Editorial Change/Sunspots to Usenet Gateway

[Bob Greene]

Since this issue of Sunspots is headed off by a suggestion from Ken Mandelberg
to the effect of reconsidering the way the Sunspots to Usenet gateway is being
handled, I'd just like to take a few bytes of net traffic 'time' to put forth
my two cents.

First of all, as has correctly been noticed, Sunspots has obviously had to
evolve to survive the loss of the original moderator, Bill LeFebvre. This
has involved going through several intermediate moderators who have had
a limited time to attempt to master the intricate details of running the
Sun-spots digest. I am the latest in this line, and though I am relatively
new to the actual daily running of the digest, I project that within a 
short time I will be able to overcome the 'roughness' of these first few
issues and bring Sunspots up to the par that you, the readers, have come
to expect under the wings of LeFebvre.

In a moderated newsgroup, the moderator serves many purposes. Perhaps the
most visible is the easiest of the tasks to be performed: that of trying to
keep the 'signal to noise ratio' of the mailing list as high as possible.
What this means to you is that the mailings sent to you reflect the results
of a 'straining process' whereby much of the 'noisy' postings found in 
any unmoderated newsgroup will be removed. Additionally, the moderator
serves as a vehicle for logically organizing the issues of the digest into
sections with a common theme, again for the sake of readability. Finally,
the moderator sometimes may have additional commentary that may add to 
the content of the messages posted to the digest. I feel confident that
I can perform the first two tasks fairly well, I would like to also 
undertake the third, but this will come as I become much more prevalent
as I become more knowledgeable on the subject matter at hand.

In any event, though the next several issues will be somewhat rough
and unfinished as I get used to the digest distribution system, I look
forward to continuing the type of moderatorship that you have grown
to expect under Bill LeFebvre. I still believe that a moderated newsgroup
is the best method of distribution for the Sunspots digest at this point
in time, though I am open to any suggestions and comments from the
readers on this point.

I have included the post by Ken Mandelberg (though it will not be my
standard editorial policy to include this type of posting since I consider
it to be in the 'noise' category) as a counter-point for everyone to 
consider.

Thanks for your continued support.

Bob Greene
Sunspots Moderator

RGREENEB at RICEVM1.BITNET  RGREENEB at RICEVM1.RICE.EDU {bone}!rice!ricevm1!rgreeneb