Re: MODERATOR (NOT MODERATORS?) FOUND for rec.photo.moderated, comp.std.announce, comp.newprod, and comp.simulation

In article <102ifv6$14a$1@reader1.panix.com>, pschleck@panix.com says...

 
OK, so a single moderator for each newsgroup, and the same moderator
for all of these newsgroups?  I don't doubt Ivan's sincerity, good
intentions, and likely technical skills, but I thought that this was the
kind of risky moderation model that we were trying to get away from
during past Moderator Vacancy Investigations.
 

[snip: demise of Brian Edmonds' Robomod service]

 
For newsgroup viability and longevity, should we be making an effort
to find multiple, independent, moderation teams and services across
newsgroups, ensure constituencies to populate those newsgroups with
participation, and develop contingency plans in advance should those
moderators need to be replaced? Is four moderated newsgroups enough
for one moderator (Ian) and should we try to recruit others?

I would be greatly in favour of having multiple independent moderators
for each newsgroup, with further backup moderators and succession plans
in place.

Unfortunately, the number of people with the time, willingness, and
technical competence to moderate a newsgroup is currently minuscule. It
is usually a struggle to find even one volunteer.

In this case, the B8MB proposed rmgrouping 101 moderated newsgroups that
had long been disused for lack of an active moderator. We then excluded
groups from the proposal if there seemed to be even the slightest
interest in anyone moderating them or contributing to them. Only 12 of
the groups received any such interest. Of the volunteers for those 12,
so far only Ivan has a working moderation setup (we still hold out some
hope for a couple of the other groups). So, thus far, that's 4 working
newsgroups and one moderator out of the whole process.

To get to the point of having multiple moderators per group, I think
Usenet needs to become considerably more popular and/or the barrier to
entry for new moderators needs to be much lower.

As a contribution towards the latter, I have ported PyModerator to
Python 3 (https://github.com/PyModerator/PyModerator). It's still rather 
elderly and clunky, with much work to be done, but is considerably
easier to set up than the other extant moderation software, STUMP. The
development version now has support for secure POP and SMTP connections,
making it more likely to work with modern email providers.

The only other way I can think of to lower the barrier to entry is some
sort of hosted moderation platform, but that would be a single point of
failure just like Robomod was.

If anyone wants to step up and volunteer as a moderator, promote Usenet
in general, or do something to make moderation easier, we're always glad
to hear from them and will offer as much support we can.

Rayner