CHARTER: misc.kids.family-life

Misc.kids.family-life is a lightly moderated newsgroup intended to
provide a relatively civil forum for people to discuss a broad range of
topics related to family life.  The goal of moderation is to remove
spam, eliminate blatantly malicious trolls, and maintain a level of
civility.  The moderators do not apply topic restrictions.

1. Charter Standards
On-charter posts should have some relevance to family life.  The
moderators do not apply topic restrictions, but posters are encouraged
to stay on-charter.  Users may encourage ending discussions that drift
extensively.

Posts violate this charter if they:
a. denigrate, demean, or discriminate against other posters.
b. promote or defend pedophilia or any form of child endangerment or
abuse.
c. qualify as spam (examples: unsolicited commercial posts, ads for
sex/pornography, and multi-level marketing offers).
d. are intentionally abusive (examples: repetitive ad hominem attacks,
posts that show gross intolerance or viciously attack any other person,
posts that include personal information about other users without their
expressed permission where malice is apparent).
e. are blatantly malicious trolls (attempts from outside the community
to provoke all or particular members of the community).
f. extend discussions of contentious topics that have run their course.

2. Cross posting
Cross posting is generally discouraged and in certain cases not allowed.
Cross posted messages may be hand moderated or rejected based on the
number of groups and the groups included.  See the moderation policy for
requirements.

3. Moderators
The community elects five to 11 moderators to serve two year terms.
Moderators who have completed a two year term may run for reelection,
immediately transfer to the policy board, or step down from service.
For discussion and moderation functions, moderators utilize a mailing
list which is also available to the policy board.  While one moderator
may approve any post, a simple majority (more than 50%) is required to
reject any post.

4. Policy Board
The policy board is composed of ex-moderators who have completed at
least one term and creation team members. The policy board administers
annual moderator elections, semi-annual policy assessments, charter and
moderation policy changes, and votes of no confidence.  It also provides
technical assistance to moderators in applying the charter.  A mailing
list is maintained for policy board discussions and to complete policy
board functions. Members may leave the policy board, but must serve a
moderator term to return.  Policy board members must resign in order to
run for moderator.

5. Elections:
The policy board announces open moderator seats and administers annual
elections and emergency elections.

Annual Elections:
Moderators elected in annual elections serve a two year term.  The
policy board will open the remaining two moderator seats in the first
annual election in addition to filling any seats that have been vacated.

Emergency Elections:
The policy board announces an emergency election, beginning a period of
candidacy, within one week of any moderator resignation or removal that
reduces the number of moderators below five.  Moderators elected through
emergency elections serve until the next annual election following their
election.

General Election Rules:
The policy board tags all posts relating to elections with [ELECTION].
Users are encouraged to tag all posts relating to elections with
[ELECTION] in order to call the attention of the community. In order to
qualify for candidacy, a user must qualify to vote AND have participated
in a policy assessment, election, or the mkfl CFV.  Moderator candidates
volunteer during the 14 day "period of candidacy."  The policy board
posts a short description of each candidate at the end of the period of
candidacy.  The "voting period" begins one week after the period of
candidacy and continues for 14 days.  In order to vote a user must have
posted directly (not cross posted in) to the group at least two times
within the previous six months AND/OR have registered with the
robomoderation software prior to the period of candidacy.  A FAQ is
posted monthly to encourage users to qualify to vote.  Voting users may
vote for as many candidates as they wish, keeping the moderation board
at the uppermost limits of 11.  The candidates receiving the most votes
(minimum of 15) are appointed as moderators.

6. Policy Assessment:
The policy board conducts semi-annual policy assessments to evaluate
charter and moderation policy efficacy and application by the
moderators.  The policy board tags all posts relating to the policy
assessments with [MOD].  Users are encouraged to tag all posts relating
to the policy assessments or concerns about policies with [MOD] in order
to call the attention of the community.  If the assessment indicates a
need to make changes to the charter or moderation policy, the policy
board leads a public discussion lasting 21 days, presents up to three
plausible solutions, and conducts a vote.  Votes are collected by the
policy board for 14 days.  In order to vote in a policy assessment
change, a user must qualify to vote AND have participated in a policy
assessment, election, or the mkfl CFV. If at least 25 votes are cast on
a given change, and at least 75% of those votes favor that change, the
moderators implement it.

7. Vote of No Confidence
If any member of the community who has participated in a policy
assessment, election, or the mkfl CFV believes a moderator or policy
board member is unfit, the member may make a post calling for a vote of
no confidence. The policy board posts a responding confirmation to begin
a 14 day period of discussion.  During this discussion period, anyone
may comment, but only those who have participated in a policy
assessment, election, or the mkfl CFV may vote.  The Policy Board
collects votes during the 14 days following the end of the discussion
period.  A minimum of 50 votes and a 75% majority of those votes is
required to remove a moderator or policy board member.  If removed by a
vote of no confidence, a moderator is not eligible to serve on the
policy board.  If a successful vote of no confidence drops the number of
moderators below five, an emergency election is held. A vote of no
confidence is taken no more than twice against any moderator per term
and no more than four times between elections.  Each member can request
a vote of no confidence no more than two times each year.

8. Contingency
If for any reason the moderation board is not properly functioning (for
example, fewer than five moderators are available to moderate the group)
and the policy board is not able to stabilize the group, moderation
reverts to robomoderation software until the moderation team is
functioning.  In the event that the group reverts to robomoderation
software only, group users may be required to register their email
address in order to post to the group.

MODERATION POLICY
The goal of moderation in the misc.kids.family-life community is to
reject spam, reject blatantly malicious trolls, and maintain a level of
civility using a combination of robo- and hand moderation.

User Status:
Yellow light status:
New users with unrecognized identities are initially on yellow light (or
"caution") status--meaning that any post from a user with an
unrecognized identity is hand moderated for compliance with the charter.
A copy of the charter is sent to the reply-to address. If the first post
is borderline with respect to the charter standards or is cross posted,
the moderators may delay advancing the poster to green light status. A
poster whose first post is fully in accordance with the charter normally
advances to green light status promptly.

Green light status:
If the first post is fully in accordance with the charter, the user
advances to green light (or "go") status-- meaning that the user's
subsequent posts are not hand moderated. Posters are encouraged to use a
consistent identity in order to maintain green light status.

Red light status:
When more than 50% of the moderators agree that a post from a green
light user violates the charter, the moderators send a warning about
posting guidelines and the implications of hand moderation, including
the slow appearance of posts.  If a green light user receives three
warnings in one month or develops a pattern of receiving two warnings
each month for at least three months, the moderators put the user on red
light (or "stop") status.  A single post from a yellow light user which
obviously violates the charter (and is rejected) can put that user on
red light status.  In extreme cases, any moderator may place a poster on
temporary red light status for 24 hours, but the majority (more than
50%) of moderators must agree to retain a poster on red light status
until they develop a clear pattern of on-charter posting.  The
moderators notify any poster who is placed on red light status that all
their posts are hand-moderated.  Posters on red light status may request
a review of their status after one month of hand moderation, but remain
on red light status until they develop a pattern of on-charter posting.

Robomoderation:
1. approves posts that are received from users on green light status
that meet the technical requirements.
2. refers posts from yellow light users for hand moderation.
3. rejects cross posts to certain groups and refers posts for hand
moderation that are cross posted to more than three groups.  If other
moderated newsgroups are included in the cross post, any approval will
be done in coordination with the moderators of the other newsgroups.
The moderators may add groups to or remove groups from the list for
automatic rejection by unanimous agreement.  At this time, the list
includes:
alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk, alt.snuh, alt.romath, alt.flame,
alt.fan.karl-malden.nose, alt.usenet.kooks, alt.sex.pedophilia.
4. either refers posts for hand moderation or rejects posts identified
as spam.
5. strips binary files (e.g. jpegs), html and attachments of any kind
>from  posts, rejects posts that contain only such material, and rejects
other posts from which such material has been removed, or refers them
for hand moderation. PGP signatures and similar small binaries are
allowed at the moderators' discretion.
6. either refers posts for hand moderation or rejects posts that contain
more than 80 characters per line (limiting your lines to 72 characters
per line is recommended).
7. either refers posts for hand moderation or rejects posts that have
follow-ups directed to other groups not posted to.
8. refers posts from red light status posters for hand moderation.
9. either refers posts for hand moderation or rejects posts that fall
into a category of measures needed to maintain the usability of the
group and/or protect the moderators (for example: a website begins
dumping large quantities of messages into the moderation queue).
10.rejects posts that remain in the moderation queue for more than 5
days due to moderation oversight.

Human Moderators:
1. participate in the group.
2. modify poster status (red, yellow, or green light) whenever appropriate.
3. maintain an active list of users who violate the charter.
4. review all posts from yellow light users to verify adherence to the
charter.
5. review all posts from red light users to verify adherence to the charter.
6. reject off-charter posts that have been referred for hand moderation.
7. do not screen posts for topic, but may encourage discontinuing
contentious topics that have run their course--meaning that less than
five people are participating and the same arguments are being repeated
over and over again.
8. approve on-charter posts that have been referred for hand moderation.
9. post a queue report each week tagged [MOD].  The summary includes a
record of all received posts, robomoderation rejections, moderator
votes, and time outs; but does not include poster identities or
references to any other users.