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- From: leffler@physics.ubc.ca (Steve Leffler )
- Newsgroups: sci.physics,news.groups
- Subject: Re: in favor of a moderated physics group (sci.physics.research)
- Date: 12 Jan 1993 20:38:34 GMT
- Organization: The University of British Columbia
- Lines: 43
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <1iva8aINNhef@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca>
- References: <5620032@hplsla.hp.com> <1993Jan11.192802.25710@novell.com> <1isp7vINNb2j@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca> <1993Jan12.005325.1374@novell.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: physics.ubc.ca
-
- dseeman@novell.com (Daniel Seeman) writes:
-
- >I know you are not proposing to "touch" SCI.PHYSICS but rather to introduce
- >SCI.PHYSICS.RESEARCH. But in the body of the first posting, the statement
- >was made that SCI.PHYSICS.RESEARCH absolutely has the possibility of becomming
- >as "wild" or rather "speculative" as this forum (SCI.PHYSICS) is today.
-
- >In the attempt to keep SCI.PHYSICS.RESEARCH "clean," you will at some point have
- >to filter a posting or two from that forum. It is this process that I think is
- >doomed to failure before you start. It just doesn't make sense to stem the free
- >flow of information, no matter how "non-serious" you happen to believe it is.
-
- Why not? It's done all the time. Scientific journals have very stringent
- rules on what material they'll accept, for example. Sci.physics.research will
- be an intermediate medium between the complete freedom (and anarchy) of
- sci.physics, and the very restricted state of a scientific journal. That seems
- to be just what we need to complement sci.physics.
- Free flow of information (and garbage) is wonderful, and I for one will
- continue reading sci.physics as long as I can afford the time, but there's no
- reason why one can't have places for more controlled flow of information as
- long as there are places where free flow is not stifled.
-
- >If you were to say the moderators would simply make the choice concerning which
- >forum to post an article I would possibly buy into that idea. In other words,
- >if someone posted an article to sci.physics.research, and it was dubbed not
- >serious enough, the moderator would simply post the article automatically to
- >sci.physics and send back a note to the original poster detailing the reasons
- >for re-directing the work to another group. Even here, you run into problems
- >with cross-posting; who gets to? and who was cross-posted but didn't want to be?
- >We then would need to consider replies and follow-ups (can you hear my feet
- >dragging?).
-
- Actually, the idea of having rejected postings sent to sci.physics or
- alt.physics.new-theories was discussed. I'm not sure whether or not this is
- still the plan. I have a feeling that this idea was discarded because it
- was felt that it was more appropriate to send the article back to the poster
- with the suggestion that they post it to one of the other newsgroups. This
- also allows them the possibility of modifying the article so that it will
- meet the moderated group's guidlines.
-
- ---Steven Leffler
- leffler@physics.ubc.ca
-
-