meself

Come to think of it...I haven't seen Rich Wood around for awhile.... Anyone
know what's up with him?

Thanks

--------------

I thought maybe Rich Wood might have some insight.

M

cooperstown.net

The best way to slow down the political name-calling posts on ARB is not to
ignore them but to answer them provocatively, on R.R.Shortwave (or their board
of origination) only. Force the trolls to re-establish the cross-link every
time.

ARB and Usenet are hurting, and regulars from the RRB-Bill Pfeiffer era
should consider migrating as a group. But where to? RRB is moderated but its
three day turnover is ridiculous. And Radio-Info uses a difficult interface,
with only one article per screen page. I know R-Info must be doing something
right for its popularity, but there is too much content too scattered about;
you're forced to decide in advance which micro-topic you care to follow; and
many are dead ends, which you find out the hard way.

The best boards are phpBB-based, like XM411 or SiriusBackstage.com . These
offer all the flexibility you'd expect from a data-driven system. You can read
roughly ten replies per screen page, insert graphics or filter them out, limit
your display to the recent discussions, keep track of the posts of the key
people, and search on any criteria. Multiple moderators keep the threads
courteous and assure that the OT posts are moved or deleted quickly.

I'd be delighted if Airwaves could re-establish itself on this model.
Meanwhile, is anyone participating on a well-moderated phpBB-based terrestrial
radio board? One which is open to all points of view with regard to
broadcasting, but which moves the OT posts into their own section?

Jerome

bob haberkost

| The best way to slow down the political name-calling posts on ARB is not
to
| ignore them but to answer them provocatively, on R.R.Shortwave (or their
board
| of origination) only. Force the trolls to re-establish the cross-link
every
| time.

I've actually tried doing this (most recently in a com-on-a-my-house to "tard
boy" dxAce), although I've been occasionally reluctant to do that since RRS
seems to be groaning with protests as well, with requests to quit
cross-psting back to them, and therefore I thought we were the ones to blame
for fanning the fires. But tell me how to determine where the troll comes
from, and I'll give it my best shot. Seems to me that the earlier the
better, as the off-topic scourge spreads like a wildfire if it's not lobbed
back over the wall quickly.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by
evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious
encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." --
Justice Brandeis
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-

drewdawg

In news:E%GRd.36766$t46.28287@trndny04,
Bob Haberkost <cbclistener-really!-@canada.com> typed:

I couldn't agree more! alt.radio.digital has more and more USA content from
XM, Sirius and HD-Radio, but is mostly UK content conserning DAB and DRM.

The best way I can think to re-take alt.radio.broadcasting is start threads
concerning radio broadcasting as I will make a concise effort to do. After
that, just respond to such threads. Just IMHO as always.

markrobt

|ignore them but to answer them provocatively, on R.R.Shortwave (or their board
|of origination) only. Force the trolls to re-establish the cross-link every
|time.
|
| ARB and Usenet are hurting, and regulars from the RRB-Bill Pfeiffer era
| should consider migrating as a group. But where to? RRB is moderated but its
| three day turnover is ridiculous.

In the "golden age" of Usenet that you seem to be harkening back
to, it would sometime take posts *days* to propagate. On
unmoderated newsgroups, too.

I personally haven't experienced a delay as long as three days
since Steve has taken over. However, if you are who I think you
are, I seem to recall that you have been very critical of the
moderation model in the past. I'm not sure there is much that
anyone could do to satisfy what you perceive as problems (which
others of us perceive as features). I just think you would be
critical of any moderated forum. That is your privilege, of course,
but the situation in this newsgroup shows you the flip side and why
moderation is useful.

ARB was long-established, but with relatively low traffic, even
in the days when Bill was moderating RRB, and I even believe Bill
had a hand in its creation. The alt hierarchy always had a reputation
of being somewhat unruly.

Bill, of course, was always actively promoting RRB. If you had not
posted for a while, Bill would be checking up on you to see what
was going on. He also started the "Radio Watcher" program. But
Bill dedicated much of his life and his passion to "Airwaves". That
kind of combination is rare and sets a standard difficult for 99%
of any potential moderators to meet.

| I know R-Info must be doing something
| right for its popularity, but there is too much content too scattered about;
| you're forced to decide in advance which micro-topic you care to follow; and
| many are dead ends, which you find out the hard way.

I agree with you there. Radio-Info started out largely with a
geographic focus, and the quality of each of the "boards" really
would vary, depending upon the level of activity and the quality of
participants. I think the owners have tried to broaden the focus
with additional format-oriented and historical "boards", but the
problem of fissiparousness remains: there are just too many
micro-topics and, often, not enough people to discuss them.

I think the reasonable approach is simply to recognize that there
are multiple channels for discussion, using multiple formats, and
it is up to you to pick and choose where you spend your time, based
upon quality of content, sophistication of filtering, and ease of use.

It also, unfortunately, means that if ARB is turning into garbage
because of idiots from RRS (which descended into idiocy years ago),
then there will be nothing to stop it.

And then "DxAce" and all the other hyperpoliticized morons will just
be grunting to themselves.

I used to think mailing lists were hard to handle, but the acquisition
of a Gmail account has shown me that there may be a way to make
them manageable. But web boards...ugh.


--
Mark Roberts | "Never do math on television."
Oakland, Cal.| -- KTVU meteorologist Bill Martin, January 3, 2005
NO HTML MAIL |
Permission to archive this article in any form is hereby ********ly denied.

rich wood

I'm not sure why my name is in the subject, but I'm here. Just taking
a break from some of the political crud posted here. I've also moved
and am exploring my new surroundings. It's much more fun.

Business projects have taken a lot of time, as well.

Rich

bob haberkost

| I'm not sure why my name is in the subject, but I'm here. Just taking
| a break from some of the political crud posted here. I've also moved
| and am exploring my new surroundings. It's much more fun.

That was my guess, actually, but more of a reaction than a distraction. So I
wasn't quite right. Not that it mattered.

| Business projects have taken a lot of time, as well.

Good, however, to see you well and now, a bit more relaxed.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by
evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious
encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." -- Justice
Brandeis
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-