Who at WebTV administrates alt.discuss?

Group: alt.discuss.config
Date: Sun, Nov 28, 1999, 1:37pm (MST-1)
From: nobody-munition@webtv.net (Nobody @Munitions)

Re: Again NOBODY the LONG RANT

xxxxxxx@webtv.net:
nobody has already said he is not in overall charge of these newsgroups. what nite is asking for ..is who and what dept IS in overall charge of these newsgroups.

For technical problems related to Usenet, send email to mailto:usenet@corp.webtv.net. This part of things is run by staff of the Network Operations group in Palo Alto, CA. TOS complaints sent to this address will be ignored.

For TOS complaints, the correct address is mailto:abuse@corp.webtv.net. These complaints are handled by the Compliance group within Customer Care. The Customer Care group lives in Mountain View, CA.

For suggestions and complaints about WebTV service or software, your best bet is to post in news:webtv.users. There is no direct access to the Engineering group, which also lives in Mountain View. news:webtv.users is a moderated newsgroup which is moderated by Customer Care staff members. At one time, Customer Care had a policy of passing "interesting" suggestions up the chain of command. Whether or not that is still done, I don't know. In general, suggestions from customers are of limited value: customers are rarely aware of the technical, fiscal and political constraints that apply to a complex service like WebTV's. (Not that you shouldn't still make suggestions. Miracles occasionally happen.)

WebTV is a corporation (actually, a wholly-owned subsidiary of another corporation). Asking for the names of individuals is pointless. Employees come and go. That's why "role" aliases, such as "usenet" and "abuse" are provided - when employees leave, their email accounts are removed, but the role aliases are still available.

Relating specifically to alt.discuss: WebTV employees who are sufficiently knowledgeable about the workings of Usenet can volunteer their personal time to help with the alt.discuss newsgroups. "nobody", like "usenet" and "abuse", is a role alias. The identity of the individuals using that alias may change at any time.

There was some interest in knowing what authority "nobody" actually has over alt.discuss: essentially total. The "nobodies" decided to give no-rules a try; when it became obvious that no-rules was a bad idea and a potential threat to the entire alt.discuss hierarchy (WebTV management ordered the removal of webtv.talk and later the w hierarchy - history *can* repeat itself) the "nobodies" decided to remove the gangrenous limb before it killed the patient, and the entire no-rules hierarchy was deleted. Our collective philosophy in regards to alt.discuss is one of minimal interference, but we have the authority (from WebTV's perspective - as far as WebTV is concerned,

alt.discuss is just another corner of the "alt" hierarchy) to arbitrarily create or delete groups (witness alt.discuss, the newsgroup). The "benevolent dictatorship" of the nobodies could change at any time. If WebTV decides either that alt.discuss should be removed, or that it represents a valuable asset that should be promoted, the "nobodies" will have no say in that matter. WebTV owns the servers and what they say goes. The current set of proposed and mandatory changes are the response of the "nobodies" to perceived problems in the a.d hierarchy. They are not being pushed by WebTV and it's quite possible that no WebTV employees other than the "nobodies" are even aware that changes are being made.

nobody@vote.munitions.com

email to nobody-munition will be read but seldom replied to. See article in news:alt.discuss for verification of this nicname.
OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OR POLICIES OF WEBTV NETWORKS INC.