🚀 go-pugleaf

Mark Roberts wrote:
> For your newsgroups file:
> ba.broadcast.moderated          Bay Area TV/Radio issues.  (Moderated)
> 
> 
> From the original 1992 ba.broadcast charter by Eliot Lear
> <lear@yeager.corp.sgi.com>:
> 
> "This group is here for discussions, comments and program reminders
> about broadcast media in the San Francisco Bay Area, both radio and
> television.  It also includes cable systems and TVRO/BCRO in the SF
> Bay Area.  It does not include scanner, ham radio or other action
> here in the SF Bay Area; these may be addressed in another
> newsgroup at another time.  Issues of national interest should be
> posted to one of the groups in rec.arts.tv or rec.radio."
> 
> 
> Proposed 2009 updates to original ba.broadcast charter for
> ba.broadcast.moderated:
> 
> The purpose of the newsgroup is to discuss the practice of
> broadcasting, including programming, sales and management,
> engineering, broadcast technology, and emerging trends and
> technologies in broadcasting and related media.
> 
> This group is intended as a moderated alternative to the existing
> newsgroup ba.broadcast.  Moderation will be utilized to enforce
> civil tone and on-topic content, including rejection of
> inappropriate articles, and closing of existing threads if they
> become sufficiently uncivil or off-topic.  Uncivil tone includes
> insults, name-calling, and other ad-hominem attacks.  Off-topic
> content includes that not reasonably related to the practice of
> broadcasting in the Bay Area.  For example, articles that discuss
> how a radio host runs his or her show would be considered on-topic.
> Articles that are entirely about the contents of radio or TV shows
> (except in those instances where the subject matter is actually
> about radio or TV) would be considered off-topic.  Such articles
> should instead be submitted to alternative forums.
> 
> In addition, the following are prohibited:
> 
>  * Chain letters.
>  * Posts in HTML.
>  * SPAM.
>  * Binaries, apart from PGP signatures, X-Face headers, and other
>    ancillary article meta-data.
>  * Forgery of valid e-mail addresses.
>  * Excessive morphing/nym-shifting.
>  * Copyright violations.  Pointers to news articles, blogs, etc. on
>    this topic are welcome but are required to comply with fair use
>    standards.
>  * Personal attacks and flames, as defined by the moderation team.
>  * Links to "objectionable" web content, including pornographic sites,
>    sites encouraging illegal activities, or sites deemed unacceptable
>    by the moderation team.  The moderation team will cursorily check
>    the contents of specific links to confirm on-topic content, but
>    acceptance for posting does not imply endorsement or approval of
>    the entire present or future contents of that web site.
>  * Discussion of moderation decisions.  See below for information
>    on appealing moderator action.
> 
> Summary of Discussion:
> 
> Discussion in both ba.config and ba.broadcast brought forth the
> following arguments for and against the creation of
> ba.broadcast.moderated:
> 
> FOR:
> * Absence of personal attacks on individual posters
> * Posts would be more likely to be on-topic
> * Fewer off-topic posts (a/k/a "noise") would appear
> * More professionals working in the business will participate in
>   the moderated newsgroup
> 
> AGAINST:
> * Concern that a moderator would use the moderated newsgroup to
>   answer criticism made in the unmoderated newsgroup
> * Censorship
> 
> Straw Poll:
> 
> FOR:
> Angie Coiro <angiecoiro@yahoo.com>
> Copie <copieco@hotmail.com
> John Higdon <higgy@kome.com>
> Phil Kane <phil.kane@nov.shmovz.ka.pop>
> David Kaye <sfdavidkaye@yahoo.com
> Patty Winter <patty1@wintertime.com>
> Mark Roberts <babcast@cosmos-monitor.com>
> Paul W. Schleck <pschleck@novia.net>
> Stratum101 <j.collier@cross-comp.com>
> Mike Ward <mward@iname-remove-this-part.com>
>   
> AGAINST:
> Bozo <Bozo_De_Niro@37.com>
> Colonel Jake <SergeantYork@comcast.net>
> Nomen Nescio <nobody@dizum.com> (footnote #1)
> 
> Footnote:
> 1: as expressed in ba.broadcast
> 
> Implementation and management of this new newsgroup:
> 
> If approved by the readership, the new newsgroup will be created by
> a standard, PGP-signed, Usenet newgroup control message sent by the
> Bay-Area Managed Hierarchy (ba.*) Administrator, Ron Escheverri:
> 
> http://usenet.trigofacile.com/hierarchies/index.py?see=BA
> 
> Usenet sites that accept such control messages automatically will
> create the newsgroup immediately.  Readers at other sites are
> requested to ask their local administrators to create the new
> newsgroup manually after the newgroup control message is posted.
> The moderation team will be available to assist with this.
> 
> In order to minimize duplication of articles, and encourage wider
> propagation of the new moderated newsgroup, simultaneous
> crossposting between ba.broadcast and ba.broadcast.moderated will
> be encouraged.
> 
> Participation in this simultaneous crossposting scheme is
> completely voluntary.  Posters of initial articles in threads will
> make the voluntary choice to add ba.broadcast.moderated and one
> other unmoderated newsgroup to the Newsgroups line when posting.
> Those following up to these crossposted threads will make a
> voluntary choice whether to keep ba.broadcast.moderated or any
> other newsgroup on the Newsgroups line, or remove them.  Followups
> may be directed by default to any subset of the newsgroups on the
> Newsgroups line (or via E-mail to "poster") by specifying them on
> an appropriate Followup-To line.  In short, the readers will
> control what they post, where they post it, and what default
> destinations they want for any followups.  This proposed
> crossposting scheme does not change any of these long-standing
> features of Usenet and newsreader software.
> 
> The ba.broadcast.moderated moderation team will use the Secure,
> Team-Based Usenet Moderation Program (STUMP) to manage the
> newsgroup:
> 
> http://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/stump/
> 
> To reduce the risks of technical problems and delayed or lost
> articles during this proposed newsgroup's startup, the moderation
> team will set up initial moderation services at Public-Access
> Internet and Unix, New York City (Panix):
> 
> http://www.panix.com
> 
> for the cost of $100/year.  Panix already hosts several other
> Usenet newsgroup moderation teams running STUMP. Members of the
> consultation team below will assist with this initial installation.
> 
> Services in the Bay area were evaluated, but the team felt that
> they could not be stood up quickly enough, offer necessary
> technical features such as installed software tools and web site
> hosting like Panix, be cost-competitive with Panix, be as reliable
> as Panix, or offer technical support as responsive as Panix.
> Starting up at Panix for the first year will give us 12 months of
> breathing room, and a reliable backup, while we continue to seek
> out and evaluate Bay-area alternatives for moderation software
> hosting.  Further suggestions about reliable Unix-shell Internet
> account services in the Bay area that could meet our technical
> requirements and budget would be welcome.
> 
> The STUMP robot (or "'bot") will scan all submitted posts.  Each
> post will be either automatically approved, rejected, or sent to
> the moderators for manual review.  The moderator 'bot will enforce
> the following guidelines:
> 
>  * Postings must be in plain text. In particular no HTML or mixed text
>    and HTML posts will be allowed.  Messages that are
>    multipart/alternative will be automatically filtered to pass just
>    the text/plain version to the newsgroup.
> 
>  * No binary postings of any sort will be accepted.  Exceptions will be
>    made for cryptographic signatures and such.
> 
>  * Messages must not continue a thread that has been "closed" by the
>    moderators.
> 
> Posts rejected by the bot or by a moderator will be returned to the
> poster via e-mail. Moderators may at their option include an
> explanation for rejection of the post.
> 
> Individual posters may be temporarily banned for consistently
> violating the group charter.  Posters who feel that their posts
> have been unfairly rejected or banned, either for specific content
> or by a specific moderator, may appeal the decision.  They may do
> so by writing the moderation team at the Administrative Contact
> address below.  The moderation team will discuss and vote on the
> appeal and respond within 14 days if the appeal is successful.  The
> moderation team will also reply within 14 days to unsuccessful
> submitters of any appeal that is on-topic, reasoned, civilly stated, 
> and is not substantially an attempt to revisit the subject matter and
> arguments of a previous unsuccessful appeal.
> 
> Multiple temporary bans, attempting to circumvent the ban, or abuse
> of the appeal system may result in a permanent ban.
> 
> 
> Initial Moderation Team:
> 
> Patty Winter <patty1@wintertime.com>
> Mark Roberts <babcast@cosmos-monitor.com>
> John Higdon  <higgy@kome.com>
> 
> 
> Temporary Volunteer Moderators:
> 
> (These temporary volunteers have agreed to serve for the first 6-12
> months of the newsgroup's life, during which time a list of
> pre-approved or "white-listed" users will be built based on
> approved submissions, and additional moderators will be recruited
> from the Bay-Area broadcast community.)
> 
> Steve Bonine <spb@pobox.com> (Moderator of news.groups.proposals)
> Kathy Morgan <kmorgan@aptalaska.net> (Co-Chair of Big-8 Board)
> 
> 
> Consultants:
> 
> Paul W. Schleck <pschleck@novia.net>
> Phil Kane       <phil.kane@nov.shmovz.ka.pop>
> 
> 
> Article Submissions:      ba-broadcast-moderated@panix.com
> Administrative Contact:   ba-broadcast-moderated-request@panix.com
> 
> 
> Proponent:
> 
> Mark Roberts <babcast@cosmos-monitor.com>
> 
> 
> Change History:
> 
> 2009-05-30     1st RFD
> 2009-06-10     Posted to ba.broadcast and ba.config
> 2009-06-13     Reposted to ba.broadcast and ba.config due to an effort
>                by "Colonel Jake", SergeantYork@comcast.net, to cancel the post
> 2009-06-17     2nd RFD/Last Call for Comments

I'll just say good luck on keeping the moderated newsgroup alive.  Just 
about all the moderated newsgroup I knew of died a slow death because 
the moderators move on with the lives (or literally die off) and there's 
no one left to fill their shoes.

In that vein, I think the three member initial moderation team is just 
too small.  It would be wise to add at least two more people to the 
moderation team.  I could easily see two of the three moderators being 
off-line on vacation or on business at the same time, leaving the third 
moderator overwhelmed.

I think having five moderators would be the minimum I would start out with.


- Peter