moderator.isc.org not working?

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

I am one of the moderators for sci.physics.research. I support the
direct addresses sci-physic...@astro.multivax.de for posts and
physics-rese...@astro.multivax.de for reaching all active
moderators. Those who know can send to these addresses. However, most
news servers are (directly) configured to use the corresponding
addresses @moderators.isc.org. However, mail to these bounces.

Can anyone confirm this? Feel free to send messages with "test" and
"ignore" in the subject line to sci.physics.research via any of the
addresses above.

Are other groups affected?

Obviously, moderators.isc.org is out of my control. Nothing has changed
at my end and other incoming mail works OK.

[Thomas Hochstein]

Phillip Helbig wrote:

> I am one of the moderators for sci.physics.research. I support the
> direct addresses sci-physic...@astro.multivax.de for posts and
> physics-rese...@astro.multivax.de for reaching all active
> moderators. Those who know can send to these addresses. However, most
> news servers are (directly) configured to use the corresponding
> addresses @moderators.isc.org.

I don't think there is a corresponding address for
physics-research-request at moderators.isc.org.

> However, mail to these bounces.

A bounce message would be most helpful here.

There are currently three mail exchangers (MX) for mail to addresses
at moderators.isc.org:
- mod-relay.xvm.mit.edu
- moderators.individual.net
(by Freie Universität Berlin and its news.individual.net service)
- moderators.schnuerpel.eu
(by the late Alexander Bartolich of news.albasani.net and now,
I presume, by Roman Racine)

Those relays are used randomly in a round-robin fashion.

It may be possible that (only) one mail relay is misconfigured or is
applying to strict spam filtering. AFAIS, formerly there was no spam
filtering installed, until moderators.schnuerpel.eu started that [1];
both other relays don't filter, I think.

A bounce message would show
(a) which relay refused to deliver the original message and
(b) why.

I have checked that all three relays generally accept mail to the
sci-physics-research address.

Furthermore, I have send a test mail via all three servers; all accept
that mail (and obviously try to forward it). The only peculiarity -
concerning moderators.schnuerpel.eu - is a *transient* (4xx) error due
to greylisting, but the test message makes it through when repeated,
as all mail servers should do.

Perhaps you can check whether you got *three* messages with a Subject
of "test posting - plesae ignore" and a (purposefully) missing
Message-ID in your moderation queue.

AFAICS there should be no problem on the side of the three relays
(while I can't check if they send my message that they accepted on to
your address); it *may* be possible however that some senders get
confused by the transient error code emitted by
moderators.schnuerpel.eu and bounce the message.

Regards,
-thh

[1] At least, there is greylisting currently active.

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <lhpdm3$ef2$1...@online.de>, hel...@astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de

The relay seems to be working again. Thanks for the test messsages. I
don't know what the problem was. It seems there was a real glitch for a
couple of days.

[Thomas Hochstein]

Phillip Helbig---undress to reply schrieb:

> I am one of the moderators for sci.physics.research. I support the
> direct addresses sci-physic...@astro.multivax.de for posts and
> physics-rese...@astro.multivax.de for reaching all active
> moderators. Those who know can send to these addresses. However, most
> news servers are (directly) configured to use the corresponding
> addresses @moderators.isc.org.

I don't think there is a corresponding address for
physics-research-request at moderators.isc.org.

> However, mail to these bounces.

A bounce message would be most helpful here.

There are currently three mail exchangers (MX) for mail to addresses
at moderators.isc.org:
- mod-relay.xvm.mit.edu
- moderators.individual.net
(by Freie Universität Berlin and its news.individual.net service)
- moderators.schnuerpel.eu
(by the late Alexander Bartolich of news.albasani.net and now,
I presume, by Roman Racine)

Those relays are used randomly in a round-robin fashion.

It may be possible that (only) one mail relay is misconfigured or is
applying to strict spam filtering. AFAIS, formerly there was no spam
filtering installed, until moderators.schnuerpel.eu started that [1];
both other relays don't filter, I think.

A bounce message would show
(a) which relay refused to deliver the original message and
(b) why.

I have checked that all three relays generally accept mail to the
sci-physics-research address.

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <supersedes-648.n...@landroval.ancalagon.de>,

Thomas Hochstein <t...@inter.net> writes:

> > I am one of the moderators for sci.physics.research. I support the
> > direct addresses sci-physic...@astro.multivax.de for posts and
> > physics-rese...@astro.multivax.de for reaching all active
> > moderators. Those who know can send to these addresses. However, most
> > news servers are (directly) configured to use the corresponding
> > addresses @moderators.isc.org.
>
> I don't think there is a corresponding address for
> physics-research-request at moderators.isc.org.

Hhmmm...there should be. And I think there once was.

> Perhaps you can check whether you got *three* messages with a Subject
> of "test posting - plesae ignore" and a (purposefully) missing
> Message-ID in your moderation queue.

I saw one; presumably other moderators saw the others. At least the
submission address seems to be working now.

[Kathy Morgan]

D. Stussy <spam+ne...@bde-arc.ampr.org> wrote:

> It would be nice if the relays themselves publicly listed somewhere which
> newsgroups (or newsgroup patterns) they have moderator addresses for. At
> least that way, various news admins could see which groups need specific
> entries in the "moderators" local file and/or which are improperly listed as
> moderated when they should not be, etc....

My understanding is that the moderation relays get their moderator
addresses for the Big8 newsgroups (and probably also many others) from
MX records provided by isc.org. All three of the moderation relays
receive the same information.

News admins should be getting information about which groups are
supposed to be moderated, and which groups are "legitimate" from the
hierarchy manager for managed hierarchies. In the case of the Big 8,
that would be the monthly checkgroups message, other pgp signed control
messages, or the monthly posting to news.announce.newgroups "List of Big
Eight Newsgroups." In managed hierarchies, if they have a group
incorrectly listed as open or moderated, that is because they are
willfully failing to administer their server properly, or are buying
news service from one of the major providers who fails to administer the
server properly.

> By itself, that won't answer the problem in the question above as to whether
> a given moderated group's moderator mailbox is correct, but it would address
> when it's missing and should be there, or when it's present and shouldn't.

A moderator can check if his/her moderator mailbox is correct by sending
an email test message to the canonical address
<group...@moderators.isc.org>. If they receive the test submission,
the address is present and correct. If they don't receive it, they
should receive a bounce message that will give some clues about where
the problem lies. If the address is missing or incorrect, they should
be able to correct it by sending a message with the correction
information to <moderator...@isc.org>. Ideally, this should be
sent from the moderation address of record prior to making the change in
address.

--
Kathy

[Jonathan Kamens]

Thomas Hochstein <t...@inter.net> writes:
>It may be possible that (only) one mail relay is misconfigured or is
>applying to strict spam filtering. AFAIS, formerly there was no spam
>filtering installed, until moderators.schnuerpel.eu started that [1];
>both other relays don't filter, I think.

mod-relay.xvm.mit.edu uses the SpamHaus Zen blocklist and
always has.

[Jonathan Kamens]

kmo...@spamcop.net (Kathy Morgan) writes:
>D. Stussy <spam+ne...@bde-arc.ampr.org> wrote:
>
>> It would be nice if the relays themselves publicly listed somewhere which
>> newsgroups (or newsgroup patterns) they have moderator addresses for.

I agree. I had thought that the current aliases file was
posted somewhere on ftp.isc.org, but I can't find it there now.

I suppose it is possible that they don't publish it because
that would just invite more spam to be sent to moderators.

>My understanding is that the moderation relays get their moderator
>addresses for the Big8 newsgroups (and probably also many others) from
>MX records provided by isc.org.

We get email updates when the aliases file changes, and we
have tooling in place to automatically apply those updates to
our mirrored copied of the aliases list.