The Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave has been active since 1991 as a place to discuss the commercial programming language IDL (Interactive Data Language). The group has been congenial and almost entirely free of acrimony from the beginning,
although usage has dropped to about 1 post per day. Unfortunately, the past 6 months has seen an increase in completely unrelated spam, and so there has been discussion about creating a moderated group. (While the spam might not appear in all
newsreaders, it appears on Google groups, which is by far the way most users access the access it.)

Ideally, we would be able to change this group to a moderated one. Is this possible?

If we cannot change comp.lang.idl-pvwave to moderated, our second choice is to create a new moderated group comp.lang.idl-envi. (Note that comp.lang.idl is for a completely unrelated language, the Interface Definition Language).

My question is then whether the procedure for obtaining a new group in https://www.usenetserver.com/create-a-newsgroup.php is still valid. If so, I will go ahead and write an RFD .

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You are posting with VERY long lines; each paragraph is one long line.
If Google won't break your paragraphs into lines of about 72 characters
or less, you need to do it manually with a carriage return/enter after
about every 72 characters. I've had to manually rewrap all of the quoted
lines below.

<wlandsman@gmail.com> wrote:

(snip most of very long line. I don't feel like rewrapping it.) Unfortunately, the past 6 months has seen an increase in completely
unrelated spam, and so there has been discussion about creating a
moderated group. (While the spam might not appear in all newsreaders,
it appears on Google groups, which is by far the way most users access the access it.)

If that's the case, I would strongly recommend that you and others work
on learning how to use a newsreader and news server. Google is very unsatisfactory, and as you have noted they don't filter out the spam as
a good news server will.

Ideally, we would be able to change this group to a moderated one. Is
this possible?

No.

If we cannot change comp.lang.idl-pvwave to moderated, our second choice
is to create a new moderated group comp.lang.idl-envi. (Note that comp.lang.idl is for a completely unrelated language, the Interface Definition Language).

Yikes! sounds like a real naming mess. I would suggest that comp.lang.idl-pvwave.moderated would be a much better name, since it
would make clear that the new group is a companion to the existing
unmoderated group.

My question is then whether the procedure for obtaining a new group in https://www.usenetserver.com/create-a-newsgroup.php is still valid. If
so, I will go ahead and write an RFD .

No, that page is out of date. Use the information at <http://www.tokak.us/big8/articles/c/o/n/Content_and_Format_of_a_Request_for_Discussion_(RFD).html>
and <http://www.tokak.us/big8/articles/h/o/w/How_to_Create_a_New_Big-8_Newsgroup.html>.
Have you selected moderators, a moderation platform, and do your
moderators have access to a news server which will allow them to inject
the approved posts? If your users can't even use a newsreader, they may
not be able to set up moderation.

Also be aware that even if it is approved here, Google may not carry
your new group. I'm not sure if they are honoring Big 8 control
messages.

--
Kathy, member of B8MB but speaking just for myself

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Kathy Morgan <see_reply-to@invalid.net> wrote:

Also be aware that even if it is approved here, Google may not carry
your new group. I'm not sure if they are honoring Big 8 control
messages.

They were honouring group creation control messages at least as recently as December 2015, when uk.radio.amateur.moderated was created. That was uk.* rather than Big 8, but I can't imagine they'd have a problem with Big 8
control messages if they didn't with uk.*. Earlier by a little way, comp.sys.mac.vintage was created and added to GG in 2013.

--
STC / M0TEY /
http://twitter.com/ukradioamateur

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On 12/12/2017 06:32 PM, Kathy Morgan wrote:

If that's the case, I would strongly recommend that you and others work
on learning how to use a newsreader and news server. Google is very unsatisfactory, and as you have noted they don't filter out the spam as
a good news server will.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Google was fine as a
newsgroups *reader* until about 1 year ago, when it stopped taking any
action in response to use of its "Report abuse" button. I have started
using Mozilla Thunderbird with the nntp.aioe.org newsreader and
I am happy with its ability to filter out spam.

Yikes! sounds like a real naming mess. I would suggest that comp.lang.idl-pvwave.moderated would be a much better name, since it
would make clear that the new group is a companion to the existing unmoderated group.

There are reasons for removing the "pv-wave" portion of the name, but I
agree that maintaining a connection with the existing
comp.lang.idl-pvwave newsgroup (and its archive) is higher priority.

Have you selected moderators, a moderation platform, and do your
moderators have access to a news server which will allow them to inject
the approved posts? If your users can't even use a newsreader, they may
not be able to set up moderation.

I will be one moderator, and will ask for one or two volunteers once
the path to a moderated group is more clear. Most of the group
members (and me) are Linux users who are experienced with script
languages, but who never had a reason to use a newsreader. (Google
groups has the one big advantage of being automatically available on
every computer, tablet, and phone.) The description of moderation requirements in http://moleski.net/newsgroups/landfield/modtoc.html
seems straightforward, though I would appreciate pointers to more
up-to-date software or documentation.

i will phrase the moderation requirements to say that anything remotely
related to the newsgroup topic will be allowed. The only purpose of
the moderation is to filter our completely unrelated posts (e.g. about
Viagra or dating sites).

Also be aware that even if it is approved here, Google may not carry
your new group. I'm not sure if they are honoring Big 8 control
messages.

For various reasons, I am guessing that there is only a 50% chance that comp.lang.idl-pvwave-moderated will ever come to fruition, but I am
going to give it a try. --Wayne

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Stephen Thomas Cole <usenet@stephenthomascole.com> wrote:

(speaking of Google Groups)

They were honouring group creation control messages at least as recently as December 2015, when uk.radio.amateur.moderated was created. That was uk.* rather than Big 8, but I can't imagine they'd have a problem with Big 8 control messages if they didn't with uk.*.

Ah, thanks! That's good to know.

--
Kathy

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