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The Moderator's Assistant
A Waffle BBS utility
Copyright 1992 by Roy M. Silvernail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Moderator's Assistant is a shareware program. You may evaluate it
free of charge for a reasonable period, after which you must register
it. See the Registration section at the end of this document for
registration details.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is The Moderator's Assistant?
Waffle administrators are familiar with moderated newsgroups, where
posts are sent to a central processing point for consideration, rather
than being posted directly to the newsgroup. Waffle has the means to
direct posts for moderated groups to the moderator's mail address, but
no direct support for hosting a moderated group.
The hooks are there, however, and The Moderator's Assistant hangs on
them. TMA gives you the ability to process mail messages into approved
news messages easily, using your favorite external editor and standard
Waffle support programs.
How do I use The Moderator's Assistant?
It's easy! Simply install MODERATE.EXE in /waffle/bin, add a command to
/waffle/extern, and place a few configuration lines in
/waffle/system/static. Then set up your addresses to receive traffic
for your moderated group or groups. TMA reads the static file to get
information it needs about your Waffle system.
Installation, step by step:
1. Copy MODERATE.EXE into your bin directory (usually /waffle/bin).
2. Create an external command called 'moderate', using this form for
the /waffle/extern/moderate file:
/access=9 /screen /command="c:\waffle\bin\moderate %i"
The /screen switch isn't needed if your favorite external editor
doesn't need it. Set the /access level lower if you plan to have
people other than the sysadmin controlling moderated groups.
3. Add these lines to your static file:
# a _full pathname_ to your external editor, with %s where the filename
# goes. This allows you to use any editor, even if it needs multiple
# switches or switches after the filename.
mod.edit : c:/tools/q.exe %s
# the name to appear in the Approved: line (Approved: news@mysite)
mod.approve : news
The colon is _not optional_. If you do not include it in these
lines, TMA will not be able to read your static file entries
correctly.
TMA must use an external editor. It _will not_ work with the
internal Waffle editor. For console use, Qedit works well.
Remotely, consider BBStevie or FSED.
The mod.approve name may be any legal username, but usually is left
as 'news'. It will default to 'news' if there is no entry for
mod.approve.
4. Create a file in /waffle/system called moderate.dat. In this file,
place the moderated group definition lines, in the form
group.name username
where 'username' is a username on your system to which submissions
are mailed. As an example, suppose you have mod.foo posts coming to
the 'carson' mailbox. You enter
mod.foo carson
in moderate.dat. Group names may be separated from mailbox names by
spaces or tabs.
If you are running version 1.65 of Waffle, you can collect all
moderated groups under a single username, but in different folders.
The form is
group.name username folder
To divert mail to a particular folder, you need to create an entry
in /waffle/system/aliases of this type:
group-mail-address = c:/user/username/folder
(note the = sign) The group-mail-address is simply the username on
your system to which posts for this group are sent. Remember to use
different names for each folder, and don't put an extension on the
folder name.
Folder names are optional. If left out, that group will default to
"mailbox". Under 1.64 and below, folder names will be ignored.
5. Create the newsgroup (or groups) that you will moderate. Setup is
exactly like any other moderated group. The /mod address should be
the username on your system that will receive the posts. Tell your
news neighbors that the group is ready to receive traffic, and where
to send posts.
6. Sit back and wait for some traffic to arrive!
Using The Moderator's Assistant:
Login to your Waffle system, and type 'moderate news.group', where
news.group is the name of the group you are moderating. TMA looks
almost exactly like the Waffle mail interface, and you have many of the
same commands.
The Moderator's Assistant commands are mostly self-explanatory:
AGAIN - Reread message
BACK - Go back one message
DELETE - Mark current message for deletion
EDIT - Edit the current message
(you can edit the entire message, but it's recommended not to
mess with the headers)
HELP - Display this menu
LIST - List the messages available
NEXT - Read next message
QUIT - Exit The Moderator's Assistant
POST - Post the current message
(with an argument, post to the given group. any group is ok)
Version 1.65 users have full folder support, as well:
LIST - List the messages available in the current folder
GO - Go to a different folder (1.65 only)
MOVE - Move the current message to a new folder
That's all there is to it!
Problems?
TMA tells me there's no mail waiting for my moderated group, but I
know there is.
Check the mod.group line for that group in your static file to make sure
that it has the correct username for that groupname. Be sure that the
static file entries are separated by colons.
I see an error message about "No valid newsgroups" when I post a
message with TMA.
You don't have the group created in your forum description file. The
group must be entered in /waffle/system/usenet (or a similar file, if
you have your locally moderated groups separated) so RNEWS can find it.
If you elected to post to a different group that you are moderating, you
may not carry it. Look in junk for your article, and check that it's
been queued for your newsfeed site. (it probably has been)
Help! TMA locks up my system when I try to post or edit a
submission!
You probably have a memory problem. TMA uses as little memory as
possible, but it still has to use some for itself and some more for
spawning your editor and RNEWS. Use the 'mem' command to see how much
memory is available from within Waffle. You'll need about 200K free to
use TMA sucessfully from Waffle. You can get more memory available by
reducing the buflines and maxquote settings in the static file. You'll
probably never be able to moderate a group with 100K+ posts from inside
Waffle, though.
If you still have problems (perhaps because of a large number of
newsgroups in the usenet file), you will probably have to run TMA from
the command line. The procedure is exactly the same as from within
Waffle.
Nothing works! All I get is "TMA system error something"!
First, run TMA with debug enabled. Use 'moderate -d group.name', and
observe the output. TMA will show you what it found in your static
file, and check some other crucial details. If that points up a
problem, you can probably fix it yourself.
If you still have problems, or you're still getting system error
messages, please mail a screen-dump and details of your problem to the
author for a bug fix. (if you are the first to report a particular bug,
you'll earn a free registration)
Support:
The author, Roy M. Silvernail, can be contacted by E-mail at
Internet: roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu (a Waffle beta test site)
WWIVnet: 1@503 (a WWCP beta test site)
or by surface mail
Roy M. Silvernail
3120 Pillsbury, #309
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Acknowledgements:
The Moderator's Assistant owes much to Stan Hall
(kilgore@wuntvor.norman.ok.us) for being the fearless beta team. His
suggestions proved extremely helpful
Registration:
The Moderator's Assistant is not free software. TMA is copyright 1992
by Roy M. Silvernail, and is offered for you to evaluate without charge
in a non-commercial setting. If you continue to use The Moderator's
Assistant beyond a reasonable evaluation period, you must purchase a
license and register this program. 60 days seems reasonable for
evaluation purposes. The offer of free evaluation does not extend to
commercial, business or government entities. If you are considering TMA
for commercial use, please evaluate it outside of the commercial
application.
Registering TMA will remove the shareware message header in posted
messages. TMA is not crippled in any way.
A license for The Moderator's Assistant costs $10 US, $13 CAN. Outside
North America, please remit in US funds. This is a book-like license,
allowing you to use your copy of TMA on one CPU at a time. Users of
multitasking software may run unlimited copies of TMA on a single CPU.
Site licenses are available... please contact the author for details.
By registering The Moderator's Assistant, you help ensure the success of
the shareware concept, as well as continued development and inovation in
Waffle support.
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The Moderator's Assistant Order Form
Please send the completed form, along with check or money order for
$10.00 US, $13.00 CAN to:
Roy M. Silvernail
3130 Pillsbury, #309
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Your name: __________________________________________________________
Organization: __________________________________________________________
Street: __________________________________________________________
City: __________________________________________________________
State: __________________________________________________________
Zip: __________________________________________________________
Telephone: __________________________________________________________
Internet address: ______________________________________________________
Where did you get your copy of TMA?_____________________________________
Please add any comments or ideas you have to share:_____________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Thank you for registering The Moderator's Assistant!