we don't use cents over here!) 

   Well, while some people have expressed views that indicate they only 
believe there are two extremes, total access no matter what the 
consequences or a dictator for a moderator who will cut out anything s/he 
doesn't like or deny access to a poster s/he doesn't like.

   There are things between these two extremes.  Good minimal moderation 
is nothing more having one person volunteer to wade through and cut out 
the same frequently asked questions and off-topic stuff.

   This is a great help to busy people and is a real saving to the Net by 
cutting wasted bandwidth.  But that's all a moderator does.  S/he doesn't 
cut out anything on topic, ond does not put "moderator's notes" within 
someone else's message.  The moderator posts like everybody else.

   Reader's should have a right to know their on topic article will be 
posted.  A moderator is not a king or queen, they are servants of the Net 
doing a job to cut waste.

   With rec.arts.ascii, there would be an estimated 100-150 posts a day.  
That's high traffic to begin with.  So you know there's going to be quite 
a number of off-topic post right away.

   And with ASCII art, there are a lot of frequently asked questions.  
How many times do you want to read 'how do I have my sig added' or 'how 
do I view an animation'  After a while it's just a waste of Net 
resources, and a waste of time for busy people.

   Because I believe in passing everything on topic, I will make a digest 
for those who cannot even handle wading through all that's left after 
cutting the FAQs and off-topic posts.

>I'll vote yes if somebody can tell me again how I go about it.

   The CFV will have simple intstruction on how to vote.

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