Re: Moderation

[nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu (Neil Parker)]

In article <4sgdin$r3q@pink.lm.com> mportune@telerama.lm.com (Matt Portune)
writes:
>It sounds like a good idea, although I have only 1 concern, which was 
>mentioned by Nathan and Joe awhile back.  How long will it take for a 
>posted message to actually be posted?  At times (like my recent RamFAST 
>death) I HEAVILY rely on instant replies after posting my problem.  And 
>for the most part, I usually get pretty quick replies!  Wouldn't 
>moderation completely end that advantage?  That would NOT be cool. :(

With moderating software like what Nathan Mates has described, this won't
be a problem (at least for frequent posters), unless the moderator's
computer crashes (in which case nobody will be able to post until somebody
at the moderator's site notices the problem and reboots the machine).

My own worries about moderation are more philosophical.  Flame wars, after
all, *do* eventually die.  How does the expected lifespan of the current
flamage compare to the time it takes to go through the call for comments,
the calls for votes, etc., for creating a moderated newsgroup?  In other
words, by the time comp.sys.apple2.moderated finally comes into being, what
are the chances that the causes for its creation will be long gone?  And
do new flame wars erupt often enough to justify the moderated group's
existance even after the current flame war is gone?

>I wish people would just respect what they had, and not clutter the news 
>group with flames and fights.  If they would just keep in mind that all 
>the people here are here for the Apple II, and to take personal sqibbles 
>to e-mail, this wouldn't happen.  Again, I say, the only reason all of it 
>is public is to gain personal attention, or to publicly defend one's 
>self.  To tell you the truth, nobody needs to defend themselves.  

On the contrary...history shows that even when people know for a fact that
a charge against you is ridiculous, they still need to hear you say so, and
if you keep silent, they may start to believe the charge.  (US readers will
recall the Willie Horton ads from the 1988 presidential election campaign,
and how Dukakis's failure to respond to them damaged his campaign.)

But such defenses are how flame wars get perpetuated.  Posting a defense
that doesn't escalate a flame war is a subtle art.  The only effective
examples I've seen were defenses that didn't betray even the slightest hint
of anger on the poster's part.  Humor definitely helps (but you have to be
careful to laugh only at the attack itself, not at the attacker).  Teflon
is an attitude; acquiring it takes practice.

By this criterion, none of the defenses posted recently in this newsgroup
qualify as effective.  Most of them, in fact, left the poster looking worse
than before.

>Seriously, this newsgroup is small enough, that we all know who 
>puiblishes what, who programs what, who is qualified, etc.  Nobody cares 
>about anything else besides keeping the II alive.  It's the productivity 
>that counts, not whether or not somebody dislikes somebody else.

I second that final sentiment.  As I posted during a similar flame war last
year, I read this newsgroup to keep informed about what other Apple II
users are doing with their machines.  I don't read it because I care what
Nathan Mates and Charles Turley think about each other.  Quite the
opposite, in fact:  I don't give a d*mn what they think about each other,
and I urge both of them, as well as anybody else who's posted on one side
or the other of this (non-)issue, to shut up and stop subjecting us
innocent bystanders to this torture.

(Some of the posts in this thread have been so bad that I've started to
wonder if I should go the hospital and get myself vaccinated for rabies, to
guard against the possibility that the disease can be transmitted
electronically.)

                    - Neil Parker
-- 
Neil Parker --==-- nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu --==-- nparker@cie.uoregon.edu
Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies:  As an online discussion grows longer, the
probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
     -- Mike Godwin