ADMINISTRIVIA: Moderator Change

[Jim Griffith - Moderator]

After some eleven years of moderating this newsgroup, I've turned over
moderating responsibility to Steve Pearl. I received many offers of
assistance, and Steve's was the one with the best balance of history of
contributing and familiarity with USENET moderating. Steve will shortly post
details of new addresses and whatever else he sees fit to say. It wasn't
easy reaching this point. I've been doing this for almost 1/3 of my life,
and it took a lot for me to finally admit that I was doing more harm to the
newsgroup by keeping it than I was helping it. In the end, I was more
willing to brush off the idiot or newbie (somewhat rudely) than I was to
encourage them to contribute correctly, and that just doesn't help foster a
good experience. I have no doubts that Steve will make things better,
while staying true to the newsgroup's original intent.

I appreciate the support and interest you've shown in the past eleven years.
It's been quite an experience. In writing this up, I did a mental flashback
to some of the more memorable moderating incidents. There was the fun I had
in the early days, when Tim Lynch and Vidiot would contribute large amounts
of stuff (including multiple, complete versions of Vidiot's TNG guide), the
time Tim and Richard Arnold had, uh, an "encounter", the infamous rec.arts.sf
renaming (I still keep a copy of the USENET Olympics online), receiving mail
from Diane Duane and Bjo Trimble, the occasional media exposure, the
condolence letters for the Roddenberrys and the Kelleys, the Woodside and
Cantor & Siegel spam, the occasional idiot who equated moderators with
censors (or "cencors", as was often the case), and many more incidents that
I've forgotten. It's nice to be able to look back on this stuff with such
fondness, especially considering the intensity I brought to some of these
events.

I want to especially thank those who showed or continue to show a history
of contributing to the newsgroup and All Things Trek, especially Tim Lynch,
Mike "Vidiot" Brown, Sashi Alexandra German, Steven Weiss, David Henderson.
In reality, a moderator is usually nothing more than a filter, and a
newsgroup is only as good as its contributors. I appreciate how you guys
made this newsgroup as good as it was for so many years, and I hope you
continue to do so.

I'm not really going anywhere. I'm still around and reachable at
grif...@olagrande.net. I'm just getting lazy in my old age. And, of
course, I'll continue to contribute whatever I hear of interest. I just
won't be able to automatically approve it...

Jim

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Jim Griffith /--OO--\ | Two great powers are on our side: the power of
grif...@olagrande.net | Love and the power of Arithmetic. These two are
BEWARE BATS WITHOUT NOSES! | stronger than anything else in the world.