[Molvis-list] To the moderator (and list admin)

[Frances C. Bernstein]

Dear Eric,

     You raised a number of different issues in your answer
about moderating the molvis list.  I would like to comment on
some of them.

     1. Moderating a list introduces some delay in messages
        getting out.  What about having more people authorized
        to clear messages?  There are a number of people who
        seem to spend a lot of time in front of their computers
        who could be trusted to do this.  And it would be helpful
        to add moderators around the world (especially in Europe)
        so that other time zones are covered.  Having more moderators
        would also allow for vacations, conferences, etc.

     2. I think that moderating the list is a good idea.  We all
        get too much spam or irrelevant messages already.

     3. It is my personal strong opinion that allowing the moderator
        to add comments to an e-mail is a very bad idea.  If the
        moderator has an opinion or contribution on some matter, it
        should be in a separate e-mail.  This would avoid possible
        confusion about who is speaking.  In addition, the moderator
        is the person who makes sure that e-mails are appropriate to
        the list, not some person whose opinions should carry more
        weight.  Confusing the roles of moderator and commentator
        is not a good idea.

                                     Frances
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On Sun, 21 Nov 2004, Eric Martz wrote:

> At 11/20/04, you wrote:
>
> >Can I ask why this list is moderated?
> >
> >In the spirit of "This makes the discussion more interesting"
> >(http://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/molvis-list) I don't see why
> >this should be necessary.
>
> Presently this list is moderated by Eric Martz or Tim Driscoll.
>
> "Moderating" an email list means that a moderator must approve each message
> before it is broadcast to the list. The moderator may refuse to broadcast
> inappropriate messages. The RasMol-list subscribers have been quite civil
> during the 9-year history of this list. However, were a disrespectful,
> name-calling, or inflammatory message to be sent, the moderators could
> request that such messages be rephrased, or reject them. In some cases the
> moderator may choose to edit messages before they are broadcast, but the
> mailman software running molvis-list does not provide this option.
>
> I chose to moderate the new molvis-list, at least for an initial period, to
> preclude the broadcasting of spam. Messages are accepted only from
> subscribers, but it is easy for spammers to "spoof" a message as being
> "From" a sender, fooling this safeguard. A handful of spam messages were
> broadcast on the old list because I chose not to moderate it for most of
> its history.
>
> Moderation also enables me to respond to "unsubscribe" requests that are
> inappropriately sent to the entire list, without broadcasting them. There
> has already been one of those.
>
> The present mechanism for moderation in mailman does not allow me to edit
> messages before broadcasting. I have found no need for such editing, but
> sometimes it would be useful to add a comment before broadcasting (which
> mailman does not enable me to do at present). Bioinformatics.org plans to
> upgrade to a new version of mailman which may have more flexibility.
>
> The old listproc mechanism enabled me to get a little information about new
> subscribers, which helped me to refuse subscriptions to dozens of clearly
> bogus requests received over the years. The present mailman mechanism gives
> me only the email address for subscription requests, so I have no basis for
> refusing a subscription request. This made me a little more nervous about
> the possibility of vandals subscribing to broadcast spam. So far it hasn't
> happened, but it has only been one month. The list is more visible than it
> used to be because of its presence in a large group of lists at
> bioinformatics.org.
>
> The only downside of moderation that I can see is the sometime delay of up
> to a day (rarely more) before Tim or I get around to checking and approving
> new messages. Tim Driscoll has just today been added as co-administrator.
> This should reduce the lag time on average.
>
> The lag occurs in part because the mechanism provided by mailman, to alert
> the list administrators when a message has been sent, also displays the
> admininstrators' email addresses plainly on the main list web page. Tim and
> I did not want this because it makes it easy for email address harvesting
> worms to spam us. So I displayed the admin addresses in an alternate
> format. However, doing so obviates the mechanism mailman has for alerting
> us of new messages.
>
> If the subscribership prefers that the list not be moderated, I don't mind
> turning moderation off. There is a slight risk that all 600-some of us will
> be bombarded with molvis-list spam one of these days. Dan, if you wish to
> propose to the list subscribers that it not be moderated, go ahead. I have
> no convenient mechanism for taking a vote of all subscribers, but we can
> see if there are any objections. I would not object to trying it unmoderated.
>
> Otherwise, I plan to continue moderating the list for a couple more months
> until I see how it goes. Then I expect I'll turn off moderation if it seems
> unnecessary.
>
> -Eric
>
> ----
> Eric Martz, Professor Emeritus, Dept Microbiology
> University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA US
> http://www.umass.edu/molvis/martz
>
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