Nan:2010-05-18-mvi-misc.kids.moderated
From Usenet Big-8 Management Board
From: Alexander Bartolich <alexander.bartolich@gmx.at>
Subject: Moderator Vacancy Investigation: misc.kids.moderated
Message-ID: <hssnjb$br7$1@news.albasani.net>
MODERATOR VACANCY INVESTIGATION (MVI)
moderated group misc.kids.moderated
This is a formal Moderator Vacancy Investigation (MVI), begun because
moderated newsgroup misc.kids.moderated is not functioning,
and may have been abandoned by its moderator(s).
This investigation will attempt to verify the reasons for non-function,
and may result in the removal of the group or the selection and instal-
lation of a new moderator. In practice, the Big-8 Management Board
considers the third alternative--changing the status of the group from
moderated to unmoderated--as likely to cause more harm than good.
RATIONALE:
According to Google's archive the last regular post was approved on
2007-12-08. Probe messages showed no result.
NEWSGROUPS LINE:
misc.kids.moderated Parenting questions, ideas, and experiences. (Moderated)
DISTRIBUTION:
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups.proposals
misc.kids.moderated
misc.kids
CHARTER OF MISC.KIDS.MODERATED
Misc.kids.moderated is an inclusive on-line community of parents and
other people concerned with raising children. Participants are
invited to engage in open discussion of parenting issues and
exchange information about raising children, in an atmosphere of
civility, friendship, and fun.
Acceptable topics include but are not limited to questions about
parenting issues, tips on various aspects of child care, and sharing
of parenting experiences and insights.
Unacceptable posts include but are not limited to commercial posts,
website announcements, posts promoting or defending pedophilia, and
cross-posted items (with exceptions for juvenile product recalls, RFDs
and CFVs for parenting-related newsgroups, announcements for m.k.
yearbook or m.k. picnics, etc.).
Posters are encouraged to state their own views and share their
experiences, but to refrain from making assumptions about the
motivations of other parents. Posters are expected to maintain a
basic tone of civility. Prohibited uncivil discourse includes but
is not limited to name calling. Posters should avoid the derogatory
labeling of child-rearing practices as "child abuse." Posters are
asked to keep in mind that every family is different.
Posts containing unsolicited advice questioning the right, worthiness,
suitability and/or readiness of any individual (or members of any
group) to parent are unacceptable in this newsgroup. If an individual
chooses to post asking for advice on when or whether to have children,
respondents should be careful to address their comments only to the
original poster and not explicitly generalize to others in similar
situations.
Posts on topics that have been demonstrated to generate large volumes
in existing misc.kids groups require a brief subject tag in brackets
at the start of the subject line so that persons specifically seeking
or avoiding those topics can filter them. For example, [CIRC] for
circumcision, [BF] for breastfeeding, [SPANK] for spanking. The list
of topics requiring a subject tag is maintained by moderators and
updated in the current version of the posting guidelines. Posters are
asked to include the tag when posting, or moderators will add an
appropriate subject tag as required.
Commercial Policy:
Commercial postings are not acceptable, whether they are initiated by
established businesses or enterprising individuals. Posters may
include their business address and URL in a .sig of reasonable length
(6 lines or less). Also, posts offering occasional "for-sale" used
childcare items from individual posters are permitted; such posts
should have an appropriate subject tag.
Moderation Policy:
Misc.kids.moderated shall employ a combination of human and
robomoderation.
1) The robomoderator screens every article submitted to
misc.kids.moderated. It returns any article that falls into any
of the following categories, automatically sending a note explaining
the reasons for rejection:
A) Articles that contain original text of more than 75 characters
per line
B) Crossposted articles (exceptions should be sent directly to
the moderators at an address listed in the posting guidelines)
C) Articles that contain more than 400 lines
D) Encoded binary files (except PGP and other short digital
signatures)
E) Other non-plaintext formats at the moderators' discretion
F) Attachments to posts
2) The robomoderator searches each submission for certain trigger
words, forwarding any submissions containing these trigger words to
the panel of human moderators for review. The list of trigger words
is maintained by the moderators, who modify the list as needed.
Trigger words present in the text of messages may indicate off-topic
posts, topics requiring a subject tag, or issues that have proven
sensitive in the past (thus requiring attention by moderators). For
example, "MAKE MONEY FAST" is likely to indicate an off-topic spam,
"family bed" indicates a topic for which a subject tag is required,
and "child abuse" indicates a sensitive topic.
3) Items with no trigger words are then checked to see whether the
poster is on the "express posting list." Items submitted by posters
not on the express posting list are referred for moderation by the
panel, while items submitted by posters on the express posting list
are posted without further moderation.
Posters desiring to join the express poster list can register by
sending e-mail to the administrative address explicitly stating that
they agree to follow the posting guidelines. Posters who have not
yet registered will receive an invitation to join after they have
made four consecutive acceptable posts. Posters preferring never
to use the express posting mechanism need not register. Express
posters can designate a particular post for hand moderation by using a
special keyword.
In the case of a serious security breach on the express poster list,
the moderators may choose to either suspend additions to express
posting or switch the group to temporary hand moderation for a
period of up to two weeks.
4) If a moderator accepts the article, it is posted to the newsgroup.
If the moderator feels the article should be rejected, that moderator
writes a comment explaining why and re-queues the article for review
by a second moderator. If the second moderator concurs that the
article should be rejected, that moderator adds another comment and
returns the article to the poster. If the second moderator feels the
post is acceptable, it is posted to the newsgroup. Any moderator who
is unsure about the appropriateness of a post may poll the moderation
board for additional opinions.
5) The moderation panel may cancel articles that have been posted to
misc.kids.moderated due to forgery, errors in the moderation script,
or other technical problems.
In cases where a poster using the express-posting mechanism violates
the posting guidelines, the moderators respond in a manner that seems
appropriate to the level of offense: they may send a note of reprimand
to the poster, issue a public disavowal that the article does not meet
posting guidelines, and/or revoke express-posting status for an
appropriate probationary period. In rare cases where an express-
posted article contains flagrant violations of the charter, the
offending article may be canceled by the request of three moderators,
subsequently confirmed by a two-thirds vote of the available
moderation board. Flagrant violations include posting private
information (like phone numbers) where the victim objects or where
there is evidence of hostile intent, newsgroup flood attacks or other
net abuse, posts promoting pedophilia, and off-charter posts which,
through apparent malice, circumvent the normal functioning of the
robomoderator. Posters registering for express poster status agree to
this provision, along with the group's other posting guidelines, as a
condition of becoming an express poster.
The moderators may, at their discretion, substitute or supplement
other technology for cancels if and when such a new technology proves
to be more practical.
6) The number of active moderators in the moderation panel is
initially ten, with a minimum of 7 active moderators at any time.
Additional moderators may be recruited from the readership as demand
warrants. If a moderator wants to retire from the moderation panel,
he or she must make a public statement at least one month prior to
retirement so that a replacement moderator may be found.
The moderation board consists of the moderation panel plus additional
advisors, who are available to provide non-binding advice to any
moderator who requests it while deciding the disposition of a
borderline post. The number of advisors is no more than half of the
number of moderators.
When vacancies occur, anyone may volunteer to become a moderator or
advisor with the consent of more than half of the current moderation
panel. Moderators or advisors may be removed by a vote of
two-thirds of the moderation panel.
Moderators may request to be put on inactive status due to family
or work demands, and one of the advisors may serve as a substitute
moderator during the leave of absence.
7) All changes in policy are decided by a two-thirds majority of the
moderation board. Before making any major changes, the moderators
will conduct a two-week public comment period on the newsgroup at
large.
HISTORY OF THE GROUP:
misc.kids.moderated is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for
creation by 290:56 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 21 Nov 1997.
PROPONENT:
Alexander Bartolich <alexander.bartolich@gmx.at>
PROCEDURE:
Those who wish to comment on this moderator vacancy investigation should
subscribe to news.groups.proposals and participate in the relevant
threads in that newsgroup.
To this end, the followup header of this MVI has been set to
news.groups.proposals.
For more information on the MVI process, please see
http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=policies:mvi
CHANGE HISTORY:
2010-01-17 Probe post
2010-05-18 Moderator Vacancy Investigation
