From: dnk@OMIT.csse.unimelb.edu.au   
      
   In <47b42f42$1@news.unimelb.edu.au> edgimar@lycos.com writes:   
      
   > It seems to me that the comp.ai and comp.ai.* newsgroups are overrun   
   > by posts announcing this or that thing, or calls for papers/proposals,   
   > etc.  Would it make sense to anyone to have separate newsgroups for   
   > this sort of thing, and other newsgroups which are discussion-only   
   > newsgroups?  The noise produced by all of the announcement posts seems   
   > to inhibit regular discussion of interesting topics.  If so, what   
   > steps must be taken to make this happen?   
      
   Comp.ai is moderated, most of the other comp.ai.* groups are not.   
   This means that anyone can post anything they want to the latter,   
   and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop them.   
      
   Comp.ai accepts CFP's that are relevant to AI, because that's part   
   of its charter.  They're always tagged with CFP: in the subject,   
   so it's easy for you to skip them if you don't want to read them,   
   unless you use some kind of idiotically basic technology to read   
   news. I'll continue to accept announcements and CFP's (if relevant)   
   here even if someone creates a special purpose announcement group.   
      
   FYI, what you see in comp.ai is less then 2% of what is submitted,   
   the rest is ads for p0rn sites, male pills, fake rolexes, MMF, etc.   
   The fact that there's so little on topic discussion is not because   
   it's drowned out by CFP's, but typical of many specialised technical   
   groups on usenet today - most of the intelligent contributors have   
   simply moved on from usenet to other forums.  IMHO, comp.ai still   
   (barely) serves some kind of useful purpose, with enough helpful   
   response to queries to justify the small effort of moderating it.   
      
   Feel free to propose new groups for discussion or announcements   
   as you see fit.  You just have to run over to news.groups and ask   
   for directions to the B*M Board, who are so totally desperate to   
   create anything, no matter how unlikely it is to be successful,   
   that they'll welcome you with open arms and create it for you   
   with no need for you to demonstrate that it's a sensible idea.   
      
   So in summary, it's silly to create unmoderated, discussion only   
   groups, because you can't keep other stuff out, and if you create   
   a new moderated discussion only group, prepare yourself for an   
   uphill battle to create any interest it, a load of work to set up   
   moderation mechanisms (for most moderators), and all sorts of   
   headaches related to poor propagation due to the low esteem in   
   which the B*M Board is held.   
      
   For the record, the comp.ai charter is below.   
   David Kinny, Moderator comp.ai   
      
      
   CHARTER: comp.ai   
      
   Comp.ai is a moderated forum for announcements, reports, enquiries and   
   discussions about the theory, practice, history and state-of-the-art   
   of Artificial Intelligence.  Its scope is AI in general, but it is not   
   intended to be a forum for postings concerning areas of AI for which   
   specialized subgroups exist, unless they have a clear wider relevance.   
   Announcements of conferences, books, other publications, researches,   
   applications, educational programs, and other happenings are relevant,   
   as are those of AI positions available and non-commercial AI software.   
      
   [ comp.ai is moderated ... your article may take a while to appear. ]   
      
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