> Moderating the newsgroup would be, IMHO, the kiss of death.
For what?
> First, it would cut back on the flow of information. If someone
> asks a question that has been asked before, so what? It gets answered
> again, and new people can read the response.
And old people have to read and evaluate the message before discarding
it. In addition, the ease of joining the group seems to produce really
dumb questions. Presumably, one of the functions of a moderator would
be to periodically post an FAQ, or pointer to one. A nice moderator
might also respond to information requests reflexively without involving
the entire readership.
> Second, it would make the language look less popular, and may turn
> off people. If you joined comp.os.foobar and saw 3 or 5 messages,
> would you think it was any good?
Personally, I think that losing people who would be turned off by such a
superficial indicator is a Good Thing.
> Third, it would cut response time on requests for help. VERY
> important IMHO.
Yes, that's why I think a mailing list would work better.
> Fourth, the traffic probably won't be that bad anyway, so what
> would be the point? And if it is - great! I want to see lots
> of postings, signs of growing popularity.
I fail to understand the popular modern sentiment that correlates
popularity and virtue. I'd prefer to see few postings, with interesting
topics or questions.
> And last - does anyone *really* want to moderate a newsgroup? Our
> time would be better spent writing modules and improving the
> language than approving messages.
Agreed. But better one person wastes time filtering messages than all
of us. I think a mailing list does a better job of filtering interest,
with less moderation time. Of course, Guido may have different views on
the matter :-).
Bill