Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!ra.nrl.navy.mil!chiapp19.algx.com!allegiance!news-out.visi.com!petbe.visi.com!news.octanews.net!green.octanews.net!news-out.octanews.net!authen.puce.readfreenews.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: Supercedes: Newsgroups: news.groups.reviews,news.newusers.questions,news.groups,news.answers Subject: FAQs and Posting Guidelines for news.groups.reviews From: "news.groups.reviews moderators" Followup-To: poster X-Disclaimer: Approval for *.answers is based on form, not content. Summary: This posting describes how to write a review for news.groups.reviews and answers some questions on the moderation of that group. Approved: news-groups-reviews-moderator@gweep.ca,news-answers-request@MIT.EDU User-Agent: Hamster/2.0.3.0 Date: 30 May 2004 19:04:23 GMT Lines: 215 Organization: Read Free News NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 May 2004 14:04:23 CDT NNTP-Posting-Host: c6b68045.authen.puce.readfreenews.net X-Trace: DXC=CMURWhDdA=iLI=aU`E:L_J7YlDhi^\a9laeY`D`A28=dlMOMLm X-Complaints-To: abuse@readfreenews.com Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.groups.reviews:386 news.newusers.questions:726237 news.groups:483368 news.answers:271466 Archive-name: usenet/news-groups-reviews Posting-Frequency: Twice monthly to ngr, monthly to news.answers URL: http://www.gweep.ca/~drabble/guidelines.html Maintainer: "news.groups.reviews moderators" news-groups-reviews-moderator@gweep.ca Changes ======= 23-Apr-2003: Changed 'How is Moderation Performed' to reflect new software 23-Apr-2003: Changed submission and contact addresses 23-Apr-2003: Changed Review-Date: auxilliary header 23-Apr-2003: Added info for getting this from the autoresponder 23-Apr-2003: Added info on gated mailing list 13-Jan-2002: Changed submission address. 29-Nov-2001: Changed moderator contact address. 29-Nov-2001: Changed Review-Date: auxiliary header. What is news.groups.reviews =========================== news.groups.reviews (ngr) is a moderated group for the publishing of reviews of newsgroups or publicly accessible mailing lists. It is not a high volume group as all discussions of the reviews will happen in the reviewed group. If you feel that you could write a review then please read on for details. To submit a review please post it to news.groups.reviews or, if you do not seem to be getting through, mail it to news-groups-reviews@gweep.ca. I will then either post your review or, if it does not meet the guidelines, return it to you with an explanation. Who are the moderators ====================== The moderators are: Graham Drabble. (Head Moderator) Brian Edmonds. (Modbot Host and Backup Moderator) Kathy Morgan. (Backup Moderator) Red Mike. (Backup Moderator) If you wish to contact the moderators then please mail news-groups-reviews-moderator@gweep.ca. How is moderation performed? ============================ Your posts will be sent to the modbot which then sends a copy of the post to each moderator. They can then decide whether to approve or reject the post. The software is currently set up such that the decision is made by the first moderator to reply. If you wish to appeal a rejection then please contact the whole moderation team at news-groups-reviews-moderator@gweep.ca with a copy of your rejected post and we will get back to you as soon as possible. How long will this take? ======================== I expect to check the submission address nightly and will then either post the review or return it with comments as soon as I have been able to check it. However there may be some nights that I can't manage this, although I will try to inform the backup moderators if this is the case, so please leave at least 3 days before contacting news-groups-reviews-moderator@gweep.ca. Review Guidelines ================= Reviews should try to be as positive as possible. Whilst comparisons with other groups are allowed please try to keep these civil. Also, if you wish to mention individual users in your review then please double check that what you are saying is true and that they don't mind. Reviews should be written to reflect the long-term use of the group as I will only allow one review per group every 6 months. Preference will be given to those who haven't reviewed the group before to ensure a balanced view is shown. The specifics ============= To be accepted for posting to news.groups reviews a review must be in the following format: Headers ------- Newsgroups: This must contain the group being reviewed and news.groups.reviews. From: Does not have to be a real address. However if it is not then please provide it at the top of the auxiliary headers in case I need to contact you. Followup-To: One of the groups that is being reviewed. (I will allow Followup-To: poster.) Subject: Must be [REVIEW] The group. These can be in any order. Note: I will allow X-No-Archive: Yes to be set but this will not prevent it being archived at the news.groups.reviews site. I will try and contact you before posting to check this is OK. For mailing lists the newsgroup line need only contain news.groups.reviews and the post will be CC'd to the mailing list. Follow-ups must be directed to poster as I will not allow them in news.groups.reviews. Auxiliary Headers ----------------- These are actually part of the body of the message but are set apart from the rest and provide a quick reference for people and will form part of the archive. Real-Address: If you aren't using a real address in the from: header then please provide it here. I will delete this line before posting. Newsgroup: The affected newsgroup (or Mailing-List: if appropriate) Description: The one line description from the newsgroups file. I can probably fill this in if asked. (For mailing list a short (under 60 character) description.) Moderated: Yes / No Moderator-Submission-Address: (if applicable) The address for sending articles to be posted. Moderator-Contact-Address: (if applicable) The address for contacting the moderator if different from above. Charter-Location: If there is a group charter available please put the URL here. If not I'll put the URL of the control message in the isc.org archives if I can find it. (Not required for mailing lists) FAQ-Location: If there is an FAQ available then please put the URL here otherwise write "none". If the group has an FAQ which is not archived on the web then please indicate its posting frequency and subject. Reviewer: Same as from: in headers or Real-Address: auxiliary header. Review-Date: This is the date that you wrote (or submitted if writing took a long time) the post. Body ---- The review itself. .sig ---- I will allow .sig files provided that they are properly deliminated (start with the line -- (dash-dash-space)) and are no more than 6 lines long. If you are unable to set any of the headers or auxiliary headers correctly then please feel free to put a note before the auxiliary headers asking the moderators to set them. Example ======= Newsgroups: test.test,news.groups.reviews From: "Graham Drabble" Followup-To: test.test Subject: [REVIEW] test.test Real-Address: graham.drabble@lineone.net Newsgroup: test.test Description: Test group of test.* Moderated: no Charter-location: http://www.test-hierarchy.invalid/charter/test FAQ-Location: none Reviewer: "Graham Drabble" Review-Date: test.test is for the testing of posts to test.*. Articles with a valid from: or reply-to: will get an auto-responder message from some sites which carry the group. Very useful group. -- Graham Drabble Which groups / mailing lists can I review? ========================================== Any group. There is no restriction of what groups can be reviewed. Only publicly accessible mailing lists can be reviewed. Publicly accessible is taken to mean that anyone can read the group, it is not necessary for everyone to have posting privileges. Archives and Rejected Posts =========================== There will be an archive of accepted and rejected posts at http://www.gweep.ca/~drabble/ Accepted posts will be kept for as long as I have enough disk space. An old archive from before I took over can be found at http://www.bauser.com/news.groups.reviews/ or you can search on http://groups.google.com. Gated Mailing List ================== All postings to news.groups.reviews are also distributed to the mailing list news-groups-reviews@gweep.ca, which is available in both regular and digest format. For subscription information, send email to news-groups-reviews-request@gweep.ca or visit the list webpage at http://www.gweep.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/news-groups-revews. Likewise, all postings to the mailing list are also distributed to the newsgroup, so subscribers can use whichever of the newsgroup, list, or digest formats is most comfortable. A copy of this FAQ can also be obtained by e-mail. Mail news-groups-reviews-quiet@gweep.ca with the command 'get file: faq' in the subject. -- Graham Drabble Head Moderator - news.groups.reviews