6.1 – Why is rasnm moderated?
Even though all Big 8 Usenet newsgroups have a Charter, in an unmoderated
newsgroup there is no way to ensure that posts to the newsgroup abide by
the Charter. Everyone is on the "honor system". Unfortunately, that
oftentimes results in a newsgroup becoming a dumping ground for spam,
profanity, off-topic posts, and (in the case of rasn –
rec.autos.sport.nascar) flaming/bashing/personal attacks directed towards
other posters, race teams, drivers and/or their families as well as the
sport’s media.
rasnm (rec.autos.sport.nascar.moderated) was created to provide a forum
where all topics related to NASCAR (and stockcar racing in general) can be
discussed without these distractions. The tools exist to ensure that the
discussion remains civil and follows the rasnm Charter guidelines via a
team of human moderators and a robo-moderation software called S.T.U.M.P.
6.2 – What does it mean, registration?
Before you are permitted to post directly to rasnm without having a
moderator review each of your submissions, your address must be registered
with S.T.U.M.P. Until this is done, all of your submissions will be
kicked-out to a moderator for review. However, the first on-charter
submission you make to rasnm will cause the moderator who receives your
article to register your address with S.T.U.M.P. This will get you on
auto-approve status and your future submissions will go directly to the
newsgroup, bypassing the moderators (unless an automatic trigger like
profanity causes S.T.U.M.P. to kick-out your submission to a moderator
for review). You will retain your auto-approve status indefinitely unless
you demonstrate an unwillingness to abide by the rasnm Charter. Please
note that any address you use to post to rasnm must be a respondable
address, although it may be munged to defeat the spambots. If munged
though, it must be decipherable by a human. For example, the address
w…@burton.com could be munged as: war…@SPAMburton.com
6.3 – What specifically is considered off-charter?
Per the charter, the following are unacceptable:
1) Bashing
2) Flames
3) Trolls
4) Commercial and Money-Making Posts
5) Profanity/Racial Slurs
6) Crossposts
7) Binaries
Posts without a respondable email address
9) Quotes of more than a few lines of copyrighted material
Also, if the post is not related to NASCAR, stockcar racing or rasner
activites, it is considered off-charter. However, it is impossible to
anticipate every attempt at finding a loophole in the charter. Therefore,
the spirit of all the rules should be followed as opposed to looking for
leaks and loopholes.
For more information about what is and what is not on-charter, please refer
to the Charter itself at http//rasnm.carracing.com
6.4 – So how does the rasnm moderation process work?
The first time you attempt to post to rasnm from any address, the S.T.U.M.P.
software recognizes that your address has not yet been registered, and it
forwards your article to a moderator for review. If your submission is
on-charter and from a respondable address, the moderator will forward your
article to the newsgroup and add your address to the auto-approve list.
S.T.U.M.P. then sends you a "Welcome to rasnm" e-mail with brief guidelines
to what is acceptable posting practice on this newsgroup as well as a pointer
to the rasnm website which contains the Charter and FAQ’s. An off-charter
submission or a submission from a non-respondable address will be rejected
by the moderator and your address will not be placed on the auto-approve list.
Once you are on auto-approve status, you will retain that status unless you
demonstate an unwillingness to abide by the rasnm Charter.
There are two other categories that moderators use in upholding the
Charter: "hand-moderate" and "auto-reject". "Hand-moderate" status means
that every article you attempt to post is forwarded to a moderator for
approval. Posters who repeatedly violate the Charter guidelines may be
placed on "hand-moderate" status until such time as the moderation team
agrees that the poster should be returned to "auto-approve" status.
"Auto-reject" status means that the software will bounce all attempts by
you to post to rasnm. This category is used in extreme cases where a poster
demonstrates that they have no intention of abiding by the rasnm Charter,
as well as for spammers and mail-bombers. "Auto-reject" requires a 2/3
majority vote of the moderation team before it can be imposed.
In addition to these tools, the moderators are also able to mark a specific
thread for "hand-moderate" status if the topic or tone of the thread has
become off-charter.
6.5 – So does this mean I will never see an off-topic or
off-Charter post on rasnm?
No, it does not mean that. Since 99.9% of the posters to rasnm are on
"auto-approve" status, the moderators do not see their posts until it is on
the newsgroup. A poster on "auto-approve" status could in fact begin to post
off-charter material to the newsgroup. If that happens though, the
moderators have the tools necessary to respond to these off-Charter
violations – by either e-mailing the poster, placing them on
"hand-moderate" status or placing them on "auto-reject" status.
6.6 – What do I do if I see an off-charter post on rasnm?
Nothing. Responding to off-charter posts is the job of the moderation team.
Responding to off-Charter posts with another post to rasnm serves only to
perpetuate the thread, so let the moderation team do their job. Also note
that the moderators do not normally respond publicly to off-charter posts,
preferring to work quietly behind the scenes to make rasnm a better
newsgroup for us all.
If however, you are concerned about a particular post or thread which
appears to you off-charter, then by all means voice your concerns to the
moderation team via e-mail at rasnm-m…@carracing.com Just realize that
they don’t need to get 50 e-mails telling them about a flame or spam post
that they would have already seen anyway.
6.7 – Do the moderators treat all participants on rasnm the
same?
Yes and no. The rasnm Charter requires that the moderators treat all
participants equally regardless of personal likes or dislikes, but it also
instructs the moderators to evaluate each situation individually when
responding to Charter violations.
What this means is that while two separate violations of the rasnm Charter
may *appear* to be the same type of violation, the past history of the
parties involved make each violation unique. Therefore the action taken by
the moderators is determined by what the situation warrants. For instance,
a violation of Charter by someone who has a history of abiding by the
Charter in their posts may be ignored the first time. However, the same
exact offense by someone who has repeatedly demonstrated their
unwillingness to abide by the Charter may be dealt with more strongly.
6.8 – If I don’t agree with a moderator’s decision, what is my
recourse?
You may appeal decisions to the moderation team by emailing them at
rasnm-m…@carracing.com
6.9 – Who are the moderators?
The moderation team consists of:
Bob Paxton
Chris Watkins
Cindy Murray
John McCoy
Martin Moleski
======================================================================
The rest of the RASNM FAQ, which is more general about NASCAR and stockcar
racing, is available on the web at http://rasnm.carracing.com.
The moderators and charter committee would like to thank carracing.com
(http://www.carracing.com) for the equipment and connectivity they provide
that runs this newsgroup.
