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- From: tskirvin@uiuc.edu (Tim Skirvin)
- Newsgroups: news.admin.hierarchies,news.groups,alt.config,news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,news.answers
- Subject: Draft: The mod.* Manifesto (Last updated: July 30, 1997)
- Followup-To: news.admin.hierarchies
- Date: 16 Aug 1997 17:06:36 GMT
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Lines: 303
- Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
- Expires: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 00:00:00 GMT
- Message-ID: <modmanifesto3-tskirvin@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Reply-To: mod-squad@mod.org
- NNTP-Posting-Host: alpha.math.uiuc.edu
- Summary: mod.* is a hierarchy under development by a group known as the
- Mod Squad (mod-squad@mod.org). This document is meant to be an
- introduction to the hierarchy, its proposed rules, and the reasons
- behind its creation.
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- X-Later-Groups: mod.config,mod.config.announce,news.admin.hierarchies,news.admin.net-abuse.usenet,alt.config,news.groups,news.answers,mod.answers
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- Originator: tskirvin@alpha.math.uiuc.edu
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.admin.hierarchies:2584 news.groups:299095 alt.config:133362 news.admin.net-abuse.usenet:46831 news.answers:109958
-
- Archive-name: usenet/mod/manifesto
- Posting-Frequency: twice monthly (1st and 16th)
- Last-modified: 1997/07/30
- Version: 0.8b
- URL: http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/tskirvin/faqs/manif.html
- Maintainer: Tim Skirvin (tskirvin@uiuc.edu)
-
- The mod.* Manifesto
-
- Introduction
- ============
-
- For years, public newsgroups on Usenet have been organized mainly
- under two major hierarchies - alt.* and the Big-8. The latter hierarchy is,
- in most people's minds, a success - though it may be slow and ponderous, it
- is well used and propagated and is relatively abuse-free. alt.*, originally
- created as an alternative to the Big-8, enjoyed similar success for many
- years - however, of late the ease of abusing such an uncontrolled hierarchy
- has become clear, and alt.* has been collapsing under its own weight.
-
- One of the tactics that many in alt.* have turned to is newsgroup
- moderation, where a newsgroup is controlled by a single person or group, in
- charge of screening the content of all posts to the newsgroup before they
- are posted. Unfortunately, due to a number of factors, moderation in alt.*
- is tricky at best - and so moderation has been mostly left to the Big-8,
- where it is not as necessary.
-
- mod.* is an attempt to duplicate the early success of alt.*
- without falling prey to the problems that have nearly killed it, by
- allowing (and requiring) such newsgroup moderation. mod.* is controlled
- by a decentralized group of moderators, each in charge of their own
- newsgroups; anybody can make a group, just as long as they are willing to
- moderate it. There is a centralized system behind the moderators, to run
- the newsgroup creation system and such, but they will stay in the
- background as much as possible. Otherwise, the hierarchy is much like
- alt.* - no namespace controls, few centralized rules, etc.
-
- mod.* is currently under development, and the specifics of its
- operations are still being worked out. As such, this document is not an
- official technical document; instead, it is a summary of what mod.* will
- be, how it will work, and what the hierarchy will do for Usenet. All
- information contained within is subject to change without notice, and may
- or may not be present in the final hierarchy.
-
-
-
- Hierarchy Rules
- ========= =====
-
- As of this writing, the codified rules for the mod.* hierarchy
- are still in development. The following guidelines are the design
- principles for the hierarchy - the final rules will follow in the spirit
- of the guidelines, expanding and supporting the principles contained
- within.
-
-
- 1. Every newsgroup must have a moderator. Moderators have total control
- over the newsgroups that they moderate.
-
- A moderator is in charge of their newsgroups in all situations.
- Period. They may change their newsgroup's moderation policies or charter
- at will, and they are the final arbiter of all disputes in their groups.
-
-
- 2. Messages must be approved by the moderators of all the moderated
- groups in the Newsgroups: header - no exceptions.
-
- It is currently possible for a moderator to approve messages to a
- newsgroup that he does not moderate. While technical solutions to this
- problem are still being worked out, keeping this rule in mind should
- smooth out any problems that may otherwise arise.
-
- It should be noted that this rule also applies to newsgroups
- outside of the mod.* hierarchy.
-
-
- 3. Newsgroup creation will be handled by a creation-bot, written and
- maintained by members of the hierarchy's founders, the Mod-Squad.
-
- By having one centralized source of official newsgroup control,
- mod.* group creation can be both fast and standardized.
-
-
- 4. Dead or unused newsgroups will be automatically removed by the
- newsgroup creation-bot.
-
- If a moderator leaves, their newsgroup will be removed. Steps
- will be taken to ensure that any group with any traffic at all will not be
- removed.
-
-
- 5. Third party cancellations are disallowed in mod.*, except for those
- explicitly authorized by the moderator or the Mod-Squad.
-
- Because every mod.* newsgroup is moderated, there is no need for
- spam cancellers or other third-party cancellers to watch over the entire
- hierarchy - the moderators can take care of their own groups.
-
-
- 6. Large binary messages (as determined by the Mod-Squad) are specif-
- ically banned from mod.*, excepting mod.binaries.*. This may be
- enforced by the Mod-Squad as necessary.
-
- Most news administrators prefer to keep binary messages confined to
- easily controlled sub-hierarchies, so that they can choose whether or not
- to receive binaries at all. By continuing this policy, mod.* is much more
- likely to gain wide acceptance and popularity.
-
-
- Hierarchy Goals
- ========= =====
-
- While the final effects of mod.* are not yet known, there are
- several expected benefits in creating the hierarchy. These are a few of
- the more obvious, and expected, goals.
-
-
- 1. Take pressure off of other hierarchies to moderate themselves.
-
- The last few months have brought increasing pressure to moderate
- every newsgroup in alt.* and the Big-8, both from within the groups
- themselves and from the people in charge of creating the groups. This
- pressure has begun to cause dangerous problems - large fights between
- group proponents over proposed moderators, retromoderation of existing
- newsgroups in alt.*, etc.
-
- By creating a hierarchy where moderation is required, the pressure
- to moderate can be taken off of other hierarchies. Retromoderation will
- become unnecessary; mass moderation of Big-8 newsgroups will become less
- common, as another outlet is found.
-
-
- 2. Allow moderation for the masses.
-
- One of the major problems of moderation is that the only way to
- make a moderated newsgroup is to become a moderator yourself - which is no
- easy feat. While recent jumps in robot moderation technology and the like
- have begun to simplify the process, it is still by no means simple - the
- time and effort to set up the programs can be prohibitive.
-
- By centralizing the process, as with mod.*, moderation can be made
- much simpler, HOWTOs can be written, and virtually anyone can become a
- moderator. Even better, through the use of volunteer organizations such
- as the (proposed) Usenet Volunteer Moderators, simple moderation schemes
- can be performed by pre-skilled moderators. Overall, by standardizing the
- process more people may enjoy the benefits of moderation.
-
-
- 3. Offer an alternative to alt.*
-
- alt.* was created years ago as an alternative to the popular, but
- not perfect, Big-8 hierarchies (then the Big-7). However, alt.* also has
- its inherent flaws - groups can't be renamed, propagation is wildly
- variable, etc.
-
- mod.* is an alternative to alt.*, meant to solve many of alt.*'s
- problems. While almost certainly creating some of its own, it's still a
- good experiment, and certainly worth a shot.
-
-
-
- Targeted Newsgroups
- ======== ==========
-
- Although any group may be created, not all newsgroups and topics
- are appropriate for mod.*. The following topics and existing newsgroups
- are expected to benefit especially greatly from a group in the hierarchy.
-
-
- 1. alt.* groups that want to keep their names.
-
- alt.*'s naming scheme (or lack thereof) has allowed many "interest-
- ingly" named newsgroups to pop up, such as alt.sex.cthulhu; such names
- would never be accepted in any other hierarchies. Unfortunately, many of
- these groups also suffer from being a part of alt.*; in many cases, more
- than 90% of the group traffic is entirely off-topic. Rather than give up
- their names, most of these groups grudgingly choose to remain in alt.*,
- where the attacks can continue.
-
- By allowing the creation of groups such as mod.sex.cthulhu, mod.*
- gives these groups a way out of alt.*, to a place where they can protect
- themselves from outside attack while keeping their group name.
-
-
- 2. Limited lifespan newsgroups.
-
- Topics such as movies, video games, and major current events tend
- to attract a lot of traffic in a short period of time, but discussion
- dies down within a few months or years. Because of this worry of traffic
- death, it is difficult to create a newsgroup to just discuss a new movie
- or game - even though there may certainly be enough traffic in the short-
- term to support it. mod.* allows the creation of such short-term
- newsgroups; when the discussion dies down the group will be automatically
- deleted.
-
-
- 3. Robot moderated newsgroups.
-
- A large proportion of the newsgroups in mod.* are expected to be
- moderated by simple moderator-bots, rather than by hand. By creating
- robot moderated newsgroups in mod.* rather than another hierarchy the
- modbots can be easily standardized, greatly easing the connections between
- two moderated groups.
-
-
- 4. Groups with limited readership.
-
- There are many alt.* groups with limited readership that would
- like to leave the hierarchy for greener pastures, but do not have the
- votes necessary to create a Big-8 group. mod.* would allow such groups to
- move to a new hierarchy without a significant reader base.
-
-
- 5. Currently retromoderated newsgroups.
-
- Over the last few months, there has been a dangerous trend towards
- retromoderation (moderation of unmoderated newsgroups through cancel
- messages) in alt.*. This change, brought on by the decentralization of
- alt.*, has become a great concern for many news administrators; its growth
- threatens the growth of alt.* and Usenet as a whole. By providing an easy
- method of standard moderation, mod.* hopes to halt the practice of retro-
- moderation entirely.
-
-
- 6. Trial runs for moderation.
-
- At present, the only way to test out a moderation scheme is on a
- local newsgroup; there is no world-wide moderation test group for Usenet
- as a whole. mod.* directly allows tests of most moderation methods on a
- large scale, which can be later applied to moderation in other newsgroups
- or in the Big-8.
-
-
-
- Naming Policies
- ====== ========
-
- The creators of mod.* have no desire to impose one naming scheme
- on the entire hierarchy - not only do we not know what the best naming
- scheme would be, but, given the newsgroup creation methods, there would be
- no way for us to enforce it. Instead, any naming schemes will be left up
- to the desires of those people that are making the groups.
-
- Presumably, as the process is standardized, future FAQs will be
- written on this subject.
-
-
-
- System Abuse
- ====== =====
-
- As with all hierarchies, mod.* is somewhat prone to abuse, be it
- intentional or unintentional.
-
- Problem Solution
-
- Forged Approvals Messages posted to a group against the will of its
- moderator may be cancelled on sight. Software will
- be provided to simplify this process as necessary.
-
- Net Abuse Because all groups in mod.* are moderated, the poten-
- (spam, spews, etc) tial for abuse of the system by third parties is
- greatly diminished. Control of net abuse, such as
- spamming and spews, is the responsibility of the
- individual moderators.
-
- Rogue Moderators There are no official policies to deal with moderators
- that ignore their own charters or otherwise "break
- their trust" as a moderator. This is intentional; we
- have no desire to mediate fights between individuals.
- However, it should be noted that another person may
- create an alternative to the rogue group as easily as
- the original group was created; competing newsgroups
- on the same subject are in no way discouraged.
-
- The Usenet Volunteer Moderators may also be able to
- provide an impartial moderator if necessary.
-
- Name Hijacking If possible, a system will be set up where the initial
- newsgroup proponent may reserve a newsgroup name for
- themselves during the initial discussion period; this
- should stop any name hijacking that might otherwise
- become a problem.
-
- Namespace Abuse All messages from the newsgroup creation-bot will
- be PGP-signed. There will also be limited controls
- on the newsgroup creation-bot to stop people from
- making hundreds of junk newsgroups.
-
-
- Final Comments
- ===== ========
-
- This Manifesto is not the only document describing mod.* - it is only
- a brief summary of the rules in general terms, setting out our goals and
- ideas relating to the project. Suggestions about the hierarchy are, of
- course, welcome and encouraged.
-
- Wish us luck.
-
- - The Mod-Squad
- mod-squad@mod.org
-