CompuServe Messages

#Locked off the Forum

    28-May-94 13:37:12
Sb: #104344-#Locked off the Forum
Fm: Joe MacRae 76702,1302
To: Ted Boardman 71022,3001
Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning Ted, but I'm curious. Why does any sensible individual think that a CIS sysop is going to screw around with the membership of a CIS forum ??? The people that manage this forum (or any other forum on CIS) are hardworking, selfless individuals, just like most of the members of this forum. But for some reason, most members of this forum (in particular) look upon sysops and TM's as though they're on a "power" trip. For example, let's take a look at a remark made by one of the TM's a few weeks back when he asked if a little more care could be taken to post messages to the proper sections on the board. Do you remember the results of that request ??? I DO. The membership of this forum climbed all over him. In their minds he was interferring with the free flow of information here, but they also didn't realize that the message base has been massaged since day one and somebody had to put the messages where they belong so you guys can find them. It ain't fun wading through 100 to 300 messages at a time, trying to figure out where they belong, making sure that they get there, and picking up all the trailer replies that are COM(posed) rather than REP(lied)…like in this particluar thread. Moving anywhere from 30 to 100 messages at a crack kinda takes all the fun out of reading some of this stuff. It also isn't a lot of fun downloading a bunch of files, running a virus checker or two on the downloads, opening up archives, rerunning the virus checkers on the binarys, checking the text files for ASCII bombs, and finally operating or running each of the files to see if they work. It takes a LOT of time to do all this, but it's done on each and every file that is posted so that YOU can download it without the fear of contracting some deadly desease in your machine. Being a sysop is accepting a responsibility. Sure there are some tools that are given to a sysop, but those tools are necessary to accomplish the job. They aren't any different than the tools you use to accomplish your job. If you need a comparison for the job of sysop on CIS, the closest one I can come to is the one of the little guy in the white coat following the parade with his broom and dust pan. BTW. FYI. TM's and most of the Autodesk employees that have sysop powers don't have the ability to set an "L" flag or any other flag for that matter. But I DO.