03/04/98 - 1667

Help Wanted: SRV Moderator

USA (VNN) - by Agrahya das

Hare Krishna. All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga.

Back in December, I announced that the Usenet newsgroup soc.religion.vaishnava was in dire trouble. I asked for feedback on how the group could be better run. I received a number of replies, none of them quite the same. At that time I concluded that the best course would be to continue the auto-moderated newsgroup but minimize my own role in moderating it. This would basically leave the newsgroup pretty much free and open.

The recent direction in postings leads me to conclude that I cannot any longer have a role in this. I have to wonder what has led me to do so for so long. It is an unfortunate fact that any attempt to run a forum fairly will be met with indignation by some, who feel the moderator is far too lenient; and with howls of censorship by others, who feel it is far too restrictive. Any would-be moderator should be prepared to weather these sorts of accusations. But in my own case I have to question whether there is any overall benefit for myself or others in soc.religion.vaishnava as it currently stands.

I have decided to step down as moderator of soc.religion.vaishnava. Unless a replacement shows up on or before March 31, 1998 the newsgroup will simply become inactive. This decision is prompted by the considerations mentioned above, as well as an increasing inability on my part to continue investing time in moderating the newsgroup. I am not free to do as I like with my time, and I would prefer to invest what time I do have in Hari-katha, whether it is on the Internet or off. I have ended up spending quite a lot of time on improvements to the auto-moderation software in an attempt to have the moderation run with less human intervention. But as I see the quality go downhill, and see more accusations of hypocrisy based on glitches or inadequacies in the software, I realize there is no point in continuing this.

Moderation of a newsgroup is not a terribly difficult task. Gating the newsgroup to a mailing list is not too much more difficult to set up. Maintaining an archive is also not that difficult to set up if one has the right type of system.

Candidates for replacement moderator need to send their application(s) to srv-admin@hgsoft.com by March 15. The choice will be up to me but if there is only one candidate and I feel they can handle the technical side of things I will hand things over, regardless of how they feel about me personally. A replacement moderator would at a minimum need to be able to figure out how to do basic moderation using Pine or Free Agent. I am not willing to commit any facilities to moderation or maintaining the archives. I am also not willing to dedicate time to training someone who is not familiar with basic tools used in moderation. In other words, if someone wants to moderate but in my opinion will not be able to do so without help, I may require that they get the commitment of another person who can help them before turning things over.

It is not a requirement that the moderator be an active practicioner of Vaishnavism. They just need to understand some basic things about Vaishnavism as stated in the SRV FAQ (at http://hgsoft.com/srv) and need to know how to moderate. They should also be willing to dedicate some time on a regular basis.

How moderation is done is ENTIRELY up to the person or persons who take it over (if anyone is actually interested). The moderator is free to basically act as he or she pleases. If someone wants to provide ALL the facilities currently connected with SRV, I will be happy to provide them with a list of requirements. If someone wants to also continue with the current auto-moderation software, I will be happy to provide the requirements and source code. I will not be able to support the software on an ongoing basis.

I would like to make this transition as soon as possible. If suitable candidates step forward by March 15 I will make the selection (if there are multiple choices) and hand-off by then. If no candidates step forward by March 31 I will pull the plug on that date. A Usenet newsgroup cannot be easily removed (if at all) and I will make no attempt to do so, but if a moderated newsgroup becomes inactive no postings will appear on it.

Vaishnava dasanudas,
Agrahya das http://hgsoft.com/~agrahya/