Talk: Net Cops :P

Daniel Au (dca...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu) wrote:

: Ack!  I got busted by a self proclaimed 'Net Cop' via net mail for posting an
: 8 line sig in another newsgroup.  He was nice about it, giving me a compliment

[snip-snip-snip]

    Just a few questions (I don't think this article will go through, as 
well as some previous postings, but anyway): 

    -- Who moderates this newsgroup?

    -- Why is the newsgroup moderated?

    -- What are the guidelines for moderation (no answers in the FAQ)?

    -- Isn't this just another example of 'netcoppism'?

-- 
***************da...@herbie.unl.edu*     """""     All mistakes made 
* Damear Dadabayev,		 *    ( 0 0 )    above are solely
* University of Nebraska-Lincoln *       "       mine!
**********************************       ~	 (c)Dam!-'95. :)

nPOCTO KPbICMAH <da...@herbie.unl.edu> wrote:
>
>Daniel Au (dca...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu) wrote:
>
>: Ack!  I got busted by a self proclaimed 'Net Cop' via net mail for 
>: posting an 8 line sig in another newsgroup.  He was nice about it, 
>: giving me a compliment
>
>[snip-snip-snip]
>
>    Just a few questions (I don't think this article will go through, as 
>well as some previous postings, but anyway): 

   Don't worry, you keep practicing your posting and I know you'll get 
better.

>    -- Who moderates this newsgroup?

   We're not exactly sure but we think it moderated by an old gray beared 
guy who lives in a hollow tree.

>    -- Why is the newsgroup moderated?

   He lost a bet.

>    -- What are the guidelines for moderation (no answers in the FAQ)?

   The guidelines are kept in a mayonaise jar on Funk & Wagnell's back 
porch.  Nobody knows them, but in the moderator's mystical and borderline 
devine way, he knows what they are without having seen them.

>    -- Isn't this just another example of 'netcoppism'?

   Probably, but we think he's dead now and all articles just go through 
automatically, so nobody cares.  It's like voting in Chicago.

--
 .        +      '       .          * .         .     '  )      . +    .
   . ____   _____  ___ .    _____ .  _____    '   .+          .  *  '.
 *  /___/  /____/ /__ \ '  /___  \ '/____/  .   *     ' .   +       .    '+
' . __  + __'   . __| |.* ____/ /  ____'   '     +     .           .'
.'  \ \' / /  . ,/,/| | ./ _  _/. / __/ ' .    '   .  +   :    '    .   *
'____) )/ /__ ,/ /__| | / / \ \  / /__' _____  _____    _______' __  __  __
/_____//____//________|/_/  /_/'/____/ /____/ /___  \ '/ ___  /./ /'/ /./ /
'   .+          . *     '     .   :   __ . + ____/ /. / /. / / / / / / / /.
  .   '     *  .     +   '  .       */ /.  '/ _  _/  / /'*/ /'/ /./ /*/ /. '
.      '  (     .  '      :      +  / /__  / / \ \'./ /__/ / / /_/ /_/ / + '
  '.         .+      .'    *    ' ./____/ /_/  /_/ /______/+/_________/ .'
  .   *     ' .   '       .    '+ .      '   *    .  '      (     +  '.  :

In article nk...@gagme.wwa.com, cru...@iastate.edu (Joe Yong) writes:

[snipped post]

>	Well, I really don't care much for 'net cop' wannabes, heck, I work for
>the campus cops. However, in most newsgroups, especially those where discussions
>are often quite serious (for whatever reason), readers don't appreciate long
>sigs. It does take up unnecessary disk space on news servers and the long term
>effect is, the administrators cutting down on the number of days articles are
>held due to lack of space. That's why we have newsgroups like this one,
>dedicated to those gifted with creativity and/or a lotta patience.
>
>
>Joe Yong.
>

It has been my experience on the net that far more server space is wasted
on eight screensfulls of flame bait, or other unnecessary content, for a 
two line "Up yours" reply than all the five to ten line .sigs could ever 
hog.  Seems to me the .sigs are the least of the problems.  So how are
the net cops going to deal with the commercial junk mail?  Lets hope this
type of admin person busts an artery with frustration and just go away. 
Not all admin people have personal "agendas" like this.  

At least the .sigs tend to be more creative/informative than the posts I 
just described.  My .sig is a little long, but for some groups, I trim it to
six lines.  If the net cops can't handle that, they can just go cry over it.
For me it's a safety issue.  If I cut it to four lines, how the heck am I 
going to land my plane?  ;-)

     |    _    |     ()~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~()     |    _    |
    _|___/v\___|_    []     Richard M. Odom     []    _|___/v\___|_
-===(~)=(.*.)=(~)===-[] ALCATEL NETWORK SYSTEMS []-===(~)=(.*.)=(~)===-
         `-'         []      Raleigh, N.C.      []    '|`  '|`  '|`
       	             []   odo...@aur.alcatel.com  []     0    o    0
                     []   AMA 67904/IMAA 15477  []
                     ()~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~()
                    "R/C modelers do it everywhere."
                    (Air, Land, Water, Outer Space) 
  

R. M. Odom:
> It has been my experience on the net that far more server space is wasted
> on eight screensfulls of flame bait, or other unnecessary content, for a 
> two line "Up yours" reply than all the five to ten line .sigs could ever 
> hog.

umm, have you actually measured this?  if not, then please excuse me
for being a little skeptical.  useless reposts are one-shot deals.
signatures are a _systematic_ use of bandwidth.  your sig is 556 chars
in a 2408 char article, about 25% of your article.

last time I tried measuring this stuff, sometime in 1990, signatures
totalled only 4% of the disk space.

sigh.  I remember the good old days when I tried to convince people
that the Organization header was a waste of bandwidth because it's
often a) wrong; b) obvious from the return address; c) duplicated in
the signature.

oh well.  it's almost time to move the local news server to a machine
with more disk space anyway..
--

In article mt...@gagme.wwa.com, fle...@cse.psu.edu (Felix Lee) writes:

[my original post snipped to conserve bandwidth]

>umm, have you actually measured this?  if not, then please excuse me
>for being a little skeptical.  useless reposts are one-shot deals.
>signatures are a _systematic_ use of bandwidth.  your sig is 556 chars
>in a 2408 char article, about 25% of your article.

[some of your post snipped for the same reason]

No, I am not usually involved in admin work.  I have no way to check 
out our news server, nor do I really want to.  I'm not a net.cop. 

I see lots of long posts repeated in its entirety by many posters 
during long threads.

The point I was attempting make was that if you take a daily count of
the text on your server vs the text used just for the .sigs, I *think* 
you will see that the average for the .sigs is very low.  I agree with 
you that my post had a long .sig for the amount I posted.  But it is 
not always the same anyway.  I have many .sigs that I use.

Any post that does not contribute something you personally consider to
be useful may be construed by you to be "wasted bandwidth" - if you 
have a net cop mentality.  Others would not necessarily agree with 
your position.  Some would consider certain usenet groups a complete
waste of resources.  To each her/his/its own.  I just think .sigs are 
a minor issue compared to drive-by flamebaiters and people who crosspost
the same posts to ten or twelve groups.  No insult or flames intended
in this opinion.  My last post on the subject.  Back to lurking for
info.

signed - no .sig this time