Comp.sources.unix and replacing Rich Salz

[Brad Templeton]

I'm not sure I would classify being a moderator as being a deadly job.
It's not that.   People do it.

All of us also have other full time (and more) work.  It's adding
moderating a newsgroup to this that gets tough.

It's a lot of little things.  Most people don't see a lot of what you
do, but that's tolerable.  In fact, the "fame" is sometimes the worst
part.  You're the one people go to with questions.  People expect you
to be a server for the files you've posted or dealt with.

"I didn't see XX, could you send it to me?" -- a pefectly honest and
simple request, and you're certain to have XX, too.  But you can't be
a fileserver for everybody who makes this simple and honest request.

And of course the tons of other mail.  The comments, the suggestions.
USENET is so big now that even though each one on its own is friendly
and often helpful, dealing with it day-in and day-out on top of your
other work starts to get you.

But this is all not too bad (or we'd stop).  To be honest the worst
thing is the inevitable USENET flamers, who either send you mail or
post.  Or parade your name on the front pages of the newspapers.  :-(

But, as I said, we still do it, mostly.  Never perfectly -- and we don't
expect to be immune from criticism -- but how do you solve the problem
of tens of thousands of readers who can all complain by pressing one
key and zapping a quick note?   If all you did was piss off .1% of the
readers of a 30,000 reader group, that would be 30 mail messages or
postings.  (Thank god most people are lurkers!)

I probably sound like a spoiled brat lamenting about the tortures of
fame, but I hope I have expanded some people's understanding of it.
It's not all bad.  It certainly has positive points, too, and nobody
forced us into the task.
-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473