Charter for the newsgroup news.newusers.questions
Thor Kottelin
<URL:http://www.anta.net/misc/nnq/charter.shtml>.
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
- Disruptive articles (articles that disrupt commonly-used newsreading
systems, such as articles that contain scripts or hyper-links that exploit
newsreading or web-browsing software problems, or that contain computer
viruses)
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. The Head Moderator may delegate
responsibilities and authority to any of the Backup Moderators as the need
arises. The Head Moderator may also withdraw such delegation and/or
reassign it to another Backup Moderator. 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, or
another moderator designated by 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. If a sender repeatedly ignores the return of an
inappropriate posting, or cannot be notified because of an invalid
address, and continues to try to re-post the same (or substantially the
same) material, the Head Moderator may configure the moderation software
to automatically discard all postings of that type from that sender,
without attempting to return them. Since his actions are subject to veto
by the Board membership, the Head Moderator must notify the other Board
members of any such action.
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.
Cancellations 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, or another moderator
designated by the Head Moderator, to cancel articles with forged
approvals;
3.. When performed by the Head Moderator, or another moderator
designated by the Head Moderator, to cancel disruptive articles as
described above under "These posts may be rejected regardless of their
topic:"; or
4.. 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 at least
every three months, providing statistics on the number of articles
processed and their disposal. He will inform the Moderation Board of any
appeals of rejected articles, and their disposition, as they occur. He
will also inform the Moderation Board of any substantive changes to 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 Head 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.