Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/03/03/00:43:17
First, I would like to commend DJ and the many other contributors for
the port of GCC and many other fine UNIX-style programs to DOS. It
has been a blessing for many, myself included. Although I use DJGPP
much less frequently than I have in the past I continue to recommend
it to friends and colleagues who are interested in DOS programming.
In article <199703022040 DOT PAA22429 AT delorie DOT com>,
DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com> writes:
>
> Is anyone interested in discussing the idea of switching the
> comp.os.msdos.djgpp newsgroup from "unmoderated" to "retro-moderated"
> status? Basically, this means that the retro-moderators (chosen by
> the group) would have the authority to cancel any post for any reason
> if they feel that such posts are not in line with the group's charter
> (or if they just feel like it).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you serious about this statement? If so, then you really are
talking about censorship and not moderation.
> While the c.o.m.djgpp newsgroup (and corresponding mailing list) has a
> fairly high quality, There have been a number of lengthy off-topic
> threads (below) that I personally feel should not have happened on
> this forum. Switching to retro-moderated would have allowed someone
> to simply cancel those posts, or re-posted them on the appropriate
> group, effectively terminating the thread.
Because (presumably) there are many readers using the email gateway I
can understand the desire to keep off-topic postings to a minimum.
OTOH, I think the existence of lengthy threads which are not flamewars
(the discussions are reasonable) and are not the result of extensive
cross-posting indicate that the subject material is of interest to the
readers of this newsgroup. In this case it might make sense to
reconsider the group charter, not dismiss these discussions as
"off-topic". Like almost everything else in life newsgroups evolve
and the interests of the readers change with the times. This is
especially true with DOS programming. It seems clear to me that DOS
has a limited life as a mainstream OS and therefore most DOS
programmers will eventually develop interests in other OS's. This is
the reason that the "off-topic" discussions of Win32 and Linux are so
prevalent. They are the natural migration path for DOS programmers.
> As for the usual censorship argument, let me remind you all that
> moderation and retro-moderation don't stop posts, they only stop posts
> in the wrong groups.
Personally I am not philosophically opposed to *fully* moderated
newsgroups. It certainly keeps discussions on-topic and limits the
posting volume. I do *not* like the robo-moderation approach because
it is more likely to lead to abuse (true censorship), or at least
those who have their posts cancelled are more likely to perceive it as
such. I am also not aware of any newsgroups which have applied this
approach sucessfully (there may be some, I just don't know of any).
The problem with the proposed moderation scheme is that it has a
tendency to eliminate only those posts concerning topics the
moderators personally dislike, but not necessarly all (or the majority
of) off-topic posts. Full moderation where *every* posting is
evaluated for on-topic content is much more fair. There should also
be some degree of accountability for what is (or isn't) allowed in the
interest of fairness to the DJGPP community.
> DJ
Jesse - guilty as charged with discussing GCC optimizations.
> Examples:
How about:
* HELP! What's wrong with this code???
* Why is sizeof( my_structure ) wrong?
* What is the best way to implement [whatever]?
* All of the other c.l.c. type questions that appear here.
- Raw text -