After doing some checking around and pretty much convincing myself that
what I want to do is not possible with Listserv yet, I would like to
submit this idea for the next version of Listserv.
Background:
I own a list that is setup with Send=Editor that is very active (over
70 posts/day) with about 400 subscribers. Yes I know, this isn't
really that active, but for a group that's moderated (to take Usenet
terminology), that's still alot of post for me to read everyday.
Many of the posts come from a group of people that are what I call the
'regulars'. I ALWAYS approve anything they send so I eventually ended
up just adding another Editor= tag with their address to the list
header. I now have about 75 such Editor tags in the list header.
Side note: I have since heard that I can create a 2nd list (with
Subscribe=Closed, Confidential=Yes) and subscribe all my 'automatically
approve people' to it. I can then have set Editor=(other-list). I
haven't tried this yet, but I will.
The problem:
Even with the above, the work load for 1 person is still rather large.
It's easy enough to deal with those times that I go on vacation (simply
move someone else up to the top spot in the Editor: list and let them
do the approving of the posts), but the everyday volume is still a
bit daunting.
In reality, there are 2 concepts of list managment that I'm trying to
accomplish with the same tag (the Editor: tag). One is I would like to
have a list of people that are only 'automatically approved'. (ie.
they can send to the list without my intervention, but they don't get
posts from other people to approve). This part I have done. The other
is I would like to have a group of people that split the posts and share
the Editor tasks. This part I cannot do with Listserv.
The proposal:
I would like to see the way that the "Editor" tag works changed.
Specifically, allow an optional argument to the value in the field such
that Listserv would know which values were to have posts from people
sent. Those posts would be rotated equally amoung those people with
the argument. For example:
[log in to unmask],M Chris Barnes
[log in to unmask],M John Doe
[log in to unmask],M Steve Friend
[log in to unmask] Bill
[log in to unmask] Rush
In this example, the first 3 folks (Chris, John, & Steve) would receive
posts for approving from other people. The last 2 (Bill and Rush) would
not be involved in approving other people's posts, but their own posts
to the list would be approved without Chris, John, or Steve taking
action.
Is all this clear as mud?
Then a post comes in from (for example) [log in to unmask], then Listserv
would send the post to whomever was due to receive the next post (which
does mean that Listserv would need some way to keep track of which
Editor got the last one). If Listserv gets to the end of the Editor
fields without hitting that magic ",M" then it goes back to the top
and the person first in line gets the post.
I really don't have a good idea of how hard this would be to implement,
but I don't think it would really be *that* hard. My guess is that
Listserv would just keep a file on the same disk as the archives
(called "listname EDITOR" ?) that would hold the address of the last
moderator that got hit.
What do ya'll think? Is this something the rest of the Listserv user
community wants? Is this something that is doable (Eric?)? Or am
I just off my rocker?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Barnes (409) 846-3273 (home)
[log in to unmask] (409) 845-9520 (work)
"A child was born to win, but too many have been conditioned to loose."
- Zig Ziglar
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