SOME ITEMs from another AOLamer

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine_at_idirect.com>
Date: Sun Feb 3 10:47:07 2002

>John Lawson wrote:

> On Sat, 2 Feb 2002, Sellam Ismail wrote:
> > On Sat, 2 Feb 2002, Stan Sieler wrote:
> > > I don't mind a smattering of off-topic posts ... almost weekly, I
> > > point people with questions about classic computers (or with
> > > classic hardware they want to get rid of) to this list
> > True, but everytime I've suggested moderating the list in the past it's
> > always run up against the Chicken Little's who claim the sky will fall.
> I think Sellam has a great point here, the more I think about it, that
> non-subscriber posts perhaps should be routed to a moderator for a quick
> scan before forwarding to the List or dev/nul as appropriate. I don't
> think anyone would have a problem with this, since there doesn't seem to
> be much of a grey area in what is Junque and what is junk. Also, there
> really aren't much of the objectionable posts appearing, so it's not like
> it's going to be a career move to act as a Screener.

Jerome Fine replies:

(a) Just how many posts are there from non-subscribers each week -
I doubt there are very many since most who is interested in sharing
also is a member of the list.

(b) Does it matter if it takes a day or two to be monitored?

> But: folks now need to step up and agree to take on the SpaModerator
> job. I don't mind doing it as time permits, although there would be
> intervals of a few days when I would be unavailable...

Perhaps a couple of moderators would be helpful. Maybe even one for
each day of the week.

> This might be one way to keep the List available to the non-subscribers
> who have Stuff of Interest, and keep the intrusions to a minimum.

I can't see it being a difficult job time wise if the numbers are low.

> I'm wondering what other's opinions, and the feelings of Jay West,
> might be on this Topic??
> Cheers
> John

One alternative method INSTEAD of moderating for the short term is
to identify ALL incoming which are NOT from a subscriber in some
special manner. That way, if some individuals want to filter just those
messages, that would be very easy. If that works, then it may not be
a problem at all!

I hope this was short enough!
Received on Sun Feb 03 2002 - 10:47:07 GMT