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- What's all that about?
- What is the purpose of this group?
- Why is it moderated?
- How is it moderated?
- What if my news provider/ISP won't let me post?
- Where do I find out more information?
- Q: What's all that about?
A: A while ago, misc.writing.moderated was run using the automod
software. For various reasons that set-up lapsed and the group was
effectively dead. It has recently been resurrected using the STUMP
moderation software. The team of humans behind the software curtain is
also slightly different. This document has been edited from the old
FAQ and is bound to change as we come to terms with the new software
and what it can and cannot do. Any comments or suggestions for this
FAQ should be sent to j.v.ashby/at/rl.ac.uk.
- Q: What is the purpose of this group?
A: Misc.writing.moderated exists to provide a writing forum that is not
particular to any specific genre, but which provides focussed discussion on
the art, craft, business and creative process of writing in a positive
atmosphere.
It is a forum for discussion of the process and profession of writing where
all participants are treated as peers. The focus in misc.writing.moderated
is on developing as writers, increasing writing income and/or discussing
the process and business of writing.
Misc.writing.moderated is inclusive in that discussion of all forms of
writing is considered appropriate, but it is exclusive in that all
discussion must be aimed toward the development of participants as writers,
or toward providing cooperative support for their writing and their writing
ambitions.
Misc.writing.moderated accepts reasonable and timely announcements of
seminars, conferences, new markets, and other commercial ventures that may
be of interest to the practicing writer, though repetitive (defined as more
than once per month) commercial announcements are disallowed.
While questions about writing problems are appropriate in
misc.writing.moderated, the posting of long excerpts from written works, or
of shorter works in their entirety, is not. Work should only be quoted as
part of a larger discussion within a post. This includes, but is not
limited to, illustrations of writing technique, questions of why certain
passages do or do not work, and short segments designed to spark a
discussion about the art or craft of writing. Those looking for critiques
are welcome to post URLs where their work can be found, or post an offer to
e-mail interested readers.
- Q: Why is it moderated?
A: Misc.writing.moderated is moderated, which means that all articles to the
group pass through a review process before being posted. The purpose of
moderation is to maintain focussed discussion in an atmosphere of mutual
respect. To this end, the Moderators will strive to maintain both focus
and cordiality.
- Q: How is it moderated?
Moderation is done by a Moderation Board, consisting of a Head Moderator
and several Associate Moderators. Only members of the Moderation Board can approve posts.
The Moderation Board is:
John V Ashby
David M Harris
Paul Harwood
The current moderation procedures and policies are described in the
Moderation Policy, which is maintained by the Head Moderator. General
complaints, dissatisfaction, and grousing about Moderators or the
Moderation Policy can be aired on a public, unmoderated mailing list. That
list is open to all and will be read by at least one member of the Board.
The Moderation Policy, or a URL pointing to it, is posted once a week to
misc.writing.moderated.
The precise process is that an article posted to the group is first
processed through moderation software which may:
- Reject it outright if it meets certain criteria (see 6. Current Grounds
for Auto-Rejection);
- Forward it to a Board member if it meets certain other criteria (see 7.
Current Grounds for Human Moderation); or
- Post it immediately.
A Moderator may place certain individuals or sites that repeatedly post
off-charter material on a "Watch List," which will cause their articles to
be forwarded to a human Moderator for review (see 10. The Watch List). A
Moderator may also declare certain off-charter discussion threads to be
"closed," so that no more articles in that thread are to be posted. There
is no avenue of appeal for the closure of a thread.
All posters are initially placed on the Watch List.
Rejected articles are, if possible, be returned to their sender with a note
of explanation. Rejections may be appealed to an appeals address. The
appeals address mwm-request/at/panix.com appears in all rejection notices.
The moderation software maintains a list of "approved" e-mail addresses,
articles from which are posted by the software without human moderation.
When a poster not on the approved list submits an article, the moderation
software will pass the post for human moderation. After three
accepted posts the poster becomes eligible for the whitelist and the
moderators are automatically alerted to this. The whitelist is based on
the email address given in the post, and so if you change your e-mail
address as it appears in the From: field, then you will be returned to
hand-moderation.
When approving an article, therefore, a Moderator must determine how
closely the article adheres to the charter of misc.writing.moderated.
Note that this policy represents a change from the previous policy of
requiring a keyword to gain a place on the list of approved posters.
The keyword is no longer necessary.
Articles automatically rejected include:
- Crossposted articles, except: RFDs, CFVs, and related administrative
postings (as approved by the moderators of news.announce.newgroups) with
followups set to news.groups and/or misc.writing.moderated, articles in
response to such postings if only crossposted between news.groups and
misc.writing.moderated, and FAQs and similar informational postings (as
approved by the moderators of news.answers).
- Binaries. (Note that this excepts cryptographic authentication such as
PGP.)
- Articles with an empty or missing Subject header.
- Articles submitted via email with a missing Newsgroups header.
The moderation software is currently forwarding the following types of
articles to human Moderators for review. Since most Moderators actually
have lives outside of Usenet, there may be a delay of 24 hours or more
before such articles are either posted or returned to their senders.
- Articles from certain addresses that have posted one or more off-charter
articles in the past or who have not yet satisfied the criteria for a position on the list of automatically approved
posters.
The criterion that should be applied uniformly to all articles is: Would a
reasonable person agree that this article conforms substantially to the
charter for the newsgroup?
- Q: What if my news provider/ISP won't let me post?
We have been experiencing problems receiving posts from posters who use Giganews as
their newsfeed or who are hosted by an ISP that contracts with Giganews for their newsfeed.
(e.g. comcast.net). The moderators are working to identify and fix the problem. Until that time,
you can post to mwm by sending your post to
mwm/at/panix.com.
You must have a Newsgroup header in your mail, or your post will be rejected.
- Q: Where do I find out more information?
The Charter for misc.writing.moderated can be found at
http://writers.internet-resources.com/mwm/Charter.html.
The Full Moderation Policy is
posted regularly to the group and archived at http://writers.internet-resources.com/mwm/ModPolicy.html
Be warned that the latter is a long and complex document designed to cover
all sorts of eventualities we hope will never happen. With luck, all you
need to know about the moderation procedure is contained in this FAQ.
- Grievances or questions can be sent directly to the Moderation Board at
mwm.request/at/panix.com
- General complaints, dissatisfaction, and grousing about Moderators or the
Moderation Policy can be aired on the public, unmoderated mailing list
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mwmDiscussion. That list is open to all
and is read by at least one member of the Board at all times.
Comments about this FAQ can be sent to mwm.request/at/panix.com to the attention of the FAQ maintainer (John Ashby).
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