On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 20:27:38 -0500, "Lee Yeaton"
wrote:

"QLW" wrote in message
...
It's plainly obvious that this newsgroup has become almost useless as a
boating forum. Rec.cruising, rec.boats.building and alt.sailing are good
but there is also a need for a general boating forum where one does not
have
to wade through all of the political crap and in-fighting posted here. I
can't figure out why people insist on doing this...but they do! So how is
a
new news group formed? To bad we can't make this one moderated to limit
the
content to boating related topics.
Quinton

I know I'll get slammed for this but.....

Why don't we just start a new group ourselves. Instead of doing it on
Usenet we could do it on the Internet.

I can get some free server space for a year and I'll buy the domain name,
it's $20.00 so it's not a lot of money. I also know where to get free
message board software. You can see the software on my other site
chesapeakeforums.com. All we would need is a list of topics and some people
to donate their time to moderate.

Think of it like a boatered but not moderated by a business owner, but
moderated by us. If a moderator gets out of line we can vote him off. The
group would have control, not just one person.

I am sure I left out a bunch of details but I think this is doable if we can
get the people to donate some time and to participate.

Ok, let me have it......

Just a word of friendly advice from a former, long term, moderator.

It ain't that easy to moderate a newsgroup - it's time, time and more
time then add some time on top of the time you've alread spent to the
time - the net result being ****ing all the NG participants off at one
point or another, wading through the complaints about your moderation
efforts and nobody really gives a damn anyway.

It's not easy, you have to have a thick skin, you have to be able to
stick to the rules (which is a lot harder than you might think it is
because there are always going to be three or four NG "lawyers" who
interpret things in ways you would never have thought of) and it's
hard maintain a core group of moderators who all work the same way and
have the same outlook on life, the universe and everything.

In short, it is very, very difficult even with well-intentioned
invididuals who really, really want to make the scheme work well.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, but that's the way it works.

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
----------
"My rod and my reel - they comfort me."

St. Pete, 12 Lb. Test