REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED MODERATION FAQ & CHARTER
(v1.6)
By Christopher E. Meadows
With help from Tim Skirvin and many others
* Revised September 16, 2000 *
"Moderate your conflict circuits, Maximals."
--Optimus Primal, "Beast Wars" Part 1
Major changes since last version:
- Posting/request addresses changed (again). Fixed duplication of
Darrel's email address in list at end.
- References to RemarQ and Reference.com removed, as these sites no
longer serve the same purpose as they did at the time of this FAQ's
original writing. Slight clarification on posting to moderated
groups through Deja.
- Reference to an email-filtering howto website removed, as the site
itself is now a dead link. If someone knows of a good site to
replace it, please let us know.
CONTENTS (* denotes a new or revised section)
------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: Posting and rtt-request email addresses HAVE CHANGED
YET AGAIN since the last iteration of this FAQ. The
addresses in this edition of the FAQ are the ones you should
now use. Honest.
------------------------------------------------------------
HELP! I Can't Read and/or Post to Rec.Toys.Transformers.Moderated!
IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT CARRY REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED
IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT HAVE REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED
CONFIGURED PROPERLY
IF THAT DOESN'T WORK...
* USENET ARCHIVAL SITES
FREE NEWS SERVERS
COMMERCIAL NEWS SERVERS
LOCAL OR NATIONAL ISP
POSTING BY EMAIL: rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
How to Get Your Posts Sent IMMEDIATELY
NOTE: HOW TO POST
* NOTE: SPAM-BLOCKING
NOTE: PATIENCE, PLEASE!
FORMATTING: HTML, MIME, 80-CHARACTER MARGINS
SUBJECT-LINE KEYWORD TAGS
CROSSPOSTING
OVERQUOTING
AUTOAPPROVAL
NOTE: CHANGING YOUR NAME
NOTE: APPROVAL-FORGERY
Have We Made a Mistake? (Etiquette for Complaining)
REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED CHARTER
* EMAIL ADDRESSES
THE REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED MODERATION FAQ
(v1.6)
HELP! I Can't Read and/or Post to Rec.Toys.Transformers.Moderated!
Before explaining the policies _for_ posting to it, we should first be
certain that you _can_ post to rec.toys.transformers.moderated. This
section of the FAQ will go over what steps you might take to gain
access to the group if you don't currently have it, and will also make
some suggestions about what to do if none of these steps work.
IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT CARRY REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED
The first thing to try is, of course, asking your sysadmin to add it.
Since rec.toys.transformers.moderated is a Big Eight newsgroup, and
furthermore since it is moderated, most sysadmins should be fairly
willing to add it to their list.
When you ask, attach a copy of the most recent newgroup message for
rec.toys.transformers.moderated, which will be the very last message
in the file found at:
<URL:ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/control/rec/
rec.toys.transformers.moderated.Z>
(enter the URL as one line into your web browser)
If you have trouble retrieving it, please email a moderator for help.
This message contains all the necessary information for adding
rec.toys.transformers.moderated as a moderated group, meaning that you
are saving your sysadmin the trouble of hunting it down for himself.
Be sure to include all the headers--they include the PGP signature
that can be used to verify that it is an official newgroup message
from David Lawrence.
If your sysadmin tells you that the problem is that none of the
upstream news sites carries rec.toys.transformers.moderated (which
means that, even if he did carry it, he would have no way of getting
articles for it), you should try the same procedure with the sysadmin
of the upstream site (or ask _your_ sysadmin to).
If this does not work, see "If That Doesn't Work..." below.
IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT HAVE REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED CONFIGURED
PROPERLY
If you see your posts show up immediately after you send them, with no
"X-Approved" or "X-Approved-By" line in the header, or if you see
posts showing up with no subject-line tags with Path statements that
do not end with something that looks like
"!hatchetman.killfile.org!rttmod", your site probably has not properly
configured rec.toys.transformers.moderated as a moderated newsgroup.
(This should be rare, as RTTM was created moderated, and so there will
not be any sites that have a prior, unmoderated version; creation and
configuration of the group as moderated should have been done
simultaneously. However, there have been several sites that
inexplicably carry r.t.tf.mod improperly configured, so it is
possible.)
If your site has RTTM listed as unmoderated, this means that you will
see whatever spam and unapproved posts are made to the newsgroup from
other unregistered sites, and also means that the news server will
attempt to inject your post into the newsgroup itself, rather than
emailing it to the moderation address. This will probably lead to
your article getting lost completely (many properly-configured news
sites will helpfully forward unapproved posts they receive to the
moderation address, but it is not good to depend on this).
In order to correct this, please send your sysadmin a copy of the
newgroup message mentioned above, along with the request that he
configure RTTM properly. Most sysadmins who already do carry the
group should be happy to do this for you.
Please also forward a copy of any non-moderation-approved posts that
you see to us at rtt+request@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_with all headers intact_,
particularly the "Path:" header. This will let us contact the
sysadmins of all the sites that passed the article along.
In the interim, you may inject your posts directly into the
moderators' queue by emailing them to rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
rather
than posting via the news server (see instructions below).
IF THAT DOESN'T WORK...
Some sites (universities, for example) may be loathe to add another
newsgroup, particularly one dealing with "toys." If this is the case,
it is probable that no amount of complaint to your sysadmin will
change it, and it is time to look for other alternatives. I'll list
the "free" ones first.
USENET ARCHIVAL SITES
Many Usenet archival/newsgroup sites, such as Deja (formerly DejaNews)
<URL:http://www.deja.com/usenet/>,
also carry
rec.toys.transformers.moderated. Their newsfeeds are fairly good, and
certainly better than nothing at all. Deja's policy formerly would
not allow you to post to moderated groups, though they did eventually
change this.
However, in some cases, posts made from such sites have arrived in
moderator queues garbled beyond all readability. I would recommend
posting by email to rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(see instructions below) as being
a much more reliable means of getting your messages through than
posting via webpage newsfeed sites.
FREE NEWS SERVERS
There are a number of news servers that allow anyone to read news from
them, and some servers will even allow anyone to post through them.
Lists of these servers may be found in
<URL:http://www.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Usenet/Public_Access_Usenet_Sites/>
However, I should stress that these sites often have terrible
newsfeeds, and posting through them can be extremely unreliable. They
often come about due to someone overlooking security measures on his
site, and are closed one at a time as soon as someone spams through
them. (The pre-moderation mass-spam attacks on rec.games.mecha were
launched through servers such as these.)
If you normally read news via AOL or CompuServe or other online
all-in-one services, you will probably have to download a third-party
newsreader to use these servers; newsreader recommendations may be
found further down under the "HTML" section of this FAQ.
COMMERCIAL NEWS SERVERS
Newsguy <URL:http://www.newsguy.com>,
formerly Zippo, is a service
that offers newsreading and posting access via its news servers and/or
a WWW interface. The basic service costs $19 per year and offers basic
NNTP/WWW newsreading and posting service to ~7500 newsgroups,
including all the *.toys.transformers.* groups. Newsguy's "Extra"
service level <URL:http://extra.newsguy.com>
offers more newsgroups
and perks such as webpage space, a spam-filtered email drop box, and
other features, for $5 per month. I've never used the service myself,
but my friends who have note that it has a very good newsfeed and a
good reputation for reliable service. However, there has been some
controversy arising from Newsguy's alleged habit of quietly dropping
articles posted by people its administrators do not like.
Other commercial news servers can be found in
<URL:http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/
Internet_Services/Usenet_Servers/Commercial/>
If you normally read news via AOL or CompuServe or other online
all-in-one services, you will probably have to download a third-party
newsreader to use these servers; newsreader recommendations may be
found further down under the "HTML" section of this FAQ.
LOCAL OR NATIONAL ISP
If you are an AOL or CompuServe or other online all-in-one service
user, you might want to consider switching over to an Internet Service
Provider, either local or national. This largely depends on what
level of service you are looking for and what level they offer, and
may be unfeasible, but it is worth mentioning as an alternative.
POSTING BY EMAIL: rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
you want to be as certain as you can that your post makes it into
our moderation queue, you can email your article directly to
rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Just write the post as you would a normal
email message, then send it. Once we receive it, it will go through
the same moderation procedure as any other posted message. Best of
all, this posting method works with _any_ of the above options for
reading rec.toys.transformers.moderated.
If you want to follow up to someone else's post from your newsreader,
choose "reply by e-mail" instead of "post a follow-up" and change the
address in the "To:" line to rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(If your
newsreader will not let you do this, perhaps you should consider
downloading better software.)
How to Get Your Posts Sent IMMEDIATELY
Naturally, everyone who posts to rec.toys.transformers.moderated wants
his posts to go out immediately, and not have to sit waiting in the
"inspection area" for a moderator to check and send them. That's why
this FAQ is being put together...to give you the secrets to getting
your post just right, so it goes through and saves us moderators the
work of looking at it. :)
Many of the moderation criteria are automated. If you meet all the
criteria, your message will be posted automatically, and will probably
even propagate _faster_ than it would have if it had just been posted
through your own news server--the Moderation site is on a regional
news hub with _very_ good distribution.
These criteria are in no particular order of im****tance. Insofar as
speed-of-posting is concerned, each one is equally im****tant, because
if you miss even one, your post will end up in the moderators' mailbox
and have to be inspected before being sent on its merry way.
This is not an inclusive list of what may or may not be posted to
rec.toys.transformers.moderated; for that, see the newsgroup charter,
which is included later in this FAQ. However, one paragraph of that
charter is so im****tant that it should be quoted right up front
(slightly modified), for reference as you read the following sections:
# "Off-topic" refers to anything not pertaining to Transformers or
# other topical material (as defined in the first paragraph of the
# Charter). However, "on-topic" will be interpreted very broadly;
# almost anything that is not directly objectionable (by the criteria
# for disallowed posts given above) will be let through.
The moderation scheme is intended to keep out spam, newsgroup-bombing,
unprotected spoilers, and the like, while promoting the normal flow of
Transformers-related conversation--not to block every single message
that might possibly be considered off-topic. Toward that end, if
there's a reasonable amount of doubt as to whether a post should be
rejected, we will probably go ahead and approve it.
Before we get to the tips on how to get your articles approved, here
are a couple of tips about how to be sure your article is reaching us
at all.
NOTE: HOW TO POST
I bet you think you know this one already, right? "I just use the
post command in my newsreader, or postnews." Well, yes...but there's
also another way. You see, when you post to a moderated group, the
posting software (if it's configured properly) will automatically
email your post to a moderation address, rather than posting it. If
you want, you can bypass the news-posting step entirely by emailing
your post directly to our moderation address, rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If
your posts to RTTM seem to vanish into the void, it might mean that
your site's newsposting software is improperly configured, and you
should try the email address instead.
NOTE: Do not send complaints, questions, requests, inquiries, etc. to
this address--it's for posting your articles only. The RTTM
Moderation Team's administrative address is rtt+request@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
address that kind of correspondence there.
NOTE: SPAM-BLOCKING
Some posters to rec.toys.transformers.moderated use "spam-blocks" in
their email addresses--that is to say, altering their address so that
"postmaster@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" becomes "postSPAMmaster@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" to
use an example. The efficacy of this method is a matter of some
dispute in the news.admin.net-abuse hierarchy, given that many
spammers have begun to use spamblock-decoding software, but it does
violate an RFC, and many sysadmins feel that it causes more trouble
for others than it prevents for the user in question, particularly
where autoresponder systems (such as those used in newsgroup
moderation) are concerned.
There is currently no requirement on rec.toys.transformers.moderated
that posters must post with non-spamblocked email addresses. However,
you should be aware that posting with a spamblock _could_ cause your
messages to vanish. The reason for this is that, at the time of this
FAQ's original writing, four out of the seven moderation relay
sites--the computers whose job is to forward posts to moderated
newsgroups to the moderators of those newsgroups--were set to drop
emailed messages sent from invalid domain names. Though this may
since have been fixed, it seems to be a continually-recurring problem.
(Please note that the R.T.TF.Mod moderation crew has _no control_ over
these relay sites--it's not our fault, and there's nothing we can do
about it.) Some users of other newsgroups have re****ted their
spamblocked messages being dropped.
Spamblocking will also cause you not to receive potentially im****tant
autoresponses from the Modbot (such as acknowledgements of receipt,
posting, or rejection), and creates extra work for the moderators and
an extra load on the site being used for moderation--in some cases,
spamblocking has caused newsgroup moderation autoresponse to have to
be disabled altogether.
I strongly suggest looking into an alternative to spamblocking your
posting email address. A couple of such options include
- Setting up filters on your incoming email. Resources on ways to do
this can be found through a websearch, or by inquiring on
news.admin.net-abuse.email.
- Getting a hotmail.com, yahoo.com, or other free email account; you
can put your hotmail address in your "From" header, with instructions
on how to reply to your _real_ address in your .signature or
wherever. You can then check your hotmail address as often or as
rarely as you like, and be assured that any spam you get will go
there, rather than your _real_ address.
NOTE: PATIENCE, PLEASE!
Please remember that there are only a handful of moderators working on
this group, and sometimes, especially on weekends, there may only be
one or two (or none) of us "on duty" at any given time. We have to
eat, go to the restroom, and occasionally leave our computers to
interact with the <gasp> Real World. If your post doesn't appear
within a few minutes of your sending it, please don't post it again or
post "Where's my post???" messages. Give us at least a day to deal
with it--we may not be at our machines at the time, or we may be
discussing whether it is appropriate for the group before making a
decision. If you want to be sure your posts are reaching us, insert
an X-No-Confirm: No header so you will receive an autoreply.
FORMATTING: HTML, MIME, 80-CHARACTER MARGINS
Posting to rec.toys.transformers.moderated in HTML, Hypertext Mark-Up
Language, is not allowed. HTML posting wastes bandwidth and obscures
readability. HTML has a forum specifically devoted to its use--the
World Wide Web--and has no place on Usenet.
The same may be said for MIME or similar forms of file-attachment
encoding. They also obscure readability; furthermore, the purpose of
these formats is to distribute binary files, and no binary files will
be allowed on rec.toys.transformers.moderated anyway, so there is no
point to using it.
Article right margins should not go over 80 characters; preferably
they should be 64-70 characters to allow for several layers of quoting
without text overflow. Not everyone has a newsreader that handles >80
character margins, and to those who do not, it obscures readability.
Messages posted to rec.toys.transformers.moderated in HTML, MIME,
and/or >80-character lines will be passed to the human moderators, who
may reject them.
If your newsreader posts in HTML and you want to post to
rec.toys.transformers.moderated, you should either disable HTML
posting or use a different newsreader. (As a side benefit, dedicated
newsreaders also tend to be more efficient at reading news than
Netscape or Internet Explorer.)
Here is how to disable HTML posting in Netscape 4.X:
1) Start Netscape
2) Select menu "Edit, Preferences, Mail and News Preferences"
3) Select tab "Compositions"
4) Remove the check mark for "Use HTML Composition Window"
And at same time make sure
1) That "Allow 8-bit" is checked
2) That "MIME compliant" is unchecked
Here is how to disable HTML posting in Mozilla/Netscape 6.X:
1) Start Mozilla or Netscape
2) Select menu "Edit, Preferences"
3) Go to "Mail & Newsgroups" and select the "Messages" option.
4) Under "For Outgoing Messages" uncheck "Add HTML styles", and
select the "As-Is" radio button under the 8-bit section.
5) Under "Formatting" check the "Convert the message into plain text"
option.
Here is how to disable HTML posting in MSIE Newsreader:
1) Start MSIE Newsreader
2) Select menu News
3) Select Options
4) Select the Send tab and check the Plain Text box.
If you are using Windows or Macintosh-based systems and would like to
find a new newsreader, open <URL:http://www.shareware.com>,
select
your operating system, and search on "newsreader". Recommended for
Windows are Free Agent (for ease of use) or WinVN (sup****ts a
killfile); recommended for Macintosh is NewsWatcher. If you are using
Unix, chances are there are several other newsreaders installed on
your system already, such as trn, slrn, tin, or gnus. Ask your
sysadmin.
SUBJECT-LINE KEYWORD TAGS
In order to make reading rec.toys.transformers.moderated a more
satisfying and enriching experience for those people who have
kill/select files, or who would like to be able to take in subject
line lists at a glance, all posts to rec.toys.transformers.moderated
must have a [subject line tag] that denotes the subject matter of the
message.
Please note that, due to our moderation software, the only acceptable
delineators for tags are [square brackets]. Please do not use
(parentheses), {curly brackets}, offsetting with a colon, or any other
form. Also, the tag should be at the beginning of the subject, or
after a Re:, in order for our software to notice it.
[Tag] Article subject - Properly Tagged
Re: [Tag] Article subject - Properly Tagged
Article [Tag] Subject - Untagged
(Tag) Article subject - Untagged
{Tag} Article subject - Untagged
Tag: Article subject - Untagged
Article subject - Untagged
Below is a list of suggested tags; use one or as many of them as you
think apply to your message. This list is _not_ meant to be
all-inclusive--if you don't find a tag there for a Transformers-
related subject or subtopic about which you want to post, make up your
own. You won't be penalized for using a tag that's not there, if it
gets the point across about what's in the message--we may even add it
to the list. Keep in mind, though, if you don't put a tag on, one of
the moderators will look at the message and add the tag(s) he thinks
should go there, and it might not be the one you would have chosen.
Also note that if a poster consistently refuses to use proper tagging
after being asked politely, we may begin rejecting rather than
manually tagging untagged messages from that person.
Subject or General Tags:
Administrative announcements = [ADMIN]
(To be used by moderators only, or in follow-ups to moderators'
postings)
Animorphs = [ANI]
Beast Machines = [BM]
Beast Wars = [BW]
Beast Wars 2 = [BW2]
General interest = [GENERAL] or [MISC]
General newsgroup issues = [META]
GoBots (Tonka) = [GB] or [GOBOTS]
GoBots (Transformers Gen 2) = [G2GB] or [TFGB]
Machine Wars = [MW]
Multi-toyline (encompassing several or all TF toy lines) = [MISC]
RoboMACs = [RMAC]
Transformers "Generation One" (original TV series) = [G1] or [TFG1]
Transformers Generation Two = [G2] or [TFG2]
Transformers Japanese series = [JTF] or [J-TF]
Transformers: The Movie = [TFTM]
"World's Worst" Transformers = [WWTF] or [TFWW]
Topic Tags:
Comic Book = [COMIC]
Toy-related = [TOY]
Useless but fun tidbit = [NOISE] or [Off-Topic]
Humor tags = [HUMOR] (or [HUMOUR]), [PARODY], [SATIRE], etc.
Song = [SONG]
General information = [INFO]
Request = [REQUEST] or [REQ]
Role-Playing Game rules = [RPG]
Any other TV show, anime, movie, etc. = [(show's title)]
Philosophical discussion = [PHILO]
And tags like [IRC], [WWW], [MUSH], etc. should be fairly
self-explanatory.
The tags don't have to be all caps, nor do they have to be exact, just
as long as they make it obvious what the post is about. Also, threads
that start to go astray due to topic drift should preferably have
[Off-Topic] or [OT] appended to the subject line at some point.
CROSSPOSTING
As the charter says, excessive crossposting is not allowed. What is
excessive? Well, that varies. It's possible that a message might be
on-topic for several newsgroups...though the more newsgroups to which
it is posted, the less likely this becomes. Furthermore, excessive
crossposting has been used in the massive binary-bomb spams that have
shown up on other newsgroups in the past.
As sort of a second line of defense (just in case a spammer forges
someone's identity), any post sent to four or more newsgroups and/or
all crossposts between rec.toys.transformers.moderated and any
currently "unauthorized" newsgroup will be shunted to the manual
moderation mailbox for the moderators to look at it. If it is on
topic for all the groups to which it is posted, it will be approved.
If not, it will be returned to the poster. (Unless, of course, it is
obviously spam, in which case it will be black-holed.) Either way,
the moderators will not alter the Newsgroups: line of any articles
they receive; it will be up to the poster to do that himself.
If a newsgroup is not authorized, that fact does _not_ constitute any
condemnation on the part of the moderators toward the act of
crossposting to it. All crossposts that pass in front of us will be
judged on a case by case basis.
NOTE: If one (or more) of the other groups to which the article is
crossposted is also moderated (a.t.t.classic.moderated, for example),
the article must also meet criteria for topicality in those groups.
It will be passed on to their moderators for approval if it first
meets the criteria for posting to rec.toys.transformers.moderated.
(Or it may well be passed on to _us_ if it first meets _their_
criteria, depending on which moderation team is sent the article in
question first. :)
OVERQUOTING
When posts pass by us, we naturally scrutinize them for overquoting.
When following up to a message, it is usually only necessary to quote
a few lines, to remind the reader to what the reply is being made.
After all, most newsreaders have a "prior message in thread" function
that they may use to return to the last message and read it in full if
they wish. Overquoting wastes bandwidth, and in some cases may cause
readers to skip your message entirely, especially if the quoted
material is very long.
We do realize that there are some instances where quoting more
material than reply text is unavoidable. However, when all or almost
all of the material of a long message is quoted material, when it
includes material two and three layers of quoting deep with no
comments addressed directly at the double/triple-quoted material,
and/or when .signatures of quoted messages have been left in, we will
assume that you accidentally sent the message before you were finished
cutting down the quoted text, and will reject it back to you so you
can finish before posting again.
AUTOAPPROVAL
After you've had five manually-approved articles posted to
rec.toys.transformers.moderated, you will probably be added to the
autoapproval list. That means that, if you meet all of the above
criteria for message format, topic tags, and crossposting, your posts
will be approved and posted to rec.toys.transformers.moderated
automatically, without ever passing moderator eyes. As far as your
posts are concerned, it will be almost as if
rec.toys.transformers.moderated were unmoderated (save that your
messages will actually propagate _faster_ than they would in an
unmoderated group--the moderation-injection newsfeed is very rapid).
We will trust you to post generally on topic (the occasional off-topic
post is okay, though) and not to abuse your posting privileges. If
you go seriously astray, you'll get a couple of official warnings, and
if you continue to behave inappropriately, you may be removed from the
auto-approval list for a while, meaning that your posts will again
have to pass human inspection--and having removed you once, we'll be
somewhat reluctant to put you on again (probably requiring at least a
30-day grace period before considering it, but that is left at the
moderators' discretion).
Please note that, due to autoapprove, we may not see all, or even
many, of the articles that are posted until they actually appear on
the group. If you see an off-topic or flame thread spring up and get
out of hand, please let us know at rtt+request@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
so we can
consider what action to take.
NOTE: CHANGING YOUR NAME
Autoapproval checks the complete "From:" line in your message, not
just the email address. So if you're posting as "Optimus Primal
<optimus@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>" and are on auto-approve, and then change
your posting identity to "Optimal Optimus <optimus@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>",
you'll have to post five messages from that identity before you're
back on autoapprove. It's not that we have anything against you
changing your name; that's simply how autoapproval works.
NOTE: APPROVAL-FORGERY
During the pre-RFD and RFD discussion periods of other moderated
groups, concern has been expressed that moderation might not be
effective, due to spammers and flooders posting with forged approval
(also known as the "dead chicken"). However, the
rec.toys.transformers.moderated moderation team has taken this into
account, and our moderation system now actively uses PGPMoose.
Under PGPMoose, the moderation software appends a PGP signature,
generated using a private encryption key and the body of the message
itself, to the header of each approved message. The PGPMoose
cancelbot keeps an eye on PGPMoose-moderated groups, and automatically
cancels any post that has been "approved" with an improper or no
moderation PGP signature.
Thus, posts with forged approvals are canceled rapidly, with no
moderator intervention involved or needed. The _only_ way to get a
post approved to rec.toys.transformers.moderated in any permanent
fa****on will be to go through the legitimate moderation system.
Have We Made a Mistake?
(Proper Etiquette for Complaining to the Moderators)
As moderators, we have two strikes against us. 1) We're human and
therefore imperfect; 2) some of us are a bit new at this moderation
thing and still trying to work out how best to do our jobs. We _will_
make mistakes, and we'll probably even change our minds from time to
time on our handling of certain issues, particularly if we get a lot
of feedback email complaining or making suggestions.
Anyway...if you think we've made a mistake involving one of your
articles (or even involving policies in general, for that matter),
please feel free to email us and complain. It is possible that you
could convince us to change our minds, or else that we could explain
ourselves more fully to you. If you do so, please follow these simple
steps:
1) SAVE THE RESPONSE NOTICE. The response (rejection or modification)
notice you receive should contain the full text of your original
article (if a rejection notice), as well as the reason why it was
rejected (or modified), and which moderator handled it. Not only can
this be helpful in determining if a mistake was made (by software _or_
by human moderators), it will also enable you to salvage the text of a
rejected article if the moderators should change their mind and allow
you to post it after all.
2) Optional: CHECK DEJA.COM. If there is some doubt as to the fate of
your article, you might want to check the archive sites just in case
to see if it might have gotten approved and yet never reached your
server for some reason. These things do happen, as unreliable as
netnews sometimes is. If something like that happens to you, it can
save both you and the moderators some time and trouble if you check
there first and find that it was actually posted after all.
3) EMAIL US. Our address for feedback is rtt+request@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
you send your email there, it will be seen by _all_ the moderators.
This will allow all of us to have a chance at figuring out what might
have gone wrong, and to discuss the feedback among ourselves should it
necessitate a change being made. Sometimes some of us reject posts
that others would have approved, or vice versa.
4) BE POLITE. We're all busy people--overworked, perhaps
underappreciated by some, trying to deal with the rest of our lives in
addition to moderating rec.toys.transformers.moderated as a volunteer
chore. We will get back to you sooner or later, but you can provide
us with added incentive to do it sooner by being calm and polite
rather than flaming us. Remember the old proverb about how to catch
more flies.
5) IF THAT DOESN'T WORK. It is possible that, even after you try to
convince us otherwise, we may still feel your post does not belong on
rec.toys.transformers.moderated. We strongly encourage you to post
such messages to one of the other, unmoderated Transformers groups,
such as alt.toys.transformers, if you still believe that other people
would like to read them.
REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED CHARTER
rec.toys.transformers.moderated is primarily dedicated to discussion
of all Transformers toy lines, the comic books, animated series, and
all related material, be it books, magazines, television, movies,
webpages, archives, chat areas, etc. To a lesser extent, insofar as
they relate to Transformers, Transformers-related toy lines (Battle
Beasts, etc.), other Hasbroverse toy line tie-ins, and other robot toy
lines that do not have newsgroups specifically devoted to their fandom
(GoBots, certain Japanese robot toy lines, etc.) are also considered
on-topic here _as long as they maintain relevance to some facet of the
Transformers under discussion_. In short, almost all types of post
that were accepted on alt.toys.transformers will also be accepted
here.
rec.toys.transformers.moderated does not exist to supplant or replace
any other current or future Transformers discussion newsgroups, but
rather to supplement them. This is intended to be a place where
people can read and post without fear of getting spoiled by accident,
a place where subjects can easily be killed or selected by use of
subject-line tags, and, hopefully, a place where Beast Wars and
"Classic" Transformers fans alike will be able to get along and have
civil discussions. It is not our intent to force moderation upon
anyone; there will always be unmoderated Transfandom groups for people
to use if they don't care for moderation. We just want to provide the
freedom of choice that comes with more and different alternatives.
Each posting to rec.toys.transformers.moderated should include a
keyword tag on the subject line either designating which which toy
line or related material to which the posting refers ([G1], [G2],
[BW], etc.) or marking the general subject of the post ([ADMIN],
etc.). If a submitted post does not have a tag, the moderator may add
appropriate tags, but posters are encouraged to add tags themselves to
save moderation work. A list of suggested keywords will be posted in
a separate FAQ.
Contributions are welcome from all who wish to engage in discussion of
Transformers and related toy lines, related subjects, and outside
sites pertaining thereunto--this includes but is not limited to toy
lines, mass media (books, comics, magazines, movies, TV, etc.),
webpages, IRC channels, WebChat rooms, MUDs/MUSEs/MUSHes/etc, RPGs,
and computer games.
Discussion on rec.toys.transformers.moderated may consist of such
things as:
* Discussions pertaining to toys, comic books, TV shows,
and other Transformers-related material.
* Properly-protected TV show/comic book/etc. spoilers.
* Replies to requests for information.
* Announcements of conventions, fandom resources, new mailing
lists, webpages, or other newsgroups pertaining to the
Transformers or related material.
rec.toys.transformers.moderated is NOT to be used for the following:
* Posting of unprotected spoilers.
* Advertising or sales of Transformers-related material of any
kind (use rec.toys.transformers.marketplace instead).
* Posting of fanfiction.
* Posting of binaries (with the exception of PGP signatures and
clear-signatures, which are allowed), HTML-formatted
messages, or MIME attachments. However, notices of archives,
webpages, or FTP sites dedicated to Transformers-related
binaries are welcome, and should be used as alternatives to
posting binary material.
* Blatant trolls or other abusive material.
* Posting of off-topic or excessively-crossposted material.
* Posting of "test" messages.
"Off-topic" refers to anything not pertaining to Transformers or other
topical material (as defined in the first paragraph of this Charter).
However, "on-topic" will be interpreted very broadly; almost anything
that is not directly objectionable (by the criteria for disallowed
posts given above) will be let through.
Postings considered by the Usenet community to be 'spam' or similar
forms of net-abuse are not permitted. This also includes blatant
trolls (posts with primarily emotive content along the lines of "<TV
series> SUCKS!!!" with no attempt at justification, or "YOUR ALL FAGS
GIT A LIFE" for example).
The discussion in rec.toys.transformers.moderated is moderated. The
moderation is not to censor or suppress discussion or controversy on
any topic relevant to the group, but rather to filter out abuse, spam,
unprotected spoilers, and posts sent to RTT.moderated by mistake.
Save where MIME-encoding, HTML marked-up posts, >80 character line
width, spoiler protection, and other issues of formatting are
concerned, content or style will NEVER be altered by the moderators,
whose sole purpose is to forward all appropriate postings to the
group. All inappropriate postings will be returned in their entirety
to the posters.
Spoilers:
In Transformers fandom, the term "spoilers" commonly refers to
plot-related information that could "spoil" a story for someone who
has not had a chance to read or view that story (be it an episode of a
TV series, a comic book, a movie, fanfiction, or some other type of
story) yet. In the past, a common problem on alt.toys.transformers
has been the posting of unprotected spoilers to the newsgroup,
particularly in subject lines such as "[character name] is dead!" or
"[character name] is back!" This is bad because it removes the choice
of whether or not to be spoiled from the reader, who many times would
prefer to be completely surprised by what happens in the story.
Posts to rec.toys.transformers.moderated may include spoilers, but the
spoilers should have appropriate protection and warning, including the
tag [Spoilers] in the subject line, and a pagebreak symbol (control-L)
and/or 15-30 lines of space before the spoilers begin, and should
_never_ be in the subject line. This will give readers their choice
of going ahead and being spoiled, or of passing the article by until
they have seen the episode in question.
(This will be enforced most strictly on the most recent season of
whatever Transformers show/comic book/etc. is in current release, and
less strictly on spoilers for older works such as G1 episodes, G1 & G2
comic books, and 1st-season BW episodes; these have been around for
long enough that they are assumed to have been seen or read already by
the majority of the ****tion of the reader****p who would be concerned
about them.)
Fanfiction:
Due to the increased exposure of rec groups, fanfiction will not be
allowed on rec.toys.transformers.moderated (or any of the other
rec.toys.transformers.* groups, for that matter). Our concern is that
it might cause Hasbro, who has shown some hostility toward
Transformers fanfiction in the past, to take additional notice of this
aspect of Transformers fandom and possibly institute legal action. We
would rather not risk harming fandom, and particularly fanfic writers,
by increasing the likelihood of Hasbro lawsuits. Thus, fanfiction
should not be posted anywhere within the rec.toys.transformers.*
hierarchy.
Moderation Policy:
The moderators will try to ensure that the postings are free from
gratuitous verbal abuse and personal attacks. Author****p is NOT a
criterion for judgment; article content is the sole criterion. That
said, it is not the business of the moderators to search out or remove
illegal material, and the moderators cannot be held responsible for
any postings to the group written by other persons.
Articles for rec.toys.transformers.moderated must be relevant to the
newsgroup charter. Articles should have a maximum line width of 80
characters, though a line width of 64-72 characters is suggested for
new articles, as this allows the material to be easily quoted in
follow-ups without reformatting line breaks.
Articles should not be formatted in HTML code (as certain versions of
Netscape and Microsoft Internet News are known to post), nor should
they be use MIME attachments. HTML-style emoticons, such as <sarcasm>
</sarcasm>, are all right, however, as is the posting of URLs.
The moderators are authorized to reject articles that do not meet the
topical or formatting criteria given above, or to reformat
misformatted messages so that they meet posting standards. Moderators
may also reject posts, particularly long ones, that consist
overwhelmingly of quoted material. "This is a test" posts, posts that
add nothing substantial, and add new content only to the effect of 'me
too', 'no', and the like, may also be rejected if they fail to serve
the purpose of furthering discussion.
Anyone whose article is rejected or modified will usually be mailed a
brief note, consisting of a personally written note and/or a
boilerplate response containing an explanation to inform him why his
posting was rejected and what kind of adjustments he should consider
making if he wishes to resubmit the article. (Though in the case of
spam, the moderator should feel free to ignore it entirely.) If
desired by the poster, further assistance or advice will be given by
the moderators.
Conversation, chat, and the mutual fun of the participants are all
im****tant. Off-topic threads that began as on-topic threads will not
be rejected as long as they retain some periodic relevance.
Moderators may insert subject line keywords or alter subject lines to
reflect topic drift, but will reject chat-type posts only when they
become completely irrelevant.
Though messages may be reformatted by the moderators, they will _not_
be edited for content; they will be either accepted or rejected--it is
up to the poster to decide to make any changes himself before
resubmitting. Subject lines may be altered by the moderator only if
he deems it necessary (ie, if the subject line includes a spoiler, the
subject of the message thread has drifted away from the original
subject line, etc.). Keyword [tags] may be added if necessary.
Some approved messages may have a clearly delineated moderator's note
appended to the end or beginning. Such moderator's notes will be used
for administrative purposes only, never for interjection of personal
comments.
Crossposting between rec.toys.transformers.moderated and other
newsgroups (including both moderated & unmoderated
Transformers-related groups and non-Transformers-related groups) is
permitted and even encouraged, so long as it is not excessively
crossposted (ie, spammed) and does not violate the charter of the
other newsgroups. (The moderators of rec.toys.transformers are not
expected to ensure personally that every message is on-topic for every
group, though they should at least try use their common sense in such
matters.) However, whether to crosspost is entirely up to the person
who submits the article.
The moderators should try to ensure that a crossposted message is
on-topic for each of the crossposted groups, and should consult with
the moderation staff of any other moderated groups in the crosspost
list if necessary. The moderators will _never_ alter articles'
Newsgroups lines; if an article is excessively or off-topically
crossposted, they will simply reject it.
The complete text of all rejected articles (save perhaps for massive
binaries) will be returned to the poster so that he may make any
necessary adjustments himself before resubmitting it or posting it
elsewhere.
If new moderators are required, they are selected from among those
responding to a request for volunteers posted in the newsgroup.
Removal of an existing moderator is by the decision of the other
active moderators.
Commercial postings are prohibited, given the existence of a
rec.toys.transformers.marketplace group for that very purpose. The
moderators are authorized to reject postings which are commercial in
nature and do not fit the criteria mentioned here and earlier in this
document.
NO specific individuals or groups are excluded from
rec.toys.transformers.moderated (except on a post-by-post basis, the
same as everyone else) nor will any specific individuals or groups be
shown favoritism.
To provide for the necessity of future changes, this charter may be
amended or altered by a 2/3 vote of the currently active moderators.
EMAIL ADDRESSES
Here are the email addresses for all of the current moderators, plus
the moderation administrative addresses.
Moderator: "Christopher E. Meadows" <robotech@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator: Tim Skirvin <tskirvin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator: Vulcana <pawright@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator: Grrrlgoyle <derigel@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator: Diana Calder <dcalder@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator: Darrell Cobb <dfcobb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator: Daniel Sauve <ahsdreamwalker@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Moderator: "Richard C. Mistron" <orioneos@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Administrative contact address: tskirvin+rttmod@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
submission address: rtt+sub@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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