Gregers,
I believe that BIOSCI do filter the postings to all their newsgroups for spam
but no spam filters are 100% effective. I don't think that fluorpro gets any
more spam than the other BIOSCI newsgroups.
Spam has the greatest impact on people who subscribe to the fluorpro list by
Email. It is preferable to read the newsgroup using a newsreader or on the web
as it is then relatively easy to recognize and skip bogus postings.
BIOSCI does offer the option of making the newgroup moderated (The details are
off the BIOSCI home page somewhere). Although a moderator could eliminate all
the spam, I see several disadvantages to moderating the newsgroup:
1. Postings are delayed until the moderator has had time to review them.
(How fast can you expect the moderator to review postings? What happens when
the moderator is on vacation?)
2. If the newsgroup is moderated there will always be a suspicion that some
postings might be being censored. (This would be particularly true if the
moderator was from a compnay that marketed FP products).
3. Person(s) need to be found who would be willing to commit time to being a
moderator.
The spam is annoying, but I think skipping over it when browsing the postings on
the web is preferable to compromising the rapid and free exchange of ideas we
have now.
How do other people feel?
-=paul=-
> From: "Gregers Gram" <gregers.gram at inet.uni2.dk>
> To: <kitts at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>
> Subject: Fluorpro on Clontech.com
> Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 08:29:17 +0100
>> Hi Paul Kitts
> The Flourpro newsgroup is filled always with spam mail. I have heard that
news-servers can't refuse incomming mails.
> Therefore why don't Clontech host the fluorpro newsgropus and keeping it clean
and relevant.
>> If you don't have connections to Clontech any longer, please forward the mail
to the right person.
>> Sincerely,
>> Gregers J. Gram
