Moderation?

How about a moderated newsgroup to get rid of the trolls?

"P. Edward Murray" wrote in message om...
How about a moderated newsgroup to get rid of the trolls?

How about some discipline by the troll feeders.

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"P. Edward Murray" wrote in message om...
How about a moderated newsgroup to get rid of the trolls?

How about some discipline by the troll feeders.

--
Hilton Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35.3"
Lat +42° 11' 06.7"
---------------------------------------------------------------
CCD Astroimaging
http://home.earthlink.net/~hiltoneva...troimaging.htm
---------------------------------------------------------------
ChemPen Chemical Structure Software
http://www.chempensoftware.com




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One of the nice things about saa is the spontaneity. Posts show up
quickly enough that a conversation can take place almost in real time.
A wonderful example of this was the last lunar eclipse, where people all
over the planet watched the show together as it went on.
I participate in at least one moderated newsgroup, (rec.guns) where
the moderator does a wonderful job, and devotes what must be an
incredible amount of time to keeping the group free of spam, trolls, and
nutballs. However, something is also lost. Posts may take a day or so
to show up. Possibly because of this, many responses are often by
personal email, so that the rest of the group often doesn't get the
entire story.
Moderation has it's place, but saa would suffer for it. Better
just to ignore the trolls, no matter how frustrating it might be. If
only there were some way to eliminate crossposted stuff...
Marty

One of the nice things about saa is the spontaneity. Posts show up
quickly enough that a conversation can take place almost in real time.
A wonderful example of this was the last lunar eclipse, where people all
over the planet watched the show together as it went on.
I participate in at least one moderated newsgroup, (rec.guns) where
the moderator does a wonderful job, and devotes what must be an
incredible amount of time to keeping the group free of spam, trolls, and
nutballs. However, something is also lost. Posts may take a day or so
to show up. Possibly because of this, many responses are often by
personal email, so that the rest of the group often doesn't get the
entire story.
Moderation has it's place, but saa would suffer for it. Better
just to ignore the trolls, no matter how frustrating it might be. If
only there were some way to eliminate crossposted stuff...
Marty

Marty wrote:
[...]
Moderation has it's place, but saa would suffer for it.

I agree, but point out that it is suffering, albeit in a different way,
from the trolls and kooks.

Better just to ignore the trolls, no matter how frustrating it might
be.

Agreed.

If only there were some way to eliminate crossposted stuff...

Killfile. I set mine to stuff X-posted to 3 or more NGs.

There is an alternative to moderation -- the one we use on uk.s.a: We
have a charter that some of us defend robustly. In retrospect, it is not
sufficiently definitive (it would be lovely if it specifically excluded
e.g. Apollo hoax crapola), and it doesn't eliminate trollery and
kookery, but the SNR is significantly higher than here, although IMO it
does not yet have the same breadth of quality that exists in the signal
over here. Anyway, the consequence of having a charter that can be
defended is that creators of regular noise can fined themselves TOSsed
by their ISPs. It doesn't deal with the scum that use anonymous
remailers to troll, and it doesn't deal with those who use ISPs that
ignore their own TOS/AUP, but I think it does make a difference and
killfiles can usually deal with these things.

Changing the charter here in order to tighten it up would be a
non-trivial exercise, but it may be more productive in the long term
than moderation or just abandoning s.a.a to the trolls, kooks and
muppets.


Best,
Stephen

Remove footfrommouth to reply

--
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ Stephen Tonkin | ATM Resources; Astro-Tutorials; Astro Books +
+ (N51.162 E0.995) | http://astunit.com +
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Marty wrote:
[...]
Moderation has it's place, but saa would suffer for it.

I agree, but point out that it is suffering, albeit in a different way,
from the trolls and kooks.

Better just to ignore the trolls, no matter how frustrating it might
be.

Agreed.

If only there were some way to eliminate crossposted stuff...

Killfile. I set mine to stuff X-posted to 3 or more NGs.

There is an alternative to moderation -- the one we use on uk.s.a: We
have a charter that some of us defend robustly. In retrospect, it is not
sufficiently definitive (it would be lovely if it specifically excluded
e.g. Apollo hoax crapola), and it doesn't eliminate trollery and
kookery, but the SNR is significantly higher than here, although IMO it
does not yet have the same breadth of quality that exists in the signal
over here. Anyway, the consequence of having a charter that can be
defended is that creators of regular noise can fined themselves TOSsed
by their ISPs. It doesn't deal with the scum that use anonymous
remailers to troll, and it doesn't deal with those who use ISPs that
ignore their own TOS/AUP, but I think it does make a difference and
killfiles can usually deal with these things.

Changing the charter here in order to tighten it up would be a
non-trivial exercise, but it may be more productive in the long term
than moderation or just abandoning s.a.a to the trolls, kooks and
muppets.


Best,
Stephen

Remove footfrommouth to reply

--
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ Stephen Tonkin | ATM Resources; Astro-Tutorials; Astro Books +
+ (N51.162 E0.995) | http://astunit.com +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

I started reading this newsgroup about 3 years ago. There were few of these
"trolls"as I recall. It is sad that about one in ten posts (or less) is a
troll now. Newcomers certainly must be turned off by reading this stuff. And
those of us who really have a true interest and passion for astronomy find
these antics obnoxious and just plain "dumb".

Whether we are beginners or advanced, we can all learn something from this
group. This is a great place to get first hand info. on new discoveries, new
equipment, etc...before we hear in the press often. Also, we kind of get a
feeling for what is happening in the field and what products are good and not
so good. The best thing is finding new friends and new resources.

Maybe it is time to have some sort of "preview" to eliminate off topic and/or
objectionable stuff. I don't favor censorship, but I don't want to waste time
on off topic and oddball stuff either. So maybe moderation is the way to
go...or maybe, as in Astromart, a rating system could be initiated. Subject
titles could be rated with a star system...objectionable entries could have a
*, off topic could be **, something like this just to alert others before they
open...maybe messages could also be flagged somehow.

Anyhow, I think Astromart has eliminated some bad fish and we need to do this
too. A rating system might be a start.

I started reading this newsgroup about 3 years ago. There were few of these
"trolls"as I recall. It is sad that about one in ten posts (or less) is a
troll now. Newcomers certainly must be turned off by reading this stuff. And
those of us who really have a true interest and passion for astronomy find
these antics obnoxious and just plain "dumb".

Whether we are beginners or advanced, we can all learn something from this
group. This is a great place to get first hand info. on new discoveries, new
equipment, etc...before we hear in the press often. Also, we kind of get a
feeling for what is happening in the field and what products are good and not
so good. The best thing is finding new friends and new resources.

Maybe it is time to have some sort of "preview" to eliminate off topic and/or
objectionable stuff. I don't favor censorship, but I don't want to waste time
on off topic and oddball stuff either. So maybe moderation is the way to
go...or maybe, as in Astromart, a rating system could be initiated. Subject
titles could be rated with a star system...objectionable entries could have a
*, off topic could be **, something like this just to alert others before they
open...maybe messages could also be flagged somehow.

Anyhow, I think Astromart has eliminated some bad fish and we need to do this
too. A rating system might be a start.

(P. Edward Murray) wrote in
om:

How about a moderated newsgroup to get rid of the trolls?

Even this post is troll bait, and may even have been started by one of
them.

How about if people stop paying attention to them?