making CONNECTIONISTS a moderated newsgroup

[Dave_Touretzky@DST.BOLTZ.CS.CMU.EDU]

The CONNECTIONISTS list has grown too large to continue its current mode of
operation.  There are over 900 addresses in the CMU-maintained mailing
list, and several dozen of those are actually redistribution points at
various sites around the globe, rather than individuals.  So we probably
have a couple of thousand readers overall.  I think it may be time to
switch to a moderated newsgroup.

The problems with the current mode of operation are:

  - Too many misdirected messages.  The clueless will always be with us.
    But wading through dozens of subscribe, unsubscribe, and "please send
    me a copy of your tech report" messages has become tiresome.

  - Too much misuse of the list.  Requests for people's mailing addresses, or
    for very elementary information about neural nets, are not appropriate for
    CONNECTIONISTS, but we keep getting them anyway.

  - It's too easy to start flamefests or off-topic discussions.

  - The load on the CMU mailer is incredible.  There is a substantial delay
    in forwarding messages because we have to send out 900 copies of each
    one.  Dozens of these bounce back due to temporary network outages, 
    changes to host names, accounts being shut down at end of term, etc.

  - The load on the list maintainer(s) is increasing.  Most of the time is
    now spent dealing with bounced mail messages.

I propose converting CONNECTIONISTS to a moderated Usenet newsgroup.  The
moderators will review each message and forward only those that meet the
stated criteria for appropriateness.  The idea is to keep the list focused
on informed technical discussion, plus relevant announcements of
conferences, technical reports, and the like.  Messages that the moderators
deem inappropriate will be rejected.

Note that there is already a Usenet newsgroup called comp.ai.neural-nets.
This newsgroup is not moderated, and therefore has a very low signal to
noise ratio.  In other words, it's mostly junk.  Messages that aren't
appropriate for CONNECTIONISTS can always be sent there, where they will no
doubt be eagerly read by thousands of people.

For those readers who don't have Usenet access, we will continue to
maintain a small mailing list here at CMU so you can continue to get
CONNECTIONISTS by email.  Most of you do have access to Usenet, and so the
only two changes you should observe if we go ahead with this proposal are:
(1) the signal to noise ratio will be greatly improved, and (2) you will
have to use your system's newsreading software rather than email software
to read and/or post to CONNECTIONISTS.

****************

We are soliciting comments on this proposed change.  Please send them to
Connectionists-Request at cs.cmu.edu, where they will be collected by the list
maintainer.  Don't bother sending brief "yes" votes; we expect that most
people already support this plan.  But if you want to argue against the
plan, or raise technical issues we may have overlooked, then by all means
send us your comments.

  * Do not send them to me directly.  Send them to Connectionists-Request.

  * Do not reply to the whole CONNECTIONISTS list... or else!

-- Dave Touretzky and Hank Wan