>From bostwick at cas.chemistry.gatech.edu Mon May 19 12:00:09 1997 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: bostwick at cas.chemistry.gatech.edu (David Bostwick) Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.newbie,alt.newbies,news.groups.questions,news.newusers.questions,soc.penpals Subject: RESULT: moderate news.newusers.questions passes 357:25 Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <864068288.22814@isc.org> Supersedes: <862242315.2118@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers (UVV) Approved: newgroups-request at isc.org Archive-Name: news.newusers.questions Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 18:58:14 GMT Lines: 630 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:428 RESULT moderated group news.newusers.questions (moderates existing group) passes 357:25 There were 357 YES votes and 25 NO votes, for a total of 382 valid votes. There were 2 abstains and 1 invalid vote. For group passage, YES votes must be at least 2/3 of all valid (YES and NO) votes. There also must be at least 100 more YES votes than NO votes. There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted. If no serious allegations of voting irregularities are raised, the moderator of news.announce.newgroups will create the group shortly thereafter. Newsgroups line: news.newusers.questions Q & A for new users of Usenet. (Moderated) The voting period ended at 23:59:59 UTC, 8 May 1997. This vote was conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to one of the proponents. Proponent: Jon Bell Proponent: Ethan Bradford Proponent: Michael Buchenrieder Proponent: Dennis Calhoun Proponent: David Farrar Proponent: Dave Howard Proponent: Denis McKeon Proponent: Stella Nemeth Proponent: Barbara Pattist Proponent: Kivi Shapiro Proponent: Jeremy Taylor Proponent: Katharine Weizel Votetaker: David Bostwick RATIONALE: news.newusers.questions News.newusers.questions (n.n.q) was intended to be a place where newcomers could ask questions about Usenet and other Internet services. Since June of 1995 traffic has increased dramatically to around 1000-1100 articles per day. Many of these are "test" articles ("does this really work?"), requests for contacts ("send me some e-mail"), and various other kinds of chatter which does not belong in n.n.q. As a result, fewer than 20% of the articles posted to n.n.q fall into the question-and-answer category. This makes it difficult both for new users who are overwhelmed by the heavy traffic in off-topic articles, and for the n.n.q helpers who are trying to give meaningful assistance to those users actually seeking advice about Usenet. The proponents of this change plan to moderate the group with the help of moderation software to return the group to readability without requiring an enormous amount of work from the human moderator(s). The charter below does not give a specific plan for implementing the moderation process, nor does it give a specific balance between robomoderation and hand-moderation. We expect it will be challenging to convert such a high-traffic group with such a naturally transient population of new users. We think that no one can say for sure which methods are likely to prove effective, short of complete hand- moderation, which we consider to be impractical. Therefore, we would like to have the freedom to try various approaches, within the limits specified below, and to determine by experiment which measures are effective. CHARTER: news.newusers.questions 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. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: news.newusers.questions Moderator: Jon Bell Moderator: Ethan Bradford Moderator: Dennis Calhoun Moderator: Denis McKeon Moderator: Stella Nemeth Moderator: Barbara Pattist Moderator: Kivi Shapiro Administrative contact address: nnq-admin at presby.edu Article submission address: nnq-mod at presby.edu END MODERATOR INFO. DISTRIBUTION: The CFVi for this group was posted to the following newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups news.groups alt.newbie alt.newbies news.groups.questions news.newusers.questions soc.penpals Pointers to the CFV were posted in the following newsgroup: nz.general news.newusers.questions (moderates existing group) Final Vote Ack [list of voter names and addresses deleted -- JB]