From group-admin at isc.org Mon Jun 2 07:45:08 1997 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: group-admin at isc.org (David C Lawrence) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: cmsg newgroup news.newusers.questions moderated Control: newgroup news.newusers.questions moderated Approved: newgroups-reques at isc.org Message-ID: <865261809.22546@isc.org> Date: Mon, 02 Jun 1997 14:30:09 GMT Lines: 142 X-Info: ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README.html ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/pgpcontrol/README X-PGP-Sig: 2.6.2 Subject,Control,Message-ID,Date,From,Sender iQCVAwUBM5LY8sJdOtO4janBAQFvngP+PO8wxWYwcdxaqlhMMz2zKMuQJISMlvcd wfYeErHmH5dA1iySeW2Q6XYPF8xb+HUo0IGb8tCBevjDfENbM24rpRwXp+4W0HX3 T7GVeKR0S4c6pOKX4AgmuZunrr25/OgLIugQU/fj1iZdDiagEpoSyagcbrqJfeeo DQGZdg8L6XU= =az9p Xref: news.isc.org control.newgroup:5250 news.newusers.questions is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation by 357:25 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 19 May 1997. Group submission address: nnq-mod at presby.edu Moderator contact address: nnq-admin at presby.edu (Jon Bell, Ethan Bradford, Dennis Calhoun, Denis McKeon, Stella Nemeth, Barbara Pattist, Kivi Shapiro) For your newsgroups file: news.newusers.questions Q & A for new users of Usenet. (Moderated) The charter, culled from the vote result announcement: NEWS.NEWUSERS.QUESTIONS (n.n.q) is for questions, answers and advice about using Usenet news and other Internet newsgroups and services. Articles which do not contribute to educating or informing new users about Usenet are inappropriate for this newsgroup. Some examples of inappropriate posts include: Chain letters, including "Make Money Fast" articles Known hoaxes (like the "Good Times Virus") Announcements of non-relevant Web pages Announcements of non-relevant services Personal introductions or requests for e-mail Irrelevant questions or conversation Articles offering items for sale Commercial advertisements Test articles These posts may be rejected regardless of their topic: Articles which aren't primarily text in a standard alphabet (e.g. binaries, pictures, Rot13). Articles cross-posted to several newsgroups (except proper FAQs) Articles posted as separate copies to many newsgroups ("spam") Excessively long articles (more than ~200 lines or ~10K bytes) Articles containing significantly more quoted than new content Articles with no subject Duplicate/rapidly reposted messages The newsgroup will be moderated by a Moderation Board, consisting of a Head Moderator and a pool of Backup Moderators. The moderation process will be overseen by the Head Moderator, who may employ assistants from the pool of Backup Moderators as the need arises. Only members of the Moderation Board have the power to judge posts. The current moderation procedures and policies will be described in an Administrative Statement, which will be maintained by the Head Moderator, with any changes subject to veto by the Board. The Statement will be posted to the group whenever it changes, and at least once per month. It will be available at all times at an address posted regularly in the group. All posts to the group may be processed through moderation software which will take one of the following actions on each article: 1. Reject it outright if it meets certain criteria; 2. Forward it to a Board member if it meets certain other criteria; or 3. Post it immediately. The criteria being used by either the moderation software or human moderators will be described in the Administrative Statement. They will not refer to the source of the articles except that the Head Moderator may place certain individuals or sites which repeatedly try to post off-topic material on a "watch list," which will cause their articles to be forwarded to a human moderator for review. The Head Moderator may also declare certain off-topic discussion threads to be "closed," so that no more articles in that thread will be accepted. Rejected articles will, if possible, be returned to the sender along with a letter of explanation. Rejected articles may be appealed to an address specified in the Administrative Statement and in any letter of rejection. If an article was rejected by a human moderator, the appeal will be judged by a different moderator. In the event of abuse of the appeals process, the Moderation Board will decide what action will be taken to deal with the abuse. An article will normally be subject to rejection only at the time it is submitted. Canceling of articles after they have been posted ("retromoderation") will not be used for general content control. Cancelations will be permitted only under the following special circumstances: 1. When performed or requested by the original poster or by his/ her Internet Service Provider; 2. When performed by the Head Moderator, to cancel articles with forged approvals; or 3. When performed by reputable third-party cancelers (as determined by the Head Moderator), to cancel articles that are widely considered to be undesirable in most of Usenet, e.g. binaries and excessively multiposted articles ("spam"). In addition to rejecting inappropriate articles, the moderators may take measures to discourage users from submitting such articles in the first place, including: 1. Appending short "footers" to all posted articles, informing newcomers of the purpose of the newsgroup and providing references to more detailed information about the newsgroup, the Usenet community, and the Internet in general; and 2. E-mailing "welcome" messages to all first-time posters, containing similar information as in (1). Other than appending a footer or adding headers, the moderators will not modify the content of a posted article The Head Moderator will submit a report to the Moderation Board each month, providing statistics on the functioning of the group, a summary of the articles appealed, and a list of any changes to the Administrative Statement or the moderation software. The Board may instruct the Head Moderator to eliminate any automatic rejection or forwarding criterion from the moderation software. The Board may elect a new Head Moderator if the position becomes vacant; the Head Moderator or the Board may appoint a Backup Moderator to fill in for the Head Moderator during short periods of absence. The Board also has the power to remove a Head Moderator. It may remove a Head Moderator who has been in office for less than six weeks through a simple majority vote of all members. A Moderator who has been in office for more than six weeks may only be removed by a 2/3 majority vote of those who have been on the Board for at least six weeks. The Board controls its own membership. It may admit new members with a simple majority vote, or remove members who have served for less than six weeks with a simple majority vote. Members who have served longer than six weeks may only be removed by a 2/3 vote of those who have been on the Board for at least six weeks. The Board will make a good-faith effort to maintain a membership of at least three persons. The working charter for the group may be modified by a 2/3 vote of those who have been members of the Moderation Board for at least six weeks. A copy of the current charter will be available at a location given in the Administrative Statement.