Ebola, b.v. and newsgroup moderation

[Karl Fischer]

After reading >70 Ebola postings over the past two days, I've
unfortunately had to add Ebola as a keyword to my kill file. No, not
because I am uninterested in the virus but because the bionet.virolgy
newsgroup has been inundated with posts which smack of "I saw this on
TV/read it in the Post and am posting this to show how informed I am".

As has been succinctly stated by Doug Neubauer, the majority of these
postings would best be posted to sci.bio, IMHO. Or, owing to the majority
of the content of these postings, alt.media.scare and sci.hype ;-)

But this has brought up once again attacks dealing with b.v. being elitist
in how virologists deal with postings from ...hmmm...now where are those
notes..."the public", "lay people" and <my favorite> "armchair
hacks"...and since this blather has been beaten to death time...and
time..and time again...

So - what to do? Though I dread saying it, moderation of the newsgroup
would seem to be the only way to change from the current media-driven
pseudo-scientific hype to a virological discussion forum for
professionals. That is what it was intended to do...right? 

To you, the professional, the researcher, I ask - Do we get a moderator?

And to the "armchair hacks" (how I love that phrase)...have fun in sci.bio.

Cheers

Karl

ps. For faster responses to your flames, please attach to the body of your
message your VISA/AE/MC card number and expiration date.

-- 
Karl Fischer
kfischer at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
tyr-2 at bones.biochem.ualberta.ca