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Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Supercedes: <[e-mail]>
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" <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail],[e-mail]
User-Agent: Hamster/2.0.3.0
Date: 02 May 2004 19:03:06 GMT
Lines: 215
Organization: Read Free News
NNTP-Posting-Date: 02 May 2004 14:03:06 CDT
NNTP-Posting-Host: fb8565bf.authen.puce.readfreenews.net
X-Trace: DXC=KMohd1>i^WallAJ[1PdR4c0TEf1TMUA>hDdA=iLI<FmkYAckl70FVGbGE<7oB?[f7`m=iPA]AfoToiO0@J2TEGoc6O^Oo9:_eUg
X-Complaints-To: [e-mail]
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.groups.reviews:384 news.newusers.questions:726068 news.groups:481521 news.answers:270715

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" [e-mail]

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 [e-mail].
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
[e-mail].

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
[e-mail] 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
[e-mail].

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" <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: test.test
Subject: [REVIEW] test.test

Real-Address: [e-mail]
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" <[e-mail]>
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 [e-mail], which is available in both regular
and digest format. For subscription information, send email to
[e-mail] 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
[e-mail] with the command 'get file: faq'
in the subject.

--
Graham Drabble
Head Moderator - news.groups.reviews