[ADMINISTRIVIA] READ ME - posting rules, moderation, etc.

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

The question has come up, again, why some posts take so long to get to
the list.  Usually it is because the posts were flagged for moderation
for some reason.

Majordomo2's default settings catch a lot of things for me.

  * Duplicate posts
  * Posts that are too long
  * Posts with really long headers (that trick has been used for email
    client buffer overruns in the past)
  * Posts that include majordomo commands (in case they should have
    went to majordomo, not the list)

Any of these will cause the post to be moderated, meaning it won't go
to the list until I have a chance to look at it and approve it.

In addition, I've added some rules of my own.

  * Messages from anyone who isn't already subscribed to the list
  * Any message with executable content (looking for
    /^TVqQAAMAAAAEAAAA\/\/8AALgAAAAAAAAAQAA*$/ or
    /^\x4d\x5a\x90\x00\x03\x00\x00\x00/ in the body of the message)
  * Messages from anyone who has subscribed in the last 2 weeks
  * Anything with "OT" in the subject

Let me explain those, starting with the last one.  If you post
something that is off-topic to the list, put "OT:" in front of your
subject.  I'll take a look at it, and I'll almost always allow it
through.

IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS RULE, ALL YOUR POSTS WILL BE MODERATED.

I'm not kidding.  I've done it before.  :-)  (I don't like to do it
though, because it creates more work for me.  Please don't make me.)

Moving on, the 2-week rule is there to catch the situation where a
spammer subscribes to the list, then starts spamming.  More commonly,
it has caught people who subscribe, then start posting REALLY STUPID
questions.  It gives me a chance to inform them that they are on the
*wrong* list.

There are a couple of easy ways to make sure this never happens to
you.  First, if you want to stop mail from the list for a while, don't
unsubscribe.  Send "set silug-discuss nomail", "set ALL nomail", or
even "set ALL nomail-14d" (if you just want to stop mail for 2 weeks)
to majordomo.  (Cool, huh?)  Send "help set" to majordomo for more
information.  ("set ALL mail" or "set ALL nomail-return" cancels this,
BTW.)

The other common thing that causes people to be flagged as new
subscribers is changing email addresses.  Everybody handles this as an
old-fashioned majordomo 1.x list and just unsubscribes and
resubscribes.  Don't do that.  :-)  Majordomo2 has a "changeaddr"
command specifically for changing your address.  Send "help
changeaddr" to majordomo to find out how it works.

Moving on, I think the no-executable thing is self-explanatory.  That
just leaves the first one, moderating posts from non-subscribers.
There's a couple of ways to handle that.  If you are subscribed at one
address, but you post at another, send "help alias" to majordomo to
find out how to set your second address as an alias of the first one.
Posts from aliased addresses are accepted as subscriber posts, but you
don't receive mail at the aliased address.

A few people like to just read the archive on the web site rather than
receive everything.  For those people, if you still want to post,
subscribe and do the set nomail thing (as described above).  It will
make life easier for all of us.

I hope this clears some things up for everyone.

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
(618)398-7360             | See web site for meeting details.
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/

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