It is proposed that the USENET newsgroup soc.culture.indian.telugu (SCIT)
be changed to an automoderated newsgroup. This RFD is a modification of
the RFD for existing SCIT newsgroup. The period of discussion is three
weeks and a Call For Vote (CFV) will appear on April 17th 1996.
Automoderation:
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The usenet group soc.culture.india.telugu was created to serve as a forum
for discussion of Telugu culture and matters related to Andhra Pradesh.
As you are aware, soc.culture.india (SCI) serves as a medium for
discussion of matters of India-wide interest. It was intended that
discussions on SCIT would cover subjects such as arts (kuchipudi etc),
telugu literature, AP politics, developmental projects from AP, telugu
movies etc.
Unfortunately, for quite some time now, SCIT has been deluged with
crossposts from other newsgroups. The contents of these posts have
absolutely no relevance whatsoever to either Telugu culture or other
topics suggested in the original charter of SCIT. This crossposting
phenomenon has single handedly resulted in SCIT (in its current form of
an unmoderated group) losing the purpose for which it was created.
Anecdotally at least, there seem to be a great many people interested in
Telugu culture who would be delighted to read and contribute to scit,
were it not for the inordinate noise level. At the same time, many
current and prospective SCIT readers oppose the idea of a fully-moderated
SCIT due to the potential for censorship. Additionally, moderation
entails practical pitfalls such as the difficulty of finding qualified
volunteers and possible delays in the appearance of postings.
It is hence proposed that we bring AUTOmoderation to SCIT. The only
purpose of AUTOmoderation is to eliminate any/all posts that are
crossposted to more than one newsgroup i.e. an AUTOmoderator program
will check for the newsgroup names and if there is more than one
newsgroup specified in the post, it will be rejected.
*** POSTS WILL NOT BE CHECKED FOR THEIR CONTENTS ***
We cannot be 100% sure that an automoderated SCIT won't wither away due
to apathy or loss of resources. However the chances of that happening
are very small: After the initial effort of setting up the automoderator
'bot', only a low level of maintenance is required to keep the postings
running smoothly. Thus, the likelihood of an overburdened moderator
"dropping the ball" is very slight.
It is expected that by eliminating the large number of crossposts
by using an automoderator program, soc.culture.indian.telugu will be
restored to its original form and serve the purpose for which it was
created: i.e serve as a forum for people to discuss issues relating to
Telugu language and culture.
Kamala Anupindi (kamala@npac.syr.edu)
Sitaramayya Ari (ari@oakland.edu)
Chowdary Jampala (cjampala@desire.wright.edu)
Ramana Juvvadi (juvvadi@allegra.att.com)
Suresh Koichala (suresh@austin.ibm.com)
Aravinda Pillalamarri (ap191@watsun.cc.columbia.edu)
Bapa Rao (baparao@locus.com)
PS : All discussions pertaining to this CFV should be limited to SCIT
ALONE and not crossposted to the other newsgroups.
PPS: For a copy of the charter of SCIT and the original RFD please check
the URL http://metro.turnpike.net/telugu/automod.html
PPPS: In the next 1-2 days, we'll have a FAQ ready for this purpose.
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URL: http://www.npac.syr.edu/users/kamala/homepage