Re: Moderated newsgroup?

[stevee@onix.com]

Over the years, there have been several threads like this one on the
possibility of a moderated csa2.  For whatever reasons, there still
is not a moderated newsgroup.  So, for what it's worth, here's
another idea which, if implemented, would make the implementer and
even the Apple II famous throughout the net.  Most of this idea comes
from something I read in InfoWorld a while back, except that the
InfoWorld column implied that this was for the future, while I think
that one gifted programmer with a good unlimited hours ISP, a decent
but old computer lying around unused, and a dedicated phone line
could set it up right now.  And, in the long term at least, the
amount of work for that programmer might be way less than if that
person was a moderator.

The first part of the idea is that whenever a post is read, the
reader has the option of rating the value of the post from 1 to 5.
The second part of the idea is that readers can easily set kill
criteria to filter out any post until it gets to a certain ratings
profile, or until one of the inveterate newsgroup readers whom you
respect gives that post a high enough rating.  For example, I might
specify a list of participating newsgroup readers who seem to read
the newsgroup quickly and indicate that if any of those people give a
post a 3 or higher, or if at least 2 readers, whomever they are, give
a post a 5, I want to read that post.

How can this be implemented with current technology and without
writing so much new code that you have to quit your day job to finish
it?  One idea is to get already existing usenet by email software
which immediately forwards to subscribers every post meeting kill
criteria.  The software used by the recently closed vigilant
Usenet-to-Email service might fit the bill, and I think that the man
who wrote the program (alas, probably requires a PC or Unix box,
although an attached Apple II could could perform some new system
services) may be willing to share his code.  Contact me if you are
seriously interested and I'll try to track down this man's current
email address.  Anyway, whatever software was used as the starting
point would have to be modified (or encapsulated with new modules
added) to make the subject of the post a unique identifying code for
that post (the actual subject could be pushed a couple characters
to the right) and to generate a new post with a rating at the bottom
whenever readers reply with a simple number 1 through 5 as the body
of the reply.  Don't take the ideas in this paragraph too literally;
obviously, the person who took on this project would be in total
control of the design and implementation.

By the way, it's out the question for me to do this myself--I don't
have the time or the programming knowledge needed to do it fairly
quickly.  But if a truly competent cross-platform C programmer
actually wanted to put together the code and host the service, I, and
I'll bet serveral other csa2 readers, would be honored to help with
requirements analysis and testing.

Steve Eisenberg   Wynnewood, Pennsylvania U.S.A.  stevee@onix.com