Re: aus.rail is sh*t

[ben_scaro@my-deja.com]

For more specific types of query about Australian railways, you can try
mail lists like ausrollingstock@egroups.com for rolling stock queries,
Ausloco@egroups.com for locomotive queries and the aus.rail.models
newsgroup for model stuff.  If you are after factual information, these
are pretty good.  The lists are moderated so that inflammatory and
overly emotive threads that are going nowhere in terms of providing
railway information are killed fast. The models newsgroup seems to self-
regulate very well.

aus.rail seems to serve a different type of function to these groups.
It's obviously a place for people to let off some pent-up emotion, and
you could be mistaken at times for thinking it was the CityRail
complaints line.  That isn't to say it shouldn't be here, it's just a
question of understanding what is a very different type of animal. I
quite like reading it, but I seldom post queries about factual matters
here- they just don't get answered.

Cheers

Ben


> > Moderated lists don't really work. You have to wait for the
moderator to
> > approve the posts before they appear, and if they are not at their
computer
> > it can take a long time for the posts to appear. You then have to
wait for
> > the replies (another long wait).
>
> A problem with terminology. This is a newsgroup, not a mailing list.
It's
> next to impossible to retromoderate a newsgroup. The only thing more
> impossible is removing it. Most servers will not honour an 'rmgroup'
> message under any circimstances.
>
> Once a 'newgroup' message has been sent out, that's pretty much the
way
> it will stay for all time. Most news servers will ignore a second
> 'newgroup' for the same newsgroup, even if the control message
specifies
> moderation. It's set up this way to avoid the problems with
> non-authoritative (i.e. malicious) moderation attempts.
>
> Automoderation is possible, but relies on computer logic. Not always
> effective. The big problem is retro cancellation of offending
messages.
> Many ISPs do not accept any cancel messages (hence they are overloaded
> with spam) and others are poorly propogated.
>
> In short, you're stuck with aus.rail the way it is. The only way to
> change it is change the people. Good luck.
>
> A viable option is to finally write an FAQ which clearly states what
is
> and isn't acceptable.
>
> Cheers
> David
>


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