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- From: jarrell@solaris.cc.vt.edu (Ron Jarrell)
- Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5
- Subject: Ok, a status report on what's going on
- Date: 6 Dec 1995 18:12:28 -0500
- Message-ID: <4a580s$fde@solaris.cc.vt.edu>
-
-
- Many people have been wondering what's going on, is anyone doing
- anything, who can we kill, and why is there no discussion of Voyage to
- the Bottom of the Sea here anymore, anyway?
-
- Ok, so maybe not that last one, but that's about the ONLY thing I
- haven't seen asked in either email or on the group.
-
- First off, I'd like to convey from Joe Cochran thanks for all the
- messages that were sent to him offering suggestions, support, etc. He
- got FAR FAR too many to individually acknowledge.
-
- I'm sorry this took so long to get up, but we wanted to actually HAVE a
- solution, and even hopefully get it *implemented* (which we did) before
- geting peoples hopes up.
-
- Now, for the important news. No, Joe Straczynski hasn't completely
- left the group. It took a while before we could announce this because
- I had to have extensive talks with him, followed by quickly whipping up
- and putting into production new software for the Rangers to use to
- manage an all new style of feed for him.
-
- Joe's participation in the group will be, however, significantly
- different than it was before. He will no longer be reading
- everything. Instead, he'll be getting the messages specifically
- directed at him, and only if those messages are questions or comments
- about the show, and not flames or personal attacks.
-
- Now, that's not to say you can't write a negative message about an
- episode; if you think it didn't work, that's fine. But he's not going
- to see messages of the "So, Joe, are you still beating your wife?"
- style.
-
- He may, as we do this, ask to see other types of messages, he may not.
- It'll also be entirely up to him whether he elects to ANSWER. Not that
- this is a change; Joe often ignored questions that he couldn't answer
- without giving away something he wanted to keep secret.
-
- But if he DOES answer the question, the answer will be posted back here
- to the newsgroup, like they used to be. As a major bonus, however,
- since there's a much smaller target now, I've been able to do some
- "value added" processing. The correct subject will be matched up in
- the reply, *and* a References: header will be put in pointing at the
- original question. For those who aren't into the technical details,
- suffice it to say that your newsreader, if it was capable of keeping
- messages grouped together (called "threading") for messages that Joe
- didn't post, it'll not be able to also do it for Joe's message. No
- more of that "Damn, what question is he answering??" head scratching.
-
- For those that aren't interested in reading this newsgroup just to get
- those answers, we'll also be regularly bundling them up into Q&A
- digests, and sending them on to the info group moderators.. (We'll see
- how many of them there are before we decide what frequency is required,
- daily, bi-daily, weekly, semi-monthly, every 125,000 micro-fortnights,
- etc.)
-
- Now, what are the long term possibilities of wider participation in the
- newsgroup? Well, pretty much no chance, with the existing setup. You
- see, we've gotten to a point where there's just too many flamewars for
- it to be worth it, from his point of view, to read the group to extract
- the messages that are worth it. On GEnie, Compuserve, AOL, and other
- places he hangs out the forums are smaller, and more managed, and
- personal attacks and high tempers are handled.
-
- The only equivelant on usenet that's remotely equivalent is a moderated
- newsgroup. Whether people WANT a moderated newsgroup is something that
- the members have to decide. And if so, whether we want to moderate
- THIS group, or create a new moderated group, and leave this one for
- people that want a more "anything goes" discussion.
-
- Let me stress that the info group is NOT the appropriate place.
-
- The key thing here is to NOT rush into this; we've already heard from
- more than one group that was about to just willy-nilly throw an RFD in
- for one or more groups, without bothering to talk to anyone, and with a
- snowballs chance on za'ha'dum of succeding. If people want to do this
- it has to be done RIGHT the first time; remember, if it gets voted down
- (and a badly written one will be shot down in flames) it'll be months
- before another can be attempted. If it gets passed, but is so screwed
- up in design as to be unusuable, we're, again, stuck with it for
- months.
-
- The charter needs to be very carefully worded to explain exactly what
- the newsgroup is for, based on the CONTENT you want in the group, not
- the personalities.
-
- And really, there's no rush, because there is already the conduit back
- in place for getting the questions to JMS, and getting the answers
- back.
-
- So where do we go from here?
-
- Well, if you want Joe to see your question, we're really appreciate if
- you'd use the old standard of putting "ATTN JMS" in the subject. We'll
- see those. If you forget, but ask Joe a question in a message, we
- MIGHT catch it, and forward it on, we might not. If you do, then we'll
- see it, and if it fits the criteria that Joe agreed to, we'll
- cheerfully pass it on; what happens to it after that is in the hands of
- the Great Maker, as the saying goes.
-
- Next, people need to decide if they want to persue a moderated group.
- And if so, what kind. The Rangers are willing to help coordinate the
- disparate efforts currently under way to get everyone playing on the
- same station!
-
- Remember, though, that creation of a moderated group doesn't guarantee
- that Joe will come back to it, it'd have to be the right KIND of
- moderated group!
-
- -Ron
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