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 Subject: ANNOUNCE: rec.ponds.moderated has been created From: The Big-8 Management Board  Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:59:13 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: 
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Created page with '<pre> Subject: ANNOUNCE: rec.ponds.moderated has been created From: The Big-8 Management Board <board@big-8.org> Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:59:13 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: <nan.2007…'
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Subject: ANNOUNCE: rec.ponds.moderated has been created

From: The Big-8 Management Board <board@big-8.org>

Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:59:13 +0000 (UTC)

Message-ID: <nan.20070317185913$7ded@killfile.org>



On 05 Mar 2007, the Big-8 Management Board decided to create the moderated

group rec.ponds.moderated.  The group was created on 09 Mar 2007.



For more information on the proposal and history, please refer to the

archives:



  ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/rec/rec.ponds.moderated



For your newsgroups file:

rec.ponds.moderated	Care & enjoyment of recreational pods & water gardens. (Moderated)





CHARTER:



C01  Description and Purpose



  Rec.ponds.moderated is a moderated newsgroup that provides a friendly,

  respectful forum for the discussion of all aspects of ponds and water

  gardens.  The rec.ponds.moderated newsgroup appeals to a wide range of

  people involved in both the recreational and professional aspects of

  establishing and maintaining a pond or water garden.  Participants

  range from novices to persons with many years of experience, from

  amateur hobbyists to professional botanists and ichthyologists, from

  students wishing to get help with science projects to retired persons

  seeking a quiet, pleasurable pastime.  All interested persons are

  welcomed to share ideas, ask questions, or simply to lurk and learn.



C02  Permitted Content



  Discussions appropriate to a ponding community including, but not

  limited to:



    * Building a pond/water garden

    * Establishing an ecosystem

    * Plant life

    * Fish

    * Amphibians and reptiles

    * Aquatic environmental concerns

    * Discussions of large, unlined natural ponds



C03  The Following Is Prohibited



  All posts containing these items are rejected, and returned with

  explanation if permitted by the automated software.



    * Obscenities

    * Implied or direct threats, slander, insults, bigotry, prejudice

      or harassment

    * Flaming, trolling, flooding, and personal verbal attacks

    * Frequent petty criticism of another poster

    * Posts advocating violence or containing physical threats

    * Attacks on others based on gender, race, sexual orientation

      or religion

    * Commercial posts

    * Excessive cross-posting, although limited, on-topic cross-posting

      is permitted

    * Chain letters

    * Posts written in HTML

    * EMP spam

    * Binaries, other than pgp signatures, x-face headers, and other

      ancillary article meta-data

    * Forgery of names, valid email addresses and/or approval headers

    * Excessive morphing/nym shifting ("excessive" is undefined but is

      at the discretion of the moderators)

    * Excessive quoting of old material, with little new content

      (these will be judgment calls made by the moderators)

    * Personal identification information associated with anyone other

      than the poster (e.g.  residential addresses, phone numbers and

      government identifications)

    * Content advocating acts that would be intrinsically illegal

      in most places

    * Copyright violations.  (However, pointers to news articles,

      blogs, etc. that are on-topic are welcome.  They must comply with

      fair use standards.)



C04  Charter Implementation



  The charter of this newsgroup is implemented by a group of moderators.

  Their task is to develop and carry out the methods and means necessary

  to insure that the stated purposes of the group charter are accomplished.

  Their methods shall be defined as Moderation Policy and Practices. (MPP)



  Moderators make use of whatever tools and discussion processes they deem

  necessary to carry out their responsibilities.  One such tool may

  include the use of automated moderation software.



C05  Moderation Policy Objectives and Practices



  Moderation policy adheres to and carries out the stated goals and

  purposes of the group.  Moderation policy & practices (MPP) may be

  changed by the moderators to meet the ongoing needs of the newsgroup

  charter.



  Proposed changes are announced by the moderators in the

  newsgroup, and newsgroup readers are invited to share and discuss

  their views of the proposed changes.  Passage of the changes is by a

  2/3 majority vote of the moderators.  Changes are published in the

  newsgroup.



C06  Moderator Standards



  Moderators approve or reject posts based upon content as listed in C02

  and C03 above.  Moderators maintain a standard of neutrality and

  non-bias.  Moderators do not add, delete, or edit anything within a

  post.  Tags are not added.



  Decisions of the moderation team are final.  Moderators permit posts

  that may contain technically incorrect information, provided that the

  post is not deemed to be deliberately deceptive.  Any approved post

  that is forwarded to the newsgroup, and contains incorrect information,

  may and should be followed up by posts that attempt to correct the

  misinformation.  Such corrective posts may be made by any interested

  person/s in the newsgroup.



  All personal posts made by moderators go through the same complete

  process as posts made by the general readership of the group.

  Moderators do not review their own posts, nor those of a relative.

  Moderators who fail to abide by the charter and current moderation

  policy may be warned and/or removed by the other moderators.



C07  Moderator Accessibility and Accountability



  The moderators provide options for both private and public

  interaction with the readership of the newsgroup.  An email contact

  address is provided for complaints, appeals, reviews and suggestions.

  The receipt of emails to the contact address is acknowledged by a

  return email, provided a valid return address is given.



  In addition, the Charter provides for limited public discussion

  of the general issues of moderation policy, group operation and other

  matters that affect the group.



  Moderators shall create and occasionally publish FAQ and other

  documents that promote the functionality of the newsgroup.



C08  Readership Participation & Responsibility



  All participants in the group may:



    * Request changes to moderation policy and participate in the

      discussion of changes.

    * Privately ask for all moderators to review a specific rejected

      post (within practical numerical limits determined by the

      moderators.)

    * Nominate new moderators.





MODERATION POLICY: rec.ponds.moderated



MPP01  Purpose



  The purpose of moderation policy & practices is to carry out the

  objectives and goals of the charter.  MPP may be changed as per the

  Charter and MPP13.



MPP02  Automated (robotic) Moderation Software



  If and when feasible, the moderation team may employ automated

  moderation software to initially screen and pre-filter all incoming

  posts, and to ensure that all posts meet certain current moderation

  policies.  Posts that do not will be automatically returned along with

  a brief explanation (if permitted by the automated software), provided

  that such posts have a valid return address.  All posts that are

  approved by the automated software will be forwarded to human

  moderators for further examination.



MPP03  Cross-posting



  Minimal cross-posting to related groups based on subject matter

  (e.g.,fish hobby, gardening and wildlife management) will be allowed.

  No cross-posting to irrelevant groups will be permitted.  Such

  cross-posted messages shall be returned, provided a valid return email

  address is provided. When feasible, cross-post filtering may be

  handled by automated software.



MPP04  Authorship of Posts



  Anyone will be allowed to post as long as they are not forging another

  poster's name or address.  Anonymous posting will be allowed.

  Occasional name-shifting may be permitted, but excessive name-shifting

  will not be permitted, as per C03.



  Automated robotic software methods to protect the author's identity

  may be employed through the use of voluntary passwords, pgp, or any

  other methods if and when such methods become technically available.



MPP05  Human Moderation



  After approval by any automated software, messages are forwarded

  to the moderators who will review them and then make final decisions

  of approval or rejection based upon the content of the post (C02 and

  C03).  There shall be no editing of any post by any moderator, as

  stated in C06 of the Charter.  Rejected messages shall be returned to

  the poster, provided a valid return address is available.  If

  permitted by the software, an explanation for the rejection shall be

  included.



MPP06  Moderator Approval and Rejection Policies



  At a minimum, when using automated  software, one moderator may

  approve a post to be forwarded to the newsgroup, and one moderator may

  reject a post and have it returned.  If the automated robotic software

  contains a multi-pass/reject option, then more than one moderator may

  be asked to agree before a post is approved or rejected.



  Moderators may consult with one another before deciding to pass

  or reject a post whose content is borderline or questionable.  This

  consultation may add to the time-delay of the processing of a post.



  If a post is rejected, it may be appealed to the Moderation Team,

  provided it is seen as a legitimate request, and not as a disruptive

  attempt or tactic to distract or flood the team with large numbers of

  obviously inappropriate messages.



MPP07  Personal Advertising



  Very limited personal advertising shall be permitted.  Such

  advertising must be directly related to on-topic aquatic/pond subject

  matter.  Such postings must be non-commercial and of a "for-sale" type

  for items that the poster no longer needs or wants.  The number of

  ads permitted by any one poster per any given time period shall be

  left to the discretion of the moderators, with all posters subject to

  the same conditions.



MPP08  Ending Threads



  The moderators reserve the right to end a thread that has veered

  significantly off-topic, or that has become dominated by rehashing

  and/or repetition.



MPP09  Moderator Decisions



  The decisions of the moderation team shall be final.



MPP10  Structure of the Human Moderation Team



  The review and moderation of posts that are approved by the automated

  software program will be conducted by a Moderation Team.



  The first moderation team members will be divided into two classes,

  and appointed for one or two year terms, to end on August 31, 2008 and

  2009 respectively.  Thereafter a new class of moderators will be

  elected annually during the month of August, to serve two-year terms,

  beginning on September 1st of the election year and continuing through

  August 31st of the second year after the election.



  The current moderation team will select each new class of moderators,

  and election will be by a minimum 2/3 vote of the current moderators.



  The total number of moderators may be changed by the moderation team,

  which will seek to maintain an equal number of members in each class.



  The general readership of rec.ponds.moderated are encouraged to

  propose/nominate potential moderators to the team, as per C08.



  When nominating and electing new moderators, all persons involved

  shall remain mindful of the benefit and need for the moderation team

  to be as globally positioned as possible.  This helps to ensure

  adequate global representation and also to lower the time-delay factor

  in approving posts.



  Moderators may be re-elected.  The moderation team shall elect

  persons to fill vacancies using the 2/3 criterion for election.



MPP11  Head Moderator



  The moderation team may choose to elect a (head/chief/administrative)

  moderator by a majority vote, if it deems such a position to be

  necessary.  The duties and responsibilities of such a position would

  be determined as needed.



MPP12 Moderator Removal



  If a moderator does not abide by the charter and current moderation

  policies, the other moderators may warn and, if necessary, remove

  that moderator by a 2/3 majority vote of the moderation team.

  Moderators who wish to resign for any reason may do so by emailing

  the head moderator or the moderation team.



MPP13  Changes to Moderation Policy & Practices



  As stated in the Charter, moderation policy & practices (MPP) may

  be changed to meet the permanent objectives of the Charter and the

  ongoing needs of the newsgroup.



  Proposed changes are announced by the moderators in the newsgroup,

  and the general readership may discuss the proposed changes.  Changes

  shall be adopted by a 2/3 majority of the current moderators, and

  will be published in the newsgroup.



  As stated in C08, the general readership may suggest changes to

  policy and practices.



MPP14  Moderator Posts



  Moderators shall use [MODERATOR ANNOUNCE:] to preface official

  informational posts to the readership of rec.ponds.moderated.



MPP15  Moderator Contact Address



  As per C07, the moderators shall provide a contact email address

  for anyone who wishes to make a complaint, question, or offer a

  suggestion.





MODERATOR INFO: rec.ponds.moderated



Moderator:                Derek <news@pointerstop.ca>

Moderator:                Galen <ghekhuis@earthlink.net>

Moderator:                ~jan <jjsorders@jjspond.us>

Moderator:                Jim <phyllisandjimrp@gmail.com>

Moderator:                Kathy30a <kthirtya@aol.com>

Moderator:                Phyllis <phyllisandjimrp@gmail.com>

Moderator:                Gill <gill@gillsfish.co.uk>



At the time of the submission of the 3rd RFD/LCC, the proponent and

proposed moderators of r.p.m have chosen to use ReadySTUMP as the

automated software program for the newsgroup.





Article Submissions:      rpm-submit@stump.algebra.com

Administrative Contact:   rpm-admin@stump.algebra.com





PROPONENT:



Ron Schompert <rons515@localnet.com>





CHANGE HISTORY:



2006-12-14     1st RFD

2007-01-12     2nd RFD

2007-02-28     3rd RFD/LCC

2007-03-05     Results

</pre>
Nan:2007-03-17-rec.ponds.moderated-announce - Revision history
