rec.arts.drwho.moderated MODERATION STYLE GUIDE This Style Guide will be regularly posted to rec.arts.drwho.moderated, and can be found on the Web at: http://www.gweep.ca/~robomod/rec.arts.drwho.moderated/ CONTENTS 1. What kinds of posts will be rejected by the moderators? 2. How does moderation work? 3. Who are the current moderators? 4. How can I appeal the moderators' decisions? 5. How are moderators added or removed from the panel? 6. How can changes be made to this style guide? 7. Technical information ------------------------------ 1. What kinds of posts will be rejected by the moderators? The main kinds of posts which will be rejected by first time posters are: 1) Flames (postings which, in the judgment of the moderators, are meant to personally insult or attack a member of the newsgroup, or to make unsupported allegations about them) 2) Trolls (postings which, in the judgment of the moderators, are intended to provoke angry responses from other members of the newsgroup) 3) Spam (including all off-topic advertising material, and on-topic advertising material posted more than once a fortnight) 4) Off-topic posts (postings which, in the judgment of the moderators, are off-topic and/or will probably lead to flames or trolls) 5) Overquoted posts (postings which have a ratio of quoted text to original content of more than 70%) 6) Cross-posts (postings which are posted to more than one newsgroup simultaneously) 7) Posts not in plain text (binaries, HTML, RTF, etc, excluding small binaries such as PGP signatures) [Note: a newsgroup member is defined to be a person who has used an email address which appears on the newsgroup posters list made available to the moderators. Email addresses on this list expire after 6 months if they are not used to post in this time.] Threads which, in the judgment of the moderators, are off-topic and/or will probably lead to flames or trolls will be placed in a queue to be approved or rejected by the moderators according to 1-5 above (this is called hand moderation). In the event that the moderators are unsure of the intent of a post that has either been complained about or might, in the opinion of the moderators, be considered a troll or flame, evidence of prior behaviour in other discussion fora can be used to help the moderators in deciding the intent of the poster. Any evidence that is used by the moderators in said way must be posted publicly to modish within 24 hours of a decision. Overquoted posts, cross-posts and posts not in plain text may also be automatically rejected by the server software (called the robomod). If a post is rejected, the robomod will send a copy of the post to the poster with a brief explanation from the rejecting moderator. Posters may rewrite their posts and resubmit them if they wish. Moderators are subject to the same rules as other posters. If it becomes necessary, the other moderators will hand moderate their posts. Moderators will not make any changes to the content of posts. ------------------------------ 2. How does moderation work? When someone posts to the newsgroup for the first time, the robomod will send them a message that their post is waiting in a queue, and a pointer to this style guide and the group FAQ. Their first post will be approved or rejected by a moderator (this is called hand moderation). If the post is compliant with the rules (as per section 1 above), it will be assumed that the poster will continue to follow the rules, the post will be sent on to the newsgroup and the poster will be auto-approved from that point on, as long as they continue to follow the rules (and they are not posting with a completely fake email address). If their first post does not follow the rules, it will be returned to them with an explanation for its rejection. If an auto-approved poster breaks the rules, they may receive a formal warning from the moderators, at their discretion (the moderators may try other measures first). If they continue to break the rules after a formal warning, they will be added at the moderators' discretion to a list of people whose messages are hand moderated for a 6-month period. A poster can be removed from this list at any time, at the moderators' discretion, by sending a message to the moderation panel stating that they will follow the rules. A poster may remain on the list for longer than 6 months if they continue to break the rules or attempt to circumvent the moderation mechanism. Their hand moderated status will be reviewed every month in this case. 2a. Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour towards a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited period, and/or be subject to further action. The moderation panel must notify the newsgroup and call for a vote of approval for any action taken or proposed in accordance with this clause. The call for votes must name the poster and state the reason(s) for the action taken. The purpose of this vote is for the readership of the group to approve (or overturn) the moderators' decision in this matter. This vote operate under the same rules as for a moderator election (see section 5 pars 4-6, below). If, in the opinion of the moderation panel, emergency action needs be taken against a poster, then they may proceed without approval providing that they follow the action by issuing a call for votes, which must clearly state that the vote is to approve (or overturn) action already taken. Any thus overturned action must be revoked within a reasonable period of time. Interference includes, but is not limited to: - Persistent off-charter behaviour on modish; - Continued pushing of issues with a moderator or the moderation panel beyond the point of last recourse as outlined by the style guide (for example, lodging a complaint in the moderator or panel, and that complaint failing to achieve the "desired" result); - Attempting to circumvent the hand-moderation process, either in the newsgroup or on the mailing lists [be that by switching of email addresses or nom de plumes, or forging headers, or any other means]; - Any other series of actions that is deemed by the moderators to be interference and upheld by the group membership by way of a vote. 2b. Posters who have difficulty with the robomod (for instance, those who post under fake email addresses) should contact the server host directly at radwm-coordinator@gweep.ca or the moderators at radwm-moderator@gweep.ca for assistance in posting. To post via email, send your message to: rec-arts-drwho-moderated@moderators.isc.org The moderators will use a private mailing list to discuss moderation issues amongst themselves. ------------------------------ 3. Who are the current moderators? Andy Kitching Charles Martin Siobahn Morgan Karen Jo Nyctolops Distant Dave ------------------------------ 4. How can I appeal the moderators' decisions? If a poster feels that their message should not have been rejected, they can appeal in email to the entire moderation panel at radwm-moderator@gweep.ca. If even one of the moderators decides their message should have been accepted, it may be re-submitted and will be approved. If a poster is unhappy with the panel's decision, they may discuss the issue in a publicly accessible Yahoo! mailing list named modish. The purpose of this mailing list is to discuss moderation and meta issues, alert the moderators to posts which may not be following the rules, or lodge No Confidence Motions in any or all moderators (see section 5 below). The mailing list is moderated by admins appointed by the moderation panel (who may also dismiss them at their discretion), and all moderators are required to be members of the list. To subscribe to modish via the web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/modish/ To subscribe to modish via email: modish-subscribe@yahoogroups.com The admins of modish have their own set of rules governing the list, agreed on by the moderation panel, which are posted to the list at regular intervals and can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/modish/files ------------------------------ 5. How are moderators added to or removed from the panel? Moderators are elected by a vote on the newsgroup. A moderator election will take place if any one or more of the following conditions are met: a) If the moderation panel votes to elect more moderators to handle the workload b) If the number of moderators falls below four c) If the moderation panel votes to remove a moderator d) If twelve or more newsgroup members lodge No Confidence Motions about a moderator within a fourteen-day period, as determined by the modish admins [Note: there is no requirement for the automatic replacement of a moderator who resigns or is otherwise unable to continue with their duties (e.g. due to poor health, death, long-term loss of Internet access) unless the number of moderators falls below four.] It is a moderator's role to be fair and professional in moderating discussions and members of the newsgroup. Members of the newsgroup can lodge No Confidence Motions against an individual moderator, or the entire moderation panel, by sending a message to modish with a Subject: line of "No Confidence Motion: Moderator XXXX" (where XXXX is the name of the moderator in question), or "No Confidence Motion: Moderation Panel". The body of the message must be left blank. The message must be sent from an e-mail address that appears on the newsgroup posters list made available to the moderators (spam keywords removed). If these three criteria are not met exactly, the modish admins may not consider the Motion lodged. Motions may be withdrawn at any time up until 12 Motions have been lodged within a fourteen-day period against a particular moderator (Motions against the whole panel count towards a moderator's personal tally) by sending a message to modish with a Subject: line of "Withdrawal of No Confidence Motion: Moderator XXXX" (where XXXX is the name of the moderator in question), or "Withdrawal of No Confidence Motion: Moderation Panel". The body of the message must be left blank. The message must be sent from the same email address that the original Motion came from - an e-mail address that appears on the newsgroup posters list (spam keywords removed). If these three criteria are not met exactly, the modish admins may not consider the Motion withdrawn. The modish admins are the final arbiters on whether Motions are lodged or withdrawn successfully. If they reject a Motion (due to the conditions above not being adequately met), they will post to modish with their reasons for rejection. If any of the conditions a)-d) above are met, a returning officer (who is not one of the moderators, but may be one of the modish admins) will immediately be appointed by the moderation panel to announce a nomination period, assemble the ballot from nominated candidates and tally the votes. The returning officer may not vote in the election, neither may the server host. The ballot will list the candidate(s) and voters will be able to vote "Yes", "No", or "Abstain" on any of them. The moderation seat(s) will go to the candidate with the highest final tally, where their final tally is defined as the number of "Yes" votes minus the number of "No" votes. If a candidate does not receive a positive final tally (ie: "Yes" votes do not outweigh "No" votes), the nomination/election process will begin again for that seat immediately. Any member of the newsgroup may offer themselves as a candidate in the election, including moderators removed via any of the conditions in a)-d) above. The modish admins and server host may not stand in an election, nor lodge a No Confidence Motion. ------------------------------ 6. How can changes be made to this style guide? The moderators can make minor, temporary changes to the way they moderate the group at their discretion. Major or permanent changes must be made part of this style guide, and must be voted for in a referendum on the newsgroup. The moderators will notify the newsgroup of any temporary changes that are in place via a section in the FAQ which is posted to the group once every two weeks. Temporary changes may be in place for a maximum of two months before they must either be rescinded, or made permanent via referendum. Changes to the style guide which in no way influence moderation procedure (such as server addresses, names of current moderators) may be made by the moderators as the need arises. ------------------------------ 7. Technical Information The moderation software is hosted at news.gweep.ca, which is run by Brian Edmonds, with a 10Mbit internet connection. It uses Postfix as the MTA, with an additional custom MTA proxy frontend with advanced spam filtering. Filtering issues can be raised with abuse@gweep.ca which is exempt from most filtering. Posts will be injected via news.gweep.ca, which has multiple outgoing peers. EOF