• 2nd RFD: misc.writing.screenplays.moderated (remove)

    From Kathy Morgan@21:1/5 to Paul W. Schleck on Mon Aug 10 14:53:48 2015
    Paul W. Schleck <pschleck@novia.net> wrote:

    In my opinion, Big-8 Board rules and generally accepted Usenet customs
    would appear to discourage overruling a moderator's prerogative over
    their newsgroup. However well-meaning and sincere a third party's
    offer to take over the moderation of newsgroup would be, I would
    hesitate to vote for that option unless there was either one, or both,
    of the following conditions met:

    - The former moderator gave his consent to the transfer of
    moderatorship.

    Garbage! This is a case of a moderator threatening to shut down the
    group 15 months ago, changing his mind and continuing it, and then after failing to clean up the spam in the group, he shut it down 3 weeks ago
    with no further notice or warning in the group and prior to the posting
    of the RFD.

    - The readership strongly wanted to continue the newsgroup and had
    concrete plans to do so, including one or more replacement
    moderators (this could include endorsing you as a replacement
    moderator).

    This, on the other hand, is a legitimate argument. If there is a
    readership that wants to use the group, they should be able to endorse
    or reject a proposed moderator (in this case, me). With traffic as low
    in the cesspool of a group as it has been over the past year, any
    readership probably only checks in once or twice a month, so it may take
    a while for anyone to notice the RFD.

    It's also quite possible that there is no longer any readership, in
    which case the group should be removed. Just don't be in an indecent
    rush to remove it. The fact that those who have moved to Facebook are
    no longer interested in the Usenet group does not necessarily mean that
    no one is interested in it.

    --
    Kathy

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  • From Kathy Morgan@21:1/5 to board@big-8.org on Sat Aug 8 08:07:30 2015
    Big 8 Management Board <board@big-8.org> wrote:

    2nd REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
    moderated group misc.writing.screenplays.moderated (remove)

    This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) to remove the moderated newsgroup misc.writing.screenplays.moderated.

    NEWSGROUPS LINE:
    misc.writing.screenplays.moderated Craft/business of screenwriting. (Moderated)

    RATIONALE FOR REMOVAL:

    Over the past few years many of the posters to misc.writing.screenplays.moderated have moved to a FaceBook group. The moderator feels that there is no longer sufficient interest in the
    newsgroup so it should be removed. This RFD is to determine whether
    there is, in fact, enough interest to retain the group plus a qualified volunteer who wishes to take over the moderation.

    I suspect that in order to have the interest to retain, the moderation absolutely has to get rid of the spam so that worthwhile posts can be
    found.

    I am hereby volunteering to take over the moderation, using the Robomod moderation platform hosted by Brian Edmonds. I would have volunteered
    sooner, but I needed to make sure first that Brian would be willing to
    host the group. He is willing to do so, and Robomod is a proven
    successful platform.

    To be qualified, the volunteer should be acceptable to the community intending to use misc.writing.screenplays.moderated and have the
    technical knowledge to be able to perform the moderation duties.

    I currently moderate or co-moderate a number of groups, most of which
    are mostly dead now due to lack of submissions but have been active in
    the past. These include:

    news.newusers.questions, hosted on HuHu
    news.announce.newusers
    news.admin.net-abuse.policy, hosted on Robomod
    news.groups.proposals, using WebSTUMP hosted by Jonathan Kamens
    news.admin.moderation, using WebSTUMP hosted on Panix by B8MB
    comp.software.shareware.authors, hosted on Robomod
    comp.software.shareware.announce, hosted on Robomod

    Note: The group is currently shows a great deal of Usenet and Email
    spam. A candidate to take over the moderation should, in addition to
    the moderation policy listed in the charter below, plan to use implement measures to reduce/eliminate the spam.

    I totally agree! The spam is inexcusable and has got to go! Robomod uses
    Bayes filters which are extremely effective. There is almost none that
    makes it past the filters for me to reject for the three groups that I
    already moderate using Robomod.

    In fact, I would expect that at first there will be a number of false positives, causing messages to be rejected that should be posted. (I
    suspect some of the screen play excerpts that regulars have posted in
    the past would trigger spam filters.)

    I would plan to work with the regulars in mwsm to re-train the filters
    as needed to make sure their posts get through or develop some kind of
    "token" that helps posts get to me.

    misc.writing.screenplays.moderated will probably continue to be very low volume, and maybe this is an exercise in futility, but I'd like to give
    it a try.

    If you are a current or previous poster to
    misc.writing.screenplays.moderated and would like for me to try to save
    mwsm by taking over the moderation, please followup to this in news.groups.proposals to let the Big 8 Management Board know. They will
    be voting on this RFD, and if there doesn't appear to be support for
    continuing the group with me as moderator, it will almost certainly be
    removed.

    --
    Kathy Morgan
    cc'd in email to some of the prior mwsm supporters, in case you missed
    the RFD in the group

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  • From Paul W. Schleck@21:1/5 to Kathy Morgan on Sun Aug 9 15:09:45 2015
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    In <1m8t6es.zvcpvu5hcftdN%kmorgan@spamcop.net> kmorgan@spamcop.net (Kathy Morgan) writes:

    Big 8 Management Board <board@big-8.org> wrote:

    2nd REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
    moderated group misc.writing.screenplays.moderated (remove)

    This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) to remove the moderated
    newsgroup misc.writing.screenplays.moderated.

    NEWSGROUPS LINE:
    misc.writing.screenplays.moderated Craft/business of screenwriting.
    (Moderated)

    RATIONALE FOR REMOVAL:

    Over the past few years many of the posters to
    misc.writing.screenplays.moderated have moved to a FaceBook group. The
    moderator feels that there is no longer sufficient interest in the
    newsgroup so it should be removed. This RFD is to determine whether
    there is, in fact, enough interest to retain the group plus a qualified
    volunteer who wishes to take over the moderation.

    I suspect that in order to have the interest to retain, the moderation >absolutely has to get rid of the spam so that worthwhile posts can be
    found.

    I am hereby volunteering to take over the moderation, using the Robomod >moderation platform hosted by Brian Edmonds. I would have volunteered >sooner, but I needed to make sure first that Brian would be willing to
    host the group. He is willing to do so, and Robomod is a proven
    successful platform.

    Kathy,

    Thank you for your generous offer to take over moderation of misc.writing.screenplays.moderated. As you are an experienced former
    Board member, long-time moderator of multiple newsgroups, and with
    access to a working moderation bot provided by Brian Edmonds, this is
    certainly a credible offer to be seriously considered.

    Unfortunately, whatever support for transferring moderation and
    continuing the newsgroup that was expressed by the former moderator
    and the newsgroup's readership back in May of 2014 appears to have
    disappeared today. The newsgroup's former moderator and readership
    also appear to have since decamped to the "MWS" Facebook page to
    continue on-topic discussion there.

    In my opinion, Big-8 Board rules and generally accepted Usenet customs
    would appear to discourage overruling a moderator's prerogative over
    their newsgroup. However well-meaning and sincere a third party's
    offer to take over the moderation of newsgroup would be, I would
    hesitate to vote for that option unless there was either one, or both,
    of the following conditions met:

    - The former moderator gave his consent to the transfer of
    moderatorship.

    - The readership strongly wanted to continue the newsgroup and had
    concrete plans to do so, including one or more replacement
    moderators (this could include endorsing you as a replacement
    moderator). In short, if a moderator's requested rmgroup would
    likely be immediately followed by an RFD and newgroup to reinstate
    the newsgroup, it would appear to be sensible to jut allow the new
    moderator(s) to immediately take over, even over the objections of
    the former moderator, and not make the Usenet readership and news
    server network suffer through unnecessary bureaucratic process and
    control message whiplash.

    Right now we do not have either of these conditions met. These
    conditions can arguably only be met by posts to Usenet, including news.groups.proposals, and not Facebook or private e-mail.

    I would recommend that any supporters of retaining the newsgroup,
    possibly appointing you replacement moderator, make their intentions
    known via posts to Usenet newsgroups, and in the next week or so
    before the Last Call for Comments is published.

    - --
    Paul W. Schleck
    pschleck@novia.net
    http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
    Finger pschleck@novia.net for PGP Public Key

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