wrote in message
ups.com...
Phyllis and I have come to favor the effort to have a moderated version
of rec.ponds.
It appears that everyone agrees. There's no choice left for the regulars.
We would like a rec.ponds where anyone can post and their content would
be the determiner of whether their post goes up. Before we began to
see so much personal animosity on rp, the posts were overwhelmingly
supportive and off-topic messages were marked 'OT'. They were mostly
friendly interaction between friends.
Which is as it should be. But on-topic content isn't always considered and
personalities become involved as was the case with the moderated Google
Aquarium group.
Sadly, we have now reached a point where the majority of the posts -
especially crossposts - are conflictual rather than pond-related. That
defeats the purpose of the group and it has been entrenched long enough
that we are not hopeful that conflictual posters will shift to
consistent constructive posting. Returning conflict for conflict
simply perpetuates and escalates the conflict.
Because of what the other NG calls "mission posters." We call them trolls.
They're not interested in rec.ponds and several of them don't even own ponds
or fish.
We have come to a point that we believe a moderated group is likely to
be the only way to achieve a usenet rp group and to keep it free of the
conflictual messages.
We support the effort to have a moderated group.
As do most of us. There's no choice left when a group has resident posters
"on a mission."
I personally would like to see anyone free to post on the moderated
group. Content is the best basis for moderation.
That doesn't always happen in the real world. What happens if posts are
on-topic but the moderator disagrees (look at the fish food issue) with the
poster's stand? To my great sorrow I listened to a poster here, switched to
an outrageously expensive koi food and now have hundreds of undersized koi I
will be stuck with in the spring. The new spring fry will need the space
these undersized fish will be taking. I sorely regret switching foods but
they wont want anyone to know that! I have no idea now what I'm going to do
with these undersized koi come spring - that is if they survive the winter.
:-( Am I not supposed to voice my opinion and share my experience?
I see a problem,
however, with that. It is volume. The moderators would have a lot of
reviewing to do. It seems to me that some basic filtering/moderating
rules would be good...like crossposted messages, certain words and,
yes, suspending or banning members who persist in conflict rather than
pond messages.
This is a good part of the answer. Just stopping the mindless cross-posting,
personal attacks and sniping at others will about cure the problem here.
Pond groups simply are not intended to be places of
personal non-pond conflict. They are not intended to be one of 10
groups where a personal hostility is being launched.
Effective moderation would help members prone to conflictual messages
to exercise self-control.
And get rid of 100% of the cross-posted trash and assorted trolls, on a
"mission" or not. :-) And no one has to hide for awhile then try and sneak
back with another persona in hopes the trolls wont recognize them - a poor
idea from the start.
We began enjoying rec.ponds in 2002. It helped us with our pond. It
built a wonderful friendship network for us. We would love to see
conflict go away and the group one again about ponds. That does not
seem likely in the forseeable future if conflict is not somehow abated.
Moderating seems to be the best bet.
It's the ONLY bet at this point.
For what they are worth, those are our thoughts. They are launched in
a spirit of friendship and intended to be without rancor.
Jim
I also expressed my thoughts in the spirit of friendship,without rancor and
a 10 year history here.
--
KL....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
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