> A question before I take the time to respond to your questionaire about pro
> and cons of "moderation".  I don't "moderate" my list, since I don't feel it
> is appropriate or productive to do so.  Before I would try to explain why,
> I'd like to confirm that you are not surveying only owners of moderated lists
> (as opposed to a sampling of all listowners).  I presume the latter, since it
> seems clear that if you surveyed only moderators you'd get a very biased
> answer to questions about whether lists should be moderated.  Thanks. -- Phil
> Sollins (OTS-L)
 
 Dr. Berge and I are the list owners/moderators of IPCT-L@GUVM, Interpersonal
 Computing and Technology list...and editors of IPCT-J, an electronic journal
 arising from the ipct-l list.
 
 We started researching the role of electronic group moderators as we tried
 to find guidelines for what we were doing on our own list.  We also have a
 presentation on scholarly discussion groups, esp. IPCT-L scheduled for the
 AECT conference in New Orleans in January, and an editorial for the first
 issue of IPCT-J due the end of January.
 
 We have sampled moderated usenet groups, and the membership of listown-l
 and arachnet.  We are specifically looking for the opinions of listowners
 and moderators in this pass.  We will be sampling list memberships in
 a slightly different survey to ascertain their views.
 
 There is barely a handful of articles in the literature concerning
 the role of moderators in electronic discussion groups and none deal with
 usenet and/or bitnet groups.  And while moderators of such groups are few
 in number, we believe they have a unique role to play in the forum of
 scholarly discussion.
 
 We would very much have liked to be able to turn to the literature to
 determine what, if any, standards had been discussed or developed for a
 moderator's role. We have also constructed an editorial policy and are
 looking to determine if other groups have policies and, if so, what are
 the common issues that they address.
 
 We may chose to quote from our survey replies, and will obtain permission
 from all those chosen...by sending them exactly what we want to quote and
 asking respondents to annotate it with their permission.
 
 We invite and appreciate your responses.
 
  }|{ mauri
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 (ms) mauri collins m a           /\\//\   Managing Editor:
 Internet:[log in to unmask]  > () <   The IPCT Electronic Journal
 BITnet: collins@psuvm            \/()\/   Georgetown U/Penn State U
 Moderator: IPCT-L@GUVM - Interpersonal Computing and Technology List.
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  }|{ mauri
--------------------------------------------------------------------
(ms) mauri collins m a           /\\//\   Managing Editor:
Internet:[log in to unmask]  > () <   The IPCT Electronic Journal
BITnet: collins@psuvm            \/()\/   Georgetown U/Penn State U
Moderator: IPCT-L@GUVM - Interpersonal Computing and Technology List.
---------------------------------------------------------------------