[continued from previous message]   
      
   level in two steps: bag it and tag it.  That's it, and as good posters   
   learn the process and tag the posts themselves it can run even   
   more smoothly.   
      
   There are lots of other bells and whistles that can be added   
   as well.  So for example there could be a Rate Post link and   
   a poster's rating and history might help moderators decide   
   which posts need to be looked at more closely.  There could   
   be a Polls link where those in a thread can vote and updated   
   results could be given as the thread continues.  Posters could   
   have links in their sigs as they do now, and so the potential   
   to involve the web and interact with other posters is there.   
      
   Google and web boards have this now, but it would even be   
   possible in nntp because the Rate Post and Polls links, for   
   example. could be added in an OM section of two or three   
   lines at the start or end of all posts.   
      
   An Optional Moderation site could also offer free pages to   
   post profiles, if the user wants to do that.  Remember that   
   everyone posting to the OM hierarchy will have chosen to   
   do so.  Those not interested will continue to post to the   
   Big 8 or alt.* or wherever they do now.  The Optional   
   Moderation hierarchy would have the ability to develop its   
   own "community" in a sense, which might be quite different   
   than Usenet is now.  I doubt om.* ever becomes Facebook or   
   Twitter in its tone or culture, but within that om.talk division   
   there could be a label for chat, defined as no more than   
   whatever number of characters of back-and-forth discussion.  :-)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)