======================================================================== CHARTER ======================================================================== Alt.Sexual.Abuse.Recovery.Moderated (ASAR.M) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document is available by autoresponder at asarm-charter@asarian.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alt.Sexual.Abuse.Recovery.Moderated (ASAR.M) is primarily for the psychological and emotional support needed by survivors of sexual abuse. ASAR.M is a moderated sister group to the unmoderated newsgroup Alt.Sexual.Abuse.Recovery (ASAR). ASAR.M was created in 1998 by the ASAR community in response to persistent spam-flooding of ASAR. The moderation of ASAR.M is essentially restricted to the exclusion of spam, as delineated in the ASAR.M Moderation Policy available at http://asarian-host.org/asarmcenter/modpol.html or by mailing asarm-mod.guide@asarian.org. Any submission not specifically restricted by the Moderation Policy will be accepted for posting. Individuals are expected to follow the community standards as delineated in the ASAR/ASAR.M FAQ Part 1: Posting Guidelines at http://asarian-host.org/asarmcenter/faq1.html and asarm-faq.part1@asarian.org. ASAR.M honors the fact that the individual needs of survivors vary greatly across individuals and across stages of healing, and community standards for posting strive to maximize freedom to speak while still respecting the safety needs of others. The ASAR.M community maintains a Welcome Center http://asarian-host.org/asarmcenter/ containing all official documents (including the Moderation Policy, this Charter, the ASAR/ASAR.M FAQ), and other useful tidbits. We encourage the creation of links to related pages. ======================================================================== Moderation Policy: ======================================================================== Alt.Sexual.Abuse.Recovery.Moderated -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document is available by autoresponder at asarm-mod.guide@asarian.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: Due to an influx of spam, all addresses have been "fixed." When sending mail you must remove the characters "extrawords" or your mail will not reach it's destination. We are sorry for the inconvenience. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also: Technical running of the newsgroup is not yet reflected in the Moderation Policy. Criteria for posting is still accurate, however. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- n.b.: the following abbreviations are used: ASAR=Alt.Sexual.Abuse.Recovery ASAR.M=Alt.Sexual.Abuse.Recovery.Moderated I. Administrative Structure A. This Moderation Policy, and the ASAR/ASAR.M FAQ are maintained on the ASAR.M Welcome Center website http://asarian-host.org/asarmcenter/, and are available by email auto-request from auto-responder@asarian.org. These documents and/or pointers to them also appear in relevant newsgroups, including (but not limited to) ASAR and ASAR.M. 1. The Moderation Policy and the ASAR/ASAR.M FAQ Part 1: Posting Guidelines are posted bi-weekly to ASAR and ASAR.M. 2. Pointers to ASAR.M and the ASAR.M Welcome Center will be posted frequently on ASAR for the first six months after ASAR.M is created, and bi-weekly thereafter, on weeks the Moderation Policy is not posted. 3. The following footer is appended to each post in ASAR.M: "Alt.Sexual.Abuse.Recovery.Moderated is a moderated newsgroup. The Moderation Policy and Posting Guidelines are posted bi-weekly and are available at our Welcome Center at http://asarian-host.org/asarmcenter/, along with additional information. Please read the Posting Guidelines before making your first post. The moderators may be contacted by email at asar-board@stump.algebraextrawords.com or anonymously at ____@anon.twwells.com [address to be established]." B. Robomoderation: Most articles will be handled exclusively by robomoderation software (hereafter refered to as "the bot") housed at video-collage.com, with backups at [sites to be added, lava.net has offered]. Section III (below) defines the posting restrictions. 1. The bot will maintain a log of all excluded articles, which file will be available upon request. Excluded articles will be maintained in the log for a minimum of one month. Specific criteria used by the bot to screen posts may be modified based on the contents of these files. Such modifications will be proposed by the moderators, and will take effect 24 hours after notification of such change has been posted to ASAR.M. 2. The bot will maintain an auto-post list of addresses of known participants in ASAR.M. Individuals will be placed on the auto-post list by one of the methods described below. Note that, while verification of a first post may delay its appearance, the use of an auto-post list will speed the processing of subsequent posts, and these guidelines do NOT exclude off-topic posts, flames, or any other potentially problematic postings. a. The first submission from an unrecognized address (provided it is not excluded by the bot based on the auto-exclude guidelines described in Section III) will be screened by a human moderator. "Unrecognized address" is defined as a poster not yet on the auto-post list, provided the post does not fit auto-post criteria as outlined in I.B.2.b-c. If the submission is not found to be excludable by the moderator, the address will be added to the auto-post list. b. Human moderation is not required (even on first posts) for addresses from the survivor-related anon domains asarian.org and asarian-host.org, or submissions mailed through anon.twwells.com. However, such posts are still subject to screening by th bot and are expected to comply with the restrictions on posts outlined in section III. c. Posts containing the keyword ASAR in the "Subject:" header line will be auto-posted, and the poster's address added to the auto-post list. This allows new posters without accounts on the survivor related domains specified in the above paragraph to bypass the initial screening by human moderators. 3. Attempts to post spam, spew, or submissions meeting other specifically restricted criteria (defined in section III below) by persons on the auto-post list will be grounds for suspension from the auto-post list. Such posts will be forwarded by the bot to all of the moderators. A majority of the moderators must agree to remove the poster from the auto-post list for the suspension to remain in place. The poster will be notified of the decision, and the reasons for the decision. See also section III.G. a. The poster may continue to participate in the newsgroup with all subsequent posts being subject to human moderator approval. b. A second attempt to post spam or spew will result in placement of the poster on the auto-exclude list. c. In cases where a poster, in good faith, accidentally submits a post which meets the specific restriction criteria, the moderators may decide to bypass the above guidelines and allow the poster to retain status on the auto-post list. C. A panel of human moderators will support the bot. 1. N/A 2. The moderators will contact the bot on a regular basis to pick up submissions needing their attention. A maximum of ten submissions at a time will be assigned to the moderator upon check-in. Moderators should make a commitment to check in at least once a day, and preferably more frequently as they have time. The bot will only assign articles to moderators upon check-in, except for situations in which it is specified by this Moderation Policy that the bot will forward a post to all the moderators. 3. Submissions which do not meet either auto-exclude (see Section III) or auto-post (see Section I.B.2) criteria will be forwarded by the bot to the moderation panel. a. The submission will be placed in the queue for moderator pick-up. A moderator will check the submission for exclusion criteria. b. If the submission meets exclusion criteria, the moderator will return the submission to the bot to be logged as excluded and retained as described in section I.B.1. This file may be used for the purpose of exclusion criteria selection during periodic maintenance of the software package. c. If the submission is not excluded, the moderator will cause the submission to be posted, and the poster added to the auto-post list (based upon the address in the "From:" header line--this does not need to be a valid email address, but must be the same for each post, in order for the auto-post function to recognize it). d. If the moderator is able to identify a valid return address, the moderator will have a welcome package mailed to that address. 4. There will be a maximum of ten moderators at any one time. A list of potential back-up moderators will be made available to the moderators if interest exceeds this limit. 5. There should be at least five moderators at all times. If the number of moderators drops below five, additional moderators will be added as soon as possible. 6. Moderators may be contacted directly for complaint, concerns, or comments, by emailing to asar-board@stump.algebraextrawords.com. Anonymous mail is accepted by the moderation team at ______@anon.twwells.com. [address to be established] a. The listserv, asar-board@stump.algebraextrawords.com, will be used by the moderation team to discuss issues or consult with each other. b. Results of discussions on the listserv and requests for community input to such discussions will be posted to ASAR.M with the header "ADMIN:". Private complaints or issues will be handled by private email to the individual. c. While anyone may send mail to asar-board@stump.algebraextrawords.com, only moderators will receive mail sent to this address. D. Changes to the the moderation policy: 1. Any change in the moderation policy requires discussion and a vote by newsgroup members. a. Persons considering proposing a change should be aware that a clearly written proposal is essential to effective discussion. Discussion should occur in public on ASAR.M for at least one week before the beginning of a voting period is announced. b. Discussion of potential changes will be followed by a voting period of one week. The results of a ballot will be considered legitimate if votes are cast by a minimum of thirty current posters (on the auto-post list at the beginning of the vote). A 2/3 majority of votes cast is required for a change to take effect. Votes will be announced and conducted by a moderator not directly affected by the change. 2. Changes will take effect 24 hours after an announcement of the change has been posted in the newsgroup. E. Changes to the moderation team: 1. A moderator may voluntarily resign at any time by posting to the newsgroup and informing the moderation team through the moderation listserv. 2. A moderator may be dropped from the team if there has been an unexplained pause in their group participation and moderation responsibilities for greater than three weeks, and s/he has remained unreachable by email or other means. 3. If a moderator abuses the role of moderator by excluding legitimate posts from the newsgroup, that moderator may be temporarily suspended by the action of two other moderators during the period of investigation by the moderator team. The moderator may be dropped from the team after such investigation by unanimous agreement of the remaining moderators. If the moderators can not come to unanimous agreement, the issue will be brought for discussion and vote by the ASAR.M community (following the guidelines outlined in Section I.D.1). 4. Moderators may be added any time, provided the maximum of ten moderators has not been reached. An official notice of a potential new moderator will be posted to ASAR.M. If no more than 3 objections are sent to the listserv within the following week, the addition will be made. If more than 3 objections are made, then the addition of the new moderator will require community discussion and vote (following the guidelines outlined in Section I.D.1). II. Submission of articles: A. An article may be submitted by posting to alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.moderated. 1. You may post from your non-anonymous account. 2. You may post from any of the web-based (e.g., hotmail) or secondary-server (e.g., asarian.org, asarian-host.org) anonymous servers. 3. You may post your article anonymously through the twwells server by emailing it to alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.moderated@anon.twwells.com [assuming Bill adds the ng]. B. If an article you have submitted has not been posted within 48 hours, please send a copy of the article to asar-board@stump.algebraextrawords.com with the Subject: "Resubmission: " If your newsfeed is slow, please allow more time for your article to show up at your site before resubmitting it. III. Restrictions on articles: A. The fundamental guidance for this newsgroup's moderation policy is provided by its charter, which states that "Any submission not specifically restricted by the Moderation Policy will be accepted for posting." B. Messages advertising or distributing pornography, sex-for-sale, or other sexually explicit locations or solicitations will not be posted. C. Articles cross-posted to more than 5 groups will be not be posted. 1. An article cross-posted to more than 5 groups that does not otherwise fit the exclusion criteria will be returned to the poster with a request to resend the article without the cross-posting. 2. Articles cross-posted to any number of groups will not be posted if alt.sex.* or alt.flame* are included in the cross-posted groups. D. Commercial messages 1. Commercial messages from individuals already on the auto-post list will be posted, provided that commercial advertisements do not exceed 25% of the individual's posts (in number or size). Pointers to websites in signatures will not count as advertisements, provided the signature does not make up the sole content of a post. 2. Commercial messages from businesses will not be posted. 3. Posts that consist of "make money fast" or similar pyramid schemes will not be posted. E. Copyrighted material should only be posted with permission, and/or correct and complete attributions. F. Spam and spew will not be posted. 1. Spam is considered to be posts meeting the currently accepted usenet definition of spam. 2. Spew is defined as a clear attempt to render the group unusable via flooding or repeated excessive volume of posts without original content. G. Forged or Deceptive Approvals. 1. Persons attempting directly to forge approval will be placed immediately on the auto-exclude list. Any posts with directly forged approval will be cancelled on sight. 2. Attempts to circumvent the robomoderation by gaining auto-post status followed by posting of messages which are specifically excludable will be grounds for auto-exclusion. Such posts will be cancelled on sight and the poster dealt with as described in section I.B.3. IV. Restrictions on the moderators: A. The moderators will not terminate any threads. B. The moderators will not make any changes to any parts of a submitted post. The bot will automatically reformat submissions with line lengths greater than 80 characters. C. Moderators may post to the group in an official capacity, or as contributors. 1. A moderator will specify any writing to the newsgroup in an official capacity by the use of ADMIN: in the Subject of the post. Official posts by moderators will come from his/her moderation account at meow.org. 2. The moderators may post to the newsgroup, in the capacity of a contributor, on the same basis as other contributors. Any post made by a moderator without the use of ADMIN: is assumed to be as an individual contributor. Such posts will come from the moderator's private account, and moderation accounts at meow.org will not be used for this purpose. D. Because moderation inevitably involves making subjective decisions, individuals should not volunteer to moderate unless they are able to refrain from censorship and judgements regarding "appropriateness" of posts. Moderators must not refuse to post articles simply because they disagree with the content or think the poster is being "abusive". Posts may only be excluded if they meet the criteria for restrictions on articles listed in this document. E. In cases where a moderator is unsure of the correct action, it is her/his responsibility to contact the other moderators for advice or assistance.