Changing the Moderation Status of Existing Groups

Newsgroups may be changed:

From moderated to unmoderated.

This change may be initiated by members of the group or by the B8MB when a moderated group has been abandoned.

From unmoderated to moderated.

Changing a group from unmoderated to moderated is "strongly discouraged" - which, in practice, means "practically impossible."

• • There are many News Service Providers who would not make the change. Some people would see a moderated group, others with different NSPs would see the moderated version.
  • Such changes in the past have cultivated massive resentments. Leaving the original group intact and creating a companion moderated group allows group members to have a choice between the two different kinds of newsgroups on the same topic.
  • In all likelihood, the board won't even publish an RFD to change a group from unmoderated to moderated. A proposal for such a change should not be submitted unless the group finds a way to demonstrate virtual unanimity. We strongly recommend that you instead spend your effort on learning how to use filters or how to create a moderated companion to the original group.
  • Examples of change from unmoderated to moderated:[1]

I think the RFD's for most are here.  In many cases, there is the
original RFD for the unmoderated group, and the RFD for the switch to
a moderation a year or two later.
	
ftp:''ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.announce.newgroups
	
	comp.ai (cross-posting, spam, noise)
	comp.compression.research ("research" not magic token)
	comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi (robomoderated)
	comp.lang.asm.x86 (flame wars - 68000 is too better)
	comp.lang.visual (confusion - MS Visual Basic)
	comp.programming.literate (confusion - programming literacy)
	comp.protocols.dns.ops (renamed comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains)
	comp.std.c++ (confusion - c++ rather than standardization)
	comp.windows.news (confusion - news about MS-Windows)
	misc.business.facilitators (confusion - Ponzi scheme business)
	news.newusers.questions	(disorganized)
	rec.arts.comics.creative (off-topic swamps low volume)
	rec.crafts.jewelry (off topic/commercial)
	rec.games.mecha (flame-wars)
	rec.music.makers.guitar.tablature (noise, non-tabs)
	sci.aeronautics	(noise)
	soc.culture.indian.telugu (robo-moderate cross-posts)
	soc.genealogy.african (offensive, racist trolling)
	soc.support.pregnancy.loss (inflamatory/trolling)
	talk.origins (excessive cross-posting)

The B8MB may also in rare and unusual circumstances change the moderator(s) of a newsgroup.

• The easy case is when the group has been abandoned. See the page on Moderator Vacancy Investigations.
• The hard cases are, at present, undefined.

How Moderation Is Supposed to Work

• A new post is sent via the News Net Transfer Protocol (NNTP) to a news server.
• IF it is correctly configured, the news server sees the group is moderated, and relays the post via e-mail to ISC.org via the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
• ISC.org sends the message via SMTP to the email (SMTP) address used by the moderator(s).
• The email server passes the post to the moderator(s) or the moderation software.
• If the post is approved, either automatically by software or by a human decision, the "approved" header is added to the post.
• The post is then injected via NNTP into a news server, which then shares it with its peers.

Jim Riley's Surveys of Moderated Group Acitivity

Jim has done a number of surveys of the traffic activity in moderated Big-8 newsgroups.

Google news.groups for the surveys