XPost: news.announce.newusers, news.groups.proposals, news.newusers.questions

REPLACEMENT MODERATOR FOUND
news.newusers.questions

The Big-8 Management Board is pleased to announce that it has taken on
the moderation duties for news.newusers.questions, returning the group
to service after a considerable hiatus.

The previous moderator, Kathy Morgan, lost access to the group's
moderation address when the server at albasani.net suffered a failure
in early 2020, and the group has been dormant since then. In email communication with the Board, Kathy later expressed a wish to retire
from moderation duties.

A call for new moderators was posted in news.groups in April 2022
(Message-ID: <pan$e6795$81a5ccac$43a5c700$ec0c7944@mailfence.com>), but
the ensuing discussion did not result in any volunteers.

The Board has therefore volunteered to moderate news.newusers.questions,
along with its companion group news.announce.newusers. While the
Board's core responsibility is to maintain the roster of groups in the
Big 8 hierarchies, it is also in keeping with the ethos of the Board to
promote and support the Big 8 and Usenet in general. As such, the Board considers it worthwhile to ensure that these newsgroups and their FAQs
remain available for the benefit of newcomers to Usenet.


MODERATOR INFO: news.newusers.questions

Moderator: Big-8 Management Board <board@big-8.org>
Article submission address: <nnq@nan.users.panix.com>
Moderation team contact: <nnq-request@nan.users.panix.com>


CHARTER AND MODERATION POLICY OF 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

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, who may employ
assistants from the pool of Backup Moderators as the need arises.
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 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. 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.
Cancelations 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, to cancel articles with
forged approvals; or

3. 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 each
month, providing statistics on the functioning of the group, a
summary of the articles appealed, and a list of any changes to the Administrative Statement or 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 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.


DISTRIBUTION:

news.announce.newgroups
news.announce.newusers
news.groups.proposals
news.newusers.questions


CHANGE HISTORY:

2024-09-26 Announcement

--
Usenet Big-8 Management Board
https://www.big-8.org/
board@big-8.org

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)