On Thu, 7 Aug 1997 12:37:46 -0400 Mary Schweitzer said:
>Hey folks, changing the subject to something that is actually
>on-topic here ...
>
>All summer I've been trying to figure out how to get a USENET
>site for one of my home.ease.lsoft.com discussion lists.  Mostly
>I have gotten messages saying, "Why would you want to get on
>USENET?"  Please, I already have my reasons.  I don't want those
>responses.  I have three lists that are not gated; this fourth
>would be gated for a reason.  I know what I am doing.

I, for one, agree that gating big, open lists, to a Usenet group
is a *good thing* (tm).  For example, it cut the traffic on one of
my lists from 2,000 to just over 600 while the total number readers
has grown.   I would suggest actually going through the process of
creating a Usenet group in a real hierachy (not for the faint of
heart, btw) instead of just dumping it into the bit.* hierachy (my
2 lists are in the rec.* hierachy).

I wish ALL newsgroups were made Moderated with a listserv list as
the moderator.  If that were done:
a) The Listserv would catch at least some of the spamming
b) Whomever owned the list could FILTER some of the ill behaved people.
c) If the list were set to Send= Public, there is no slowdown in
   posts to the group.


>Except ... the only way I knew how to get to USENET with a
>moderated list was ... via The Gate At American University.
>
>Which appears to have died.  Or if not dead, then terminally ill.
>
>After Jim ran screaming from the building, Paul took over the
>task of running the show, and now he has run screaming from the
>building.

That's too bad, Jim had done a marvelous job.  The good news however is
that I've heard (unconfirmed hearsay follows) that most standard INN
newsservers have the ability to do the gatewaying.  It's included as a
function of the software.  Thus, you'll just need to find a news admin
(the one at the site where your list exists would be the #1 choice) who
will configure it to work properly.  To them, that means that it
a) receives email
b) looks in the headers for a Newsgroups: tag
c) puts the article in the group


>SO -- what now?  Is there such a thing as a moderated USENET
>site by itself without a list?  Do I NEED the gateway to accomplish
>what I want -- which is basically an announcements newsgroup, not
>a chit-chat newsgroup?  I don't want it to look like bit.admin
>does these days ...

Here's what I did.
a) Went through the vote process to have my newsgroup created as a
   MODERATED group.

b) the moderator address of the group was the email address of the
   Listserv list.

c) The Listserv list has the keywords
   * Newsgroups= mynewsgroup
   * Send=       Editor
   * Editor=     myaddress
   * Moderator=  myaddress again
   * Moderator=  another person's address

(there are 2 of us that approve posts, that's the reason for the
Moderator keyword.  If it's just you, you can stick with just a Editor).

** Do note that anyone 1/2 smart in Usenet headers can spoof the
Approved: tag and get their article posted without going through you.