Moderated C group ? (was Re: Postin

[Henry Spencer]

In article <225800171 at uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> mcdonald at uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>If comp.lang.c is made moderated, there really SHOULD be a parallel
>unmoderated group. Moderated groups are NEVER as successful as unmoderated ones
>At least I've never seen one. 

Obviously you haven't looked at comp.risks lately.  Or, for that
matter, rec.humor.funny (does *anyone* read rec.humor itself any
more? :-)).  There are successful moderated groups.  Much depends on the
level of effort the moderator can put into it.

>What might be better is a moderated comp.lang.c.excerpts, where a moderator
>censors the regular comp.lang.c, so persons who are sufficiently
>lazy to run through it all can look at the summary, a week or a month or 
>a year late!!!

This sort of thing has been tried once or twice.  It doesn't work too well.
Being moderator is a thankless job at best, and doing it this way it's worse.
Most people prefer interactive discussions, not summaries of long-dead ones.
-- 
Van Allen, adj: pertaining to  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry at zoo.toronto.edu