Subject: Re: Is it you or My Server?
From: Ronald zwaagstra <ronald@tcw3.ppsw.rug.nl>
Organization: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 98 08:07:26
Message-ID: <MOD$981111.101@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$981108.4170@rec.gardens.ecosystems> <MOD$981110.17612@rec.gardens.ecosystems> <MOD$981111.28070@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



On 11 Nov 1998, madhouse wrote:

>
> I recently posted a question, and was surprised to find that the group
> is moderated. My post took about over a day to make it to the group.
> None of the other gardening ngs I read are moderated and I do not find
> much that is inappropriate in them. What does appear is ushered out
> quite effectively.
The speed with which postings are approved is rather variable. Some of the
moderators spend a great deal of time on-line, though most of my time is
when most participants are asleep. For new questions a turnaround time of
one day seems acceptable, though we do try to respond faster.

BTW, most of the posts are approved much faster than what you experienced.
The message I am responding to should have been available at your server
within minutes for instance. We are using a robot to do the first step of
moderating. It weeds out what is clearly junk, it approves what is highly
likely to be an appropriate submission, and it forwards to a moderator
what it cannot decide on. This latter part is about 30 to 40% of all posts
that are approved. Especially if the robot approves, our moderation
mechanism is rather fast working.

>
> I think that a newsgroup of this kind is vital and exciting, only if it
> is immediate. I know that for myself, if I ask a question, I like to
> check several times a day to see what answers appear.
>
> As no one, no matter how conscientious, can possibly be on line
> constantly to sort through each post.
>
> A question to the moderator: What percentage of posts do you find are
> off topic? How much spam does the group receive? What motivated you to
> establish the group as a moderated ng?

About 25% of the posts that are submitted are rejected. This is about the
amount of junk we get. Your observation that the other gardening groups
are not moderated is not entirely correct. Most junk to the other
gardening groups gets crossposted to rec.gardens.ecosystems as well. Since
we reject these posts, we are also helping to keep the other groups clean.

We expected rec.gardens.ecosystems to be a rather small group, but we were
also aware that many would be tempted to crosspost messages from
rec.gardens to rec.gardens.ecosystems. This crossposting would turn
rec.gardens.ecosystems effectively into a duplicate of rec.gardens. Since
we were looking for a quiet corner in the Usenet garden, rather sharing
all of the playground, we proposed the group as moderated to block all
crossposts. Occasionaly a gardening post get crossposted to us. If I spot
one of these, I often contact the author, remove the crossposting, and
approve the message.

>
> As a lucker, until now in this ng, I hope my observations help. I love
> the idea of this newsgroup.
>
> Now, how about an ecosystems question: Although I am an obsessive
> composter, and have not used chemicals in my gardens for years, I
> recently slipped and used K-Mart lawn food on my front yard. Has anyone
> ever tried Lawns Alive? Does it work? I moved recently and have my
> first lawn ever. What should I have done?

No K-Marts around here, but I would stick to compost for a lawn.

Ronald

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