"Gail Futoran" wrote in message
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"Köi-Lö" wrote in message
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wrote in message
ups.com...
[snip]
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?
How to handle differences of opinion should be addressed in the RFD.
I.e., how will moderators handle submissions they might personally
disagree with? How that is handled should be discussed when the RFD is
posted.
Your right Gale but it does no harm to bring some of these issues up for
people to mull over beforehand.
I think, as ponders, we can both agree that some assertions should be
viewed with the great deal of suspicion. Suppose someone posts that it's
ok to use water straight from the tap to fill a pond without any dechlor
or dechloramine?
LOL! Well that would be like telling people to feed their fish rat-poison
pellets! In the case of food there were others who also fed the cheaper
commercial foods with great success. I'm not the only one - but I see your
point.
Do the moderators reject that "advice" (fish are likely to
die!), or let it go through and hope someone else posts an alternate view
of water preparation? Or should the moderators themselves post a
cautionary note? Perhaps with links to useful websites?
That's a good idea! Let them post a cautionary note that not all ponders
had success with cheaper feeds. Or that chlorine is deadly to fish etc. In
the case of chlorine though, you're talking about a poison that kills
whereas commercial feeds do not kill our fish.
If you have good ideas about how to deal with these critical issues, it
would be helpful if you would post them, especially once the RFD is
posted. We all need to contribute to the discussion.
This is true.
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.
I agree with that. However, we have to be careful to allow reasonable
disagreements. I.e., I can disagree with something you said, but at the
same time I should avoid attacking you personally.
There you go! When someone disagrees with someone else, calling that person
names or making disparaging remarks to or about them causes a lot of
negativity overall.
Re cross-posting: I only read a few other "fish hobby" newsgroups. I
would guess that some relevant cross-posting would be permitted. That's
another point that should be discussed when the RFD is posted.
I agree - as long as it's *relevant* to all groups concerned.
- - - brevity snips
As I understand it, the intention is to assess submitted posts only on
content, whether it's on topic or reasonable off topic, whether language
is reasonable or abusive, and not on *who* writes the post.
It's my opinion obscene messages and gross profanity have no place on a
family type NG such as this, or most NGs for that matter.
Although it's more work for the moderators, I don't agree with "banning"
anyone based on past history or, for that matter, based on their
submissions to rec.ponds.moderated (RPM). I'm aware that some forums do
that, but those are a different breed than USENET.
This is true.
- - - snips
--
KL....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
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