From: mece21x@rosie.uh.edu (Yesudas, Michael)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: SCK, Moderation and other stories
Date: 21 Jan 1993 10:56 CST
Organization: University of Houston
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: rosie.uh.edu
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It is a matter of delight that the present alt.culture.kerala group would
soon get promoted as soc.culture.kerala, assuming everything works out. And
as I understand it, it might be a moderated one. Paul has already presented out
the view as to why the news group should be a moderated one. Let me put forward
the other side of the coin, as I know it.

(1) Done at random or otherwise, every article that is posted there is
going to be at someone's sweet will. This will hamper a lot of stuff that we
see on the present day ACK. For e.g. I HATE broccoli, I hate it so much that
I have not even cared to look up its spelling. So any broccoli fry which is
being made known by the stalwarts of cooking would be very conveniently thrown 
out. So all those broccoli lovers would never even come to know that there 
was somebody out there who wanted to give them recipe for broccoli.

  Or let's say that somebody wants to learn a song. As many people do it, they
put it up on the net

Aaathmavidyalayamay....

Please fill up the rest, Thanks in advance!!

And invariably that comes through. Then there are subtle points like whether 
if it was sung by Kamukara or Manna Dey. And whether it was from Forest Ranger 
or Taxi Driver. Now what is the moderator going to do anyway for such things?

(2) BY and LARGE, about 99% of the postings that I have seen have been of some 
value or other. I really don't know how many people think the same way. But if 
that is the case then why have a moderator only to cut down on a very small 
percentage of the postings, which again is a matter of discretion of an 
individual??

(3) The number of articles that are posted every day are of the order of 5 to 
10 only. On the "promotion" to SCK I assume that it might just about double 
or so. Do we really want to cut down on the traffic further in a group where 
postings are rare and hard to come by??

(4) Suppose there is a controversial and delicate issue being discussed, say 
like dowry. There will be arguments and counter-arguments and some might be 
stupid, some might be baseless, and some might be senseless. But then, it takes 
all types to make up a world like ours. Or maybe some one wants to mock at the 
issue. WHY NOT LET IT HAPPEN LIKE THAT?  

(5) One of my main objections to having a moderator is the fact that, IT WILL 
IN COURSE OF TIME BECOME STAGNANT, AND THE MODERATOR'S FUNCTIONING STYLE WOULD 
DETERMINE THE PACE OF RETARDATION OF THE GROUP.

(6) Above all, let's not forget that there might be people who are waiting out 
there, to have a chance to post FOR THE FIRST TIME. They are not sure as to how 
that is to be done, (when I say "how", it is not the technical details etc, 
but as to how the others will react. It could be anybody. Someone who has never 
been to Kerala, or maybe just that his/her grandfather has seen a Malayali, and 
that is the only relation that they have.) and passing through the hands of a 
moderator and being rejected would be a very humiliating experience. How many 
of us would like that?

I would very strongly recommend an unmoderated group. Of course the final
result would be what ever people think that is correct.

Sincerely,
Michael
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala