New moderator: speak now...

[Chuck Karish]

Submitted-by: karish at mindcraft.com (Chuck Karish)

After withdrawals from candidacy by all the other volunteers,
Sean Eric Fagan (seanf at sco.com) is the provisional replacement
moderator for com.std.unix.

If there's any objection to simply accepting him as the new moderator
by acclamation, please speak up now, either by posting or by E-mail to
me (karish at mindcraft.com).  If I don't hear anything within a week of
the time I see this posting come back from John, I'll send an
announcement to news.announce.newgroups that the reins have been
shifted.

One of the other volunteers has expressed concern about perceptions of
possible conflict of interest, in that Sean is an employee of a major
UNIX vendor.

I have several answers to this concern.

First, the idea that anyone can be truly objective about anything is a
polite fiction at best.  We all try to be fair, and a good-faith effort
in this direction is all we can hope for.  If anyone thinks the
moderator is showing bias, USENET offers plenty of channels to express
dissatisfaction, both public and private.

Second, all of us have our own axes to grind, as users, as vendors, or
as service providers.  The fact that a particular axe may be sharpened
by the thought of commercial advantage doesn't make it any more or less
legitimate than one that comes from a different set of preferences.  I
suggest that we use the approach that the POSIX committees use:  Every
participant is assumed to speak for her/himself.  It's assumed that ALL
participants have something at stake, or they wouldn't bother to do all
that work.

Third, Sean has agreed to post some sort of disclaimer cooked up with
the help of his employer's legal staff.  I hope I don't have to page
past it too many times; I don't really think it's necessary.

	Chuck Karish		karish at mindcraft.com
	Mindcraft, Inc.		(415) 323-9000

Volume-Number: Volume 22, Number 132