Subject: STRAW POLL RESULT: Linux groups automonitoring
From: [email-masked] (Ron "Asbestos" Dippold)
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 18:09:35 GMT
Newsgroups: news.groups,comp.os.linux.announce,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.admin

[]
			  STRAW POLL RESULTS
                     Linux groups automonitoring

linux automonitoring straw poll results - 491 valid ballots

 Yes   No : Group
---- ---- : -------------------------------------------
 284  189 : comp.os.linux.misc
 315  165 : comp.os.linux.help
 333  146 : comp.os.linux.admin
 317  155 : comp.os.linux.development

This straw poll had more respondents than 95% of all newsgroup
votes... As this is a straw poll and I'm just the polltaker, I am not
even going to try to analyze what the results "mean."  I suspect we'll
see lots of that in news.groups over the next few weeks.  However, I
will note that by Guidelines result methods, both col.admin and
col.development automonitoring would "pass" if this had been an
official vote.  -- Ron

This vote was conducted by a neutral third party.  For voting
questions only contact [email-masked].  For questions about the
proposal contact Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>.

PROPOSAL (Ian)

[ Ian indicated during the polling period that Subject keywords would
be acceptable for software that couldn't handle Keywords headers.
However, I haven't tampered any with the original polling text. -- Ron ]

 I propose to set up an auto-response daemon which will scan the
 newsgroups  comp.os.linux.misc, .help, .development and .admin.

 It will send email to the posters of any messages which either
  (a) do not include one of a set or recognised keywords in the
      Keywords line or
  (b) are crossposted between two or more of the groups listed above,
      without a Followup-To header being used to direct followups
      into no more than one of those groups (plus perhaps one or more
      groups outside the comp.os.linux hierarchy).

 The email will be a brief, friendly introduction to the newsgroup in
 question and the hierarchy in general - probably based on Matt Welsh's
 introduction to the comp.os.linux hierarchy and my daily postings in
 comp.os.linux.misc and .help.

 It will say where the FAQs are, why to read them, and where to get
 them.

 It will also say why the message has been sent to the user, and give a
 brief explanation of why Keywords are a good thing and/or why
 crossposting is a bad thing (as appropriate).

 I would determine the set of allowable keywords with assistance from
 the Linux community; I expect the set to change quite frequently, and
 there to be a dozen or two at most.

 The existence of my daemon would be documented in a regular posting to
 the groups (preferably as part of an existing regular posting).

 Note that this proposal will NOT prevent anyone from posting and does
 not involve marking the groups as moderated.                         
                                                                      
 I hope to be able to provide an email-to-news gateway that will be   
 allow users with retarded software to post with Keywords lines.      

 RATIONALE (Ian)

 During the recent discussion in news.groups regarding my original
 proposal to moderate col.* using a program, several people suggested
 that perhaps many of the "poor" posts do not come from first-time
 posters, and that therefore it would be sufficient to send email to
 posters whose postings did not have one of a set of approved keywords.

 Doing so would allow experienced users to start using killfiles to
 read only postings they believe they would find interesting, based on
 keywords, since any users posting without such keywords would be
 informed by the daemon that and why their posting might not get the
 attention they would wish for it.

Since the Ack List is huge and this is a Straw Poll, I'm just going to
post it to news.groups as a followup so it won't swap those of you who
follow the Linux groups via modem. -- Ron

-- 
This statement is in no way not to be not construed as not a disclaimer.