       REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED MODERATION FAQ & CHARTER 
                                (v1.6) 

                      By Christopher E. Meadows 

              With help from Tim Skirvin and many others 

                    * Revised September 16, 2000 * 


"Moderate your conflict circuits, Maximals." 
                    --Optimus Primal, "Beast Wars" Part 1 



Major changes since last version: 

- Posting/request addresses changed (again).  Fixed duplication of 
  Darrel's email address in list at end. 

- References to RemarQ and Reference.com removed, as these sites no 
  longer serve the same purpose as they did at the time of this FAQ's 
  original writing.  Slight clarification on posting to moderated 
  groups through Deja. 

- Reference to an email-filtering howto website removed, as the site 
  itself is now a dead link.  If someone knows of a good site to 
  replace it, please let us know. 



CONTENTS  (* denotes a new or revised section) 

    ------------------------------------------------------------ 
    NOTE: Posting and rtt-request email addresses HAVE CHANGED 
    YET AGAIN since the last iteration of this FAQ.  The 
    addresses in this edition of the FAQ are the ones you should 
    now use.  Honest. 
    ------------------------------------------------------------ 

    HELP!  I Can't Read and/or Post to Rec.Toys.Transformers.Moderated! 

        IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT CARRY REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED 
        IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT HAVE REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED 
          CONFIGURED PROPERLY 
        IF THAT DOESN'T WORK... 
*           USENET ARCHIVAL SITES 
            FREE NEWS SERVERS 
            COMMERCIAL NEWS SERVERS 
            LOCAL OR NATIONAL ISP 
        POSTING BY EMAIL: rtt+sub@killfile.org 

    How to Get Your Posts Sent IMMEDIATELY 

            NOTE: HOW TO POST 

*           NOTE: SPAM-BLOCKING 

            NOTE: PATIENCE, PLEASE! 

        FORMATTING: HTML, MIME, 80-CHARACTER MARGINS 
        SUBJECT-LINE KEYWORD TAGS 
        CROSSPOSTING 
        OVERQUOTING 
        AUTOAPPROVAL 

            NOTE: CHANGING YOUR NAME 

            NOTE: APPROVAL-FORGERY 

    Have We Made a Mistake?  (Etiquette for Complaining) 

    REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED CHARTER 

*       EMAIL ADDRESSES 



          THE REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED MODERATION FAQ 
                                (v1.6) 

HELP!  I Can't Read and/or Post to Rec.Toys.Transformers.Moderated! 

Before explaining the policies _for_ posting to it, we should first be 
certain that you _can_ post to rec.toys.transformers.moderated.  This 
section of the FAQ will go over what steps you might take to gain 
access to the group if you don't currently have it, and will also make 
some suggestions about what to do if none of these steps work. 


IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT CARRY REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED 

The first thing to try is, of course, asking your sysadmin to add it. 
Since rec.toys.transformers.moderated is a Big Eight newsgroup, and 
furthermore since it is moderated, most sysadmins should be fairly 
willing to add it to their list. 

When you ask, attach a copy of the most recent newgroup message for 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated, which will be the very last message 
in the file found at: 

<URL:ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/control/rec/ 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated.Z> 

(enter the URL as one line into your web browser) 

If you have trouble retrieving it, please email a moderator for help. 

This message contains all the necessary information for adding 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated as a moderated group, meaning that you 
are saving your sysadmin the trouble of hunting it down for himself. 
Be sure to include all the headers--they include the PGP signature 
that can be used to verify that it is an official newgroup message 
from David Lawrence. 

If your sysadmin tells you that the problem is that none of the 
upstream news sites carries rec.toys.transformers.moderated (which 
means that, even if he did carry it, he would have no way of getting 
articles for it), you should try the same procedure with the sysadmin 
of the upstream site (or ask _your_ sysadmin to). 

If this does not work, see "If That Doesn't Work..." below. 


IF YOUR SITE DOES NOT HAVE REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED CONFIGURED 
PROPERLY 

If you see your posts show up immediately after you send them, with no 
"X-Approved" or "X-Approved-By" line in the header, or if you see 
posts showing up with no subject-line tags with Path statements that 
do not end with something that looks like 
"!hatchetman.killfile.org!rttmod", your site probably has not properly 
configured rec.toys.transformers.moderated as a moderated newsgroup. 

(This should be rare, as RTTM was created moderated, and so there will 
not be any sites that have a prior, unmoderated version; creation and 
configuration of the group as moderated should have been done 
simultaneously.  However, there have been several sites that 
inexplicably carry r.t.tf.mod improperly configured, so it is 
possible.) 

If your site has RTTM listed as unmoderated, this means that you will 
see whatever spam and unapproved posts are made to the newsgroup from 
other unregistered sites, and also means that the news server will 
attempt to inject your post into the newsgroup itself, rather than 
emailing it to the moderation address.  This will probably lead to 
your article getting lost completely (many properly-configured news 
sites will helpfully forward unapproved posts they receive to the 
moderation address, but it is not good to depend on this). 

In order to correct this, please send your sysadmin a copy of the 
newgroup message mentioned above, along with the request that he 
configure RTTM properly.  Most sysadmins who already do carry the 
group should be happy to do this for you.   

Please also forward a copy of any non-moderation-approved posts that 
you see to us at rtt+request@killfile.org, _with all headers intact_, 
particularly the "Path:" header.  This will let us contact the 
sysadmins of all the sites that passed the article along. 

In the interim, you may inject your posts directly into the 
moderators' queue by emailing them to rtt+sub@killfile.org rather 
than posting via the news server (see instructions below). 


IF THAT DOESN'T WORK... 

Some sites (universities, for example) may be loathe to add another 
newsgroup, particularly one dealing with "toys." If this is the case, 
it is probable that no amount of complaint to your sysadmin will 
change it, and it is time to look for other alternatives.  I'll list 
the "free" ones first. 


USENET ARCHIVAL SITES 

Many Usenet archival/newsgroup sites, such as Deja (formerly DejaNews) 
<URL:http://www.deja.com/usenet/>, also carry 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated.  Their newsfeeds are fairly good, and 
certainly better than nothing at all.  Deja's policy formerly would 
not allow you to post to moderated groups, though they did eventually 
change this. 

However, in some cases, posts made from such sites have arrived in 
moderator queues garbled beyond all readability.  I would recommend 
posting by email to rtt+sub@killfile.org (see instructions below) as being 
a much more reliable means of getting your messages through than 
posting via webpage newsfeed sites. 


FREE NEWS SERVERS 

There are a number of news servers that allow anyone to read news from 
them, and some servers will even allow anyone to post through them. 
Lists of these servers may be found in 

<URL:http://www.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Usenet/Public_Access_Usenet_Sites/> 

However, I should stress that these sites often have terrible 
newsfeeds, and posting through them can be extremely unreliable.  They 
often come about due to someone overlooking security measures on his 
site, and are closed one at a time as soon as someone spams through 
them.  (The pre-moderation mass-spam attacks on rec.games.mecha were 
launched through servers such as these.) 

If you normally read news via AOL or CompuServe or other online 
all-in-one services, you will probably have to download a third-party 
newsreader to use these servers; newsreader recommendations may be 
found further down under the "HTML" section of this FAQ. 


COMMERCIAL NEWS SERVERS 

Newsguy <URL:http://www.newsguy.com>, formerly Zippo, is a service 
that offers newsreading and posting access via its news servers and/or 
a WWW interface. The basic service costs $19 per year and offers basic 
NNTP/WWW newsreading and posting service to ~7500 newsgroups, 
including all the *.toys.transformers.* groups.  Newsguy's "Extra" 
service level <URL:http://extra.newsguy.com> offers more newsgroups 
and perks such as webpage space, a spam-filtered email drop box, and 
other features, for $5 per month.  I've never used the service myself, 
but my friends who have note that it has a very good newsfeed and a 
good reputation for reliable service.  However, there has been some 
controversy arising from Newsguy's alleged habit of quietly dropping 
articles posted by people its administrators do not like. 

Other commercial news servers can be found in 

<URL:http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Companies/ 
Internet_Services/Usenet_Servers/Commercial/> 

If you normally read news via AOL or CompuServe or other online 
all-in-one services, you will probably have to download a third-party 
newsreader to use these servers; newsreader recommendations may be 
found further down under the "HTML" section of this FAQ. 


LOCAL OR NATIONAL ISP 

If you are an AOL or CompuServe or other online all-in-one service 
user, you might want to consider switching over to an Internet Service 
Provider, either local or national.  This largely depends on what 
level of service you are looking for and what level they offer, and 
may be unfeasible, but it is worth mentioning as an alternative. 


POSTING BY EMAIL: rtt+sub@killfile.org 

If you want to be as certain as you can that your post makes it into 
our moderation queue, you can email your article directly to 
rtt+sub@killfile.org.  Just write the post as you would a normal 
email message, then send it.  Once we receive it, it will go through 
the same moderation procedure as any other posted message.  Best of 
all, this posting method works with _any_ of the above options for 
reading rec.toys.transformers.moderated. 

If you want to follow up to someone else's post from your newsreader, 
choose "reply by e-mail" instead of "post a follow-up" and change the 
address in the "To:" line to rtt+sub@killfile.org.  (If your 
newsreader will not let you do this, perhaps you should consider 
downloading better software.) 


                How to Get Your Posts Sent IMMEDIATELY 

Naturally, everyone who posts to rec.toys.transformers.moderated wants 
his posts to go out immediately, and not have to sit waiting in the 
"inspection area" for a moderator to check and send them.  That's why 
this FAQ is being put together...to give you the secrets to getting 
your post just right, so it goes through and saves us moderators the 
work of looking at it. :) 

Many of the moderation criteria are automated.  If you meet all the 
criteria, your message will be posted automatically, and will probably 
even propagate _faster_ than it would have if it had just been posted 
through your own news server--the Moderation site is on a regional 
news hub with _very_ good distribution. 

These criteria are in no particular order of importance.  Insofar as 
speed-of-posting is concerned, each one is equally important, because 
if you miss even one, your post will end up in the moderators' mailbox 
and have to be inspected before being sent on its merry way. 

This is not an inclusive list of what may or may not be posted to 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated; for that, see the newsgroup charter, 
which is included later in this FAQ.  However, one paragraph of that 
charter is so important that it should be quoted right up front 
(slightly modified), for reference as you read the following sections: 

# "Off-topic" refers to anything not pertaining to Transformers or 
# other topical material (as defined in the first paragraph of the 
# Charter).  However, "on-topic" will be interpreted very broadly; 
# almost anything that is not directly objectionable (by the criteria 
# for disallowed posts given above) will be let through. 

The moderation scheme is intended to keep out spam, newsgroup-bombing, 
unprotected spoilers, and the like, while promoting the normal flow of 
Transformers-related conversation--not to block every single message 
that might possibly be considered off-topic.  Toward that end, if 
there's a reasonable amount of doubt as to whether a post should be 
rejected, we will probably go ahead and approve it. 

Before we get to the tips on how to get your articles approved, here 
are a couple of tips about how to be sure your article is reaching us 
at all. 


NOTE: HOW TO POST 

I bet you think you know this one already, right?  "I just use the 
post command in my newsreader, or postnews."  Well, yes...but there's 
also another way.  You see, when you post to a moderated group, the 
posting software (if it's configured properly) will automatically 
email your post to a moderation address, rather than posting it.  If 
you want, you can bypass the news-posting step entirely by emailing 
your post directly to our moderation address, rtt+sub@killfile.org.  If 
your posts to RTTM seem to vanish into the void, it might mean that 
your site's newsposting software is improperly configured, and you 
should try the email address instead. 

NOTE: Do not send complaints, questions, requests, inquiries, etc. to 
this address--it's for posting your articles only.  The RTTM 
Moderation Team's administrative address is rtt+request@killfile.org; 
please address that kind of correspondence there. 


NOTE: SPAM-BLOCKING 

Some posters to rec.toys.transformers.moderated use "spam-blocks" in 
their email addresses--that is to say, altering their address so that 
"postmaster@earthlink.com" becomes "postSPAMmaster@earthlink.com" to 
use an example.  The efficacy of this method is a matter of some 
dispute in the news.admin.net-abuse hierarchy, given that many 
spammers have begun to use spamblock-decoding software, but it does 
violate an RFC, and many sysadmins feel that it causes more trouble 
for others than it prevents for the user in question, particularly 
where autoresponder systems (such as those used in newsgroup 
moderation) are concerned. 

There is currently no requirement on rec.toys.transformers.moderated 
that posters must post with non-spamblocked email addresses.  However, 
you should be aware that posting with a spamblock _could_ cause your 
messages to vanish.  The reason for this is that, at the time of this 
FAQ's original writing, four out of the seven moderation relay 
sites--the computers whose job is to forward posts to moderated 
newsgroups to the moderators of those newsgroups--were set to drop 
emailed messages sent from invalid domain names.  Though this may 
since have been fixed, it seems to be a continually-recurring problem. 
(Please note that the R.T.TF.Mod moderation crew has _no control_ over 
these relay sites--it's not our fault, and there's nothing we can do 
about it.)  Some users of other newsgroups have reported their 
spamblocked messages being dropped. 

Spamblocking will also cause you not to receive potentially important 
autoresponses from the Modbot (such as acknowledgements of receipt, 
posting, or rejection), and creates extra work for the moderators and 
an extra load on the site being used for moderation--in some cases, 
spamblocking has caused newsgroup moderation autoresponse to have to 
be disabled altogether. 

I strongly suggest looking into an alternative to spamblocking your 
posting email address.  A couple of such options include 

- Setting up filters on your incoming email.  Resources on ways to do 
this can be found through a websearch, or by inquiring on 
news.admin.net-abuse.email. 

- Getting a hotmail.com, yahoo.com, or other free email account; you 
can put your hotmail address in your "From" header, with instructions 
on how to reply to your _real_ address in your .signature or 
wherever.  You can then check your hotmail address as often or as 
rarely as you like, and be assured that any spam you get will go 
there, rather than your _real_ address. 


NOTE: PATIENCE, PLEASE! 

Please remember that there are only a handful of moderators working on 
this group, and sometimes, especially on weekends, there may only be 
one or two (or none) of us "on duty" at any given time.  We have to 
eat, go to the restroom, and occasionally leave our computers to 
interact with the <gasp> Real World.  If your post doesn't appear 
within a few minutes of your sending it, please don't post it again or 
post "Where's my post???" messages.  Give us at least a day to deal 
with it--we may not be at our machines at the time, or we may be 
discussing whether it is appropriate for the group before making a 
decision.  If you want to be sure your posts are reaching us, insert 
an X-No-Confirm: No header so you will receive an autoreply. 


FORMATTING: HTML, MIME, 80-CHARACTER MARGINS 

Posting to rec.toys.transformers.moderated in HTML, Hypertext Mark-Up 
Language, is not allowed.  HTML posting wastes bandwidth and obscures 
readability.  HTML has a forum specifically devoted to its use--the 
World Wide Web--and has no place on Usenet. 

The same may be said for MIME or similar forms of file-attachment 
encoding.  They also obscure readability; furthermore, the purpose of 
these formats is to distribute binary files, and no binary files will 
be allowed on rec.toys.transformers.moderated anyway, so there is no 
point to using it. 

Article right margins should not go over 80 characters; preferably 
they should be 64-70 characters to allow for several layers of quoting 
without text overflow.  Not everyone has a newsreader that handles >80 
character margins, and to those who do not, it obscures readability. 

Messages posted to rec.toys.transformers.moderated in HTML, MIME, 
and/or >80-character lines will be passed to the human moderators, who 
may reject them. 

If your newsreader posts in HTML and you want to post to 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated, you should either disable HTML 
posting or use a different newsreader.  (As a side benefit, dedicated 
newsreaders also tend to be more efficient at reading news than 
Netscape or Internet Explorer.) 

Here is how to disable HTML posting in Netscape 4.X: 

1) Start Netscape 
2) Select menu "Edit, Preferences, Mail and News Preferences" 
3) Select tab "Compositions" 
4) Remove the check mark for "Use HTML Composition Window" 

And at same time make sure 

1) That "Allow 8-bit" is checked 
2) That "MIME compliant" is unchecked 


Here is how to disable HTML posting in Mozilla/Netscape 6.X: 

1) Start Mozilla or Netscape 
2) Select menu "Edit, Preferences" 
3) Go to "Mail & Newsgroups" and select the "Messages" option. 
4) Under "For Outgoing Messages" uncheck "Add HTML styles", and 
    select the "As-Is" radio button under the 8-bit section. 
5) Under "Formatting" check the "Convert the message into plain text" 
    option. 


Here is how to disable HTML posting in MSIE Newsreader: 

1) Start MSIE Newsreader 
2) Select menu News 
3) Select Options 
4) Select the Send tab and check the Plain Text box. 

If you are using Windows or Macintosh-based systems and would like to 
find a new newsreader, open <URL:http://www.shareware.com>, select 
your operating system, and search on "newsreader".  Recommended for 
Windows are Free Agent (for ease of use) or WinVN (supports a 
killfile); recommended for Macintosh is NewsWatcher.  If you are using 
Unix, chances are there are several other newsreaders installed on 
your system already, such as trn, slrn, tin, or gnus.  Ask your 
sysadmin. 


SUBJECT-LINE KEYWORD TAGS 

In order to make reading rec.toys.transformers.moderated a more 
satisfying and enriching experience for those people who have 
kill/select files, or who would like to be able to take in subject 
line lists at a glance, all posts to rec.toys.transformers.moderated 
must have a [subject line tag] that denotes the subject matter of the 
message. 

Please note that, due to our moderation software, the only acceptable 
delineators for tags are [square brackets].  Please do not use 
(parentheses), {curly brackets}, offsetting with a colon, or any other 
form.  Also, the tag should be at the beginning of the subject, or 
after a Re:, in order for our software to notice it. 

[Tag] Article subject       - Properly Tagged 
Re: [Tag] Article subject   - Properly Tagged 

Article [Tag] Subject       - Untagged 
(Tag) Article subject       - Untagged 
{Tag} Article subject       - Untagged 
Tag: Article subject        - Untagged 
Article subject             - Untagged 

Below is a list of suggested tags; use one or as many of them as you 
think apply to your message.  This list is _not_ meant to be 
all-inclusive--if you don't find a tag there for a Transformers- 
related subject or subtopic about which you want to post, make up your 
own.  You won't be penalized for using a tag that's not there, if it 
gets the point across about what's in the message--we may even add it 
to the list.  Keep in mind, though, if you don't put a tag on, one of 
the moderators will look at the message and add the tag(s) he thinks 
should go there, and it might not be the one you would have chosen. 

Also note that if a poster consistently refuses to use proper tagging 
after being asked politely, we may begin rejecting rather than 
manually tagging untagged messages from that person. 


Subject or General Tags: 

Administrative announcements = [ADMIN]   
    (To be used by moderators only, or in follow-ups to moderators' 
    postings) 
Animorphs = [ANI] 
Beast Machines = [BM] 
Beast Wars = [BW] 
Beast Wars 2 = [BW2] 
General interest = [GENERAL] or [MISC] 
General newsgroup issues =  [META] 
GoBots (Tonka) = [GB] or [GOBOTS] 
GoBots (Transformers Gen 2) = [G2GB] or [TFGB] 
Machine Wars = [MW] 
Multi-toyline (encompassing several or all TF toy lines) = [MISC] 
RoboMACs = [RMAC] 
Transformers "Generation One" (original TV series) = [G1] or [TFG1] 
Transformers Generation Two = [G2] or [TFG2] 
Transformers Japanese series = [JTF] or [J-TF] 
Transformers: The Movie = [TFTM] 
"World's Worst" Transformers = [WWTF] or [TFWW] 

Topic Tags: 

Comic Book = [COMIC] 
Toy-related = [TOY] 
Useless but fun tidbit = [NOISE] or [Off-Topic] 
Humor tags = [HUMOR] (or [HUMOUR]), [PARODY], [SATIRE], etc. 
Song = [SONG] 
General information = [INFO] 
Request = [REQUEST] or [REQ] 
Role-Playing Game rules = [RPG] 
Any other TV show, anime, movie, etc. = [(show's title)] 
Philosophical discussion = [PHILO] 

And tags like [IRC], [WWW], [MUSH], etc. should be fairly 
self-explanatory. 

The tags don't have to be all caps, nor do they have to be exact, just 
as long as they make it obvious what the post is about.  Also, threads 
that start to go astray due to topic drift should preferably have 
[Off-Topic] or [OT] appended to the subject line at some point. 


CROSSPOSTING 

As the charter says, excessive crossposting is not allowed.  What is 
excessive?  Well, that varies.  It's possible that a message might be 
on-topic for several newsgroups...though the more newsgroups to which 
it is posted, the less likely this becomes.  Furthermore, excessive 
crossposting has been used in the massive binary-bomb spams that have 
shown up on other newsgroups in the past. 

As sort of a second line of defense (just in case a spammer forges 
someone's identity), any post sent to four or more newsgroups and/or 
all crossposts between rec.toys.transformers.moderated and any 
currently "unauthorized" newsgroup will be shunted to the manual 
moderation mailbox for the moderators to look at it.  If it is on 
topic for all the groups to which it is posted, it will be approved. 
If not, it will be returned to the poster.  (Unless, of course, it is 
obviously spam, in which case it will be black-holed.)  Either way, 
the moderators will not alter the Newsgroups: line of any articles 
they receive; it will be up to the poster to do that himself. 

If a newsgroup is not authorized, that fact does _not_ constitute any 
condemnation on the part of the moderators toward the act of 
crossposting to it.  All crossposts that pass in front of us will be 
judged on a case by case basis. 

NOTE: If one (or more) of the other groups to which the article is 
crossposted is also moderated (a.t.t.classic.moderated, for example), 
the article must also meet criteria for topicality in those groups. 
It will be passed on to their moderators for approval if it first 
meets the criteria for posting to rec.toys.transformers.moderated. 
(Or it may well be passed on to _us_ if it first meets _their_ 
criteria, depending on which moderation team is sent the article in 
question first. :) 


OVERQUOTING 

When posts pass by us, we naturally scrutinize them for overquoting. 
When following up to a message, it is usually only necessary to quote 
a few lines, to remind the reader to what the reply is being made. 
After all, most newsreaders have a "prior message in thread" function 
that they may use to return to the last message and read it in full if 
they wish.  Overquoting wastes bandwidth, and in some cases may cause 
readers to skip your message entirely, especially if the quoted 
material is very long. 

We do realize that there are some instances where quoting more 
material than reply text is unavoidable.  However, when all or almost 
all of the material of a long message is quoted material, when it 
includes material two and three layers of quoting deep with no 
comments addressed directly at the double/triple-quoted material, 
and/or when .signatures of quoted messages have been left in, we will 
assume that you accidentally sent the message before you were finished 
cutting down the quoted text, and will reject it back to you so you 
can finish before posting again. 


AUTOAPPROVAL 

After you've had five manually-approved articles posted to 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated, you will probably be added to the 
autoapproval list.  That means that, if you meet all of the above 
criteria for message format, topic tags, and crossposting, your posts 
will be approved and posted to rec.toys.transformers.moderated 
automatically, without ever passing moderator eyes.  As far as your 
posts are concerned, it will be almost as if 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated were unmoderated (save that your 
messages will actually propagate _faster_ than they would in an 
unmoderated group--the moderation-injection newsfeed is very rapid). 

We will trust you to post generally on topic (the occasional off-topic 
post is okay, though) and not to abuse your posting privileges.  If 
you go seriously astray, you'll get a couple of official warnings, and 
if you continue to behave inappropriately, you may be removed from the 
auto-approval list for a while, meaning that your posts will again 
have to pass human inspection--and having removed you once, we'll be 
somewhat reluctant to put you on again (probably requiring at least a 
30-day grace period before considering it, but that is left at the 
moderators' discretion). 

Please note that, due to autoapprove, we may not see all, or even 
many, of the articles that are posted until they actually appear on 
the group.  If you see an off-topic or flame thread spring up and get 
out of hand, please let us know at rtt+request@killfile.org so we can 
consider what action to take. 


NOTE: CHANGING YOUR NAME 

Autoapproval checks the complete "From:" line in your message, not 
just the email address.  So if you're posting as "Optimus Primal 
<optimus@axalon.mil.cyb>" and are on auto-approve, and then change 
your posting identity to "Optimal Optimus <optimus@axalon.mil.cyb>", 
you'll have to post five messages from that identity before you're 
back on autoapprove.  It's not that we have anything against you 
changing your name; that's simply how autoapproval works. 


NOTE: APPROVAL-FORGERY 

During the pre-RFD and RFD discussion periods of other moderated 
groups, concern has been expressed that moderation might not be 
effective, due to spammers and flooders posting with forged approval 
(also known as the "dead chicken").  However, the 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated moderation team has taken this into 
account, and our moderation system now actively uses PGPMoose. 

Under PGPMoose, the moderation software appends a PGP signature, 
generated using a private encryption key and the body of the message 
itself, to the header of each approved message.  The PGPMoose 
cancelbot keeps an eye on PGPMoose-moderated groups, and automatically 
cancels any post that has been "approved" with an improper or no 
moderation PGP signature. 

Thus, posts with forged approvals are canceled rapidly, with no 
moderator intervention involved or needed.  The _only_ way to get a 
post approved to rec.toys.transformers.moderated in any permanent 
fashion will be to go through the legitimate moderation system. 


                       Have We Made a Mistake? 
         (Proper Etiquette for Complaining to the Moderators) 

As moderators, we have two strikes against us.  1) We're human and 
therefore imperfect; 2) some of us are a bit new at this moderation 
thing and still trying to work out how best to do our jobs.  We _will_ 
make mistakes, and we'll probably even change our minds from time to 
time on our handling of certain issues, particularly if we get a lot 
of feedback email complaining or making suggestions. 

Anyway...if you think we've made a mistake involving one of your 
articles (or even involving policies in general, for that matter), 
please feel free to email us and complain.  It is possible that you 
could convince us to change our minds, or else that we could explain 
ourselves more fully to you.  If you do so, please follow these simple 
steps: 

1) SAVE THE RESPONSE NOTICE.  The response (rejection or modification) 
notice you receive should contain the full text of your original 
article (if a rejection notice), as well as the reason why it was 
rejected (or modified), and which moderator handled it.  Not only can 
this be helpful in determining if a mistake was made (by software _or_ 
by human moderators), it will also enable you to salvage the text of a 
rejected article if the moderators should change their mind and allow 
you to post it after all. 

2) Optional: CHECK DEJA.COM.  If there is some doubt as to the fate of 
your article, you might want to check the archive sites just in case 
to see if it might have gotten approved and yet never reached your 
server for some reason.  These things do happen, as unreliable as 
netnews sometimes is.  If something like that happens to you, it can 
save both you and the moderators some time and trouble if you check 
there first and find that it was actually posted after all. 

3) EMAIL US.  Our address for feedback is rtt+request@killfile.org. 
If you send your email there, it will be seen by _all_ the moderators. 
This will allow all of us to have a chance at figuring out what might 
have gone wrong, and to discuss the feedback among ourselves should it 
necessitate a change being made.  Sometimes some of us reject posts 
that others would have approved, or vice versa. 

4) BE POLITE.  We're all busy people--overworked, perhaps 
underappreciated by some, trying to deal with the rest of our lives in 
addition to moderating rec.toys.transformers.moderated as a volunteer 
chore.  We will get back to you sooner or later, but you can provide 
us with added incentive to do it sooner by being calm and polite 
rather than flaming us.  Remember the old proverb about how to catch 
more flies. 

5) IF THAT DOESN'T WORK.  It is possible that, even after you try to 
convince us otherwise, we may still feel your post does not belong on 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated.  We strongly encourage you to post 
such messages to one of the other, unmoderated Transformers groups, 
such as alt.toys.transformers, if you still believe that other people 
would like to read them. 


REC.TOYS.TRANSFORMERS.MODERATED CHARTER 

rec.toys.transformers.moderated is primarily dedicated to discussion 
of all Transformers toy lines, the comic books, animated series, and 
all related material, be it books, magazines, television, movies, 
webpages, archives, chat areas, etc.  To a lesser extent, insofar as 
they relate to Transformers, Transformers-related toy lines (Battle 
Beasts, etc.), other Hasbroverse toy line tie-ins, and other robot toy 
lines that do not have newsgroups specifically devoted to their fandom 
(GoBots, certain Japanese robot toy lines, etc.) are also considered 
on-topic here _as long as they maintain relevance to some facet of the 
Transformers under discussion_.  In short, almost all types of post 
that were accepted on alt.toys.transformers will also be accepted 
here. 

rec.toys.transformers.moderated does not exist to supplant or replace 
any other current or future Transformers discussion newsgroups, but 
rather to supplement them.  This is intended to be a place where 
people can read and post without fear of getting spoiled by accident, 
a place where subjects can easily be killed or selected by use of 
subject-line tags, and, hopefully, a place where Beast Wars and 
"Classic" Transformers fans alike will be able to get along and have 
civil discussions.  It is not our intent to force moderation upon 
anyone; there will always be unmoderated Transfandom groups for people 
to use if they don't care for moderation.  We just want to provide the 
freedom of choice that comes with more and different alternatives. 

Each posting to rec.toys.transformers.moderated should include a 
keyword tag on the subject line either designating which which toy 
line or related material to which the posting refers ([G1], [G2], 
[BW], etc.) or marking the general subject of the post ([ADMIN], 
etc.).  If a submitted post does not have a tag, the moderator may add 
appropriate tags, but posters are encouraged to add tags themselves to 
save moderation work.  A list of suggested keywords will be posted in 
a separate FAQ. 

Contributions are welcome from all who wish to engage in discussion of 
Transformers and related toy lines, related subjects, and outside 
sites pertaining thereunto--this includes but is not limited to toy 
lines, mass media (books, comics, magazines, movies, TV, etc.), 
webpages, IRC channels, WebChat rooms, MUDs/MUSEs/MUSHes/etc, RPGs, 
and computer games. 


Discussion on rec.toys.transformers.moderated may consist of such 
things as: 

    * Discussions pertaining to toys, comic books, TV shows, 
      and other Transformers-related material. 

    * Properly-protected TV show/comic book/etc. spoilers. 

    * Replies to requests for information. 

    * Announcements of conventions, fandom resources, new mailing 
      lists, webpages, or other newsgroups pertaining to the 
      Transformers or related material. 


rec.toys.transformers.moderated is NOT to be used for the following: 

    * Posting of unprotected spoilers. 

    * Advertising or sales of Transformers-related material of any 
      kind (use rec.toys.transformers.marketplace instead). 

    * Posting of fanfiction. 

    * Posting of binaries (with the exception of PGP signatures and 
      clear-signatures, which are allowed), HTML-formatted 
      messages, or MIME attachments.  However, notices of archives, 
      webpages, or FTP sites dedicated to Transformers-related 
      binaries are welcome, and should be used as alternatives to 
      posting binary material. 

    * Blatant trolls or other abusive material. 

    * Posting of off-topic or excessively-crossposted material. 

    * Posting of "test" messages. 

"Off-topic" refers to anything not pertaining to Transformers or other 
topical material (as defined in the first paragraph of this Charter). 
However, "on-topic" will be interpreted very broadly; almost anything 
that is not directly objectionable (by the criteria for disallowed 
posts given above) will be let through. 

Postings considered by the Usenet community to be 'spam' or similar 
forms of net-abuse are not permitted.  This also includes blatant 
trolls (posts with primarily emotive content along the lines of "<TV 
series> SUCKS!!!" with no attempt at justification, or "YOUR ALL FAGS 
GIT A LIFE" for example). 

The discussion in rec.toys.transformers.moderated is moderated.  The 
moderation is not to censor or suppress discussion or controversy on 
any topic relevant to the group, but rather to filter out abuse, spam, 
unprotected spoilers, and posts sent to RTT.moderated by mistake. 
Save where MIME-encoding, HTML marked-up posts, >80 character line 
width, spoiler protection, and other issues of formatting are 
concerned, content or style will NEVER be altered by the moderators, 
whose sole purpose is to forward all appropriate postings to the 
group.  All inappropriate postings will be returned in their entirety 
to the posters. 


Spoilers: 

In Transformers fandom, the term "spoilers" commonly refers to 
plot-related information that could "spoil" a story for someone who 
has not had a chance to read or view that story (be it an episode of a 
TV series, a comic book, a movie, fanfiction, or some other type of 
story) yet.  In the past, a common problem on alt.toys.transformers 
has been the posting of unprotected spoilers to the newsgroup, 
particularly in subject lines such as "[character name] is dead!" or 
"[character name] is back!"  This is bad because it removes the choice 
of whether or not to be spoiled from the reader, who many times would 
prefer to be completely surprised by what happens in the story. 

Posts to rec.toys.transformers.moderated may include spoilers, but the 
spoilers should have appropriate protection and warning, including the 
tag [Spoilers] in the subject line, and a pagebreak symbol (control-L) 
and/or 15-30 lines of space before the spoilers begin, and should 
_never_ be in the subject line.  This will give readers their choice 
of going ahead and being spoiled, or of passing the article by until 
they have seen the episode in question. 

(This will be enforced most strictly on the most recent season of 
whatever Transformers show/comic book/etc. is in current release, and 
less strictly on spoilers for older works such as G1 episodes, G1 & G2 
comic books, and 1st-season BW episodes; these have been around for 
long enough that they are assumed to have been seen or read already by 
the majority of the portion of the readership who would be concerned 
about them.) 


Fanfiction: 

Due to the increased exposure of rec groups, fanfiction will not be 
allowed on rec.toys.transformers.moderated (or any of the other 
rec.toys.transformers.* groups, for that matter).  Our concern is that 
it might cause Hasbro, who has shown some hostility toward 
Transformers fanfiction in the past, to take additional notice of this 
aspect of Transformers fandom and possibly institute legal action.  We 
would rather not risk harming fandom, and particularly fanfic writers, 
by increasing the likelihood of Hasbro lawsuits.  Thus, fanfiction 
should not be posted anywhere within the rec.toys.transformers.* 
hierarchy. 


Moderation Policy: 

The moderators will try to ensure that the postings are free from 
gratuitous verbal abuse and personal attacks.  Authorship is NOT a 
criterion for judgment; article content is the sole criterion.  That 
said, it is not the business of the moderators to search out or remove 
illegal material, and the moderators cannot be held responsible for 
any postings to the group written by other persons. 

Articles for rec.toys.transformers.moderated must be relevant to the 
newsgroup charter.  Articles should have a maximum line width of 80 
characters, though a line width of 64-72 characters is suggested for 
new articles, as this allows the material to be easily quoted in 
follow-ups without reformatting line breaks. 

Articles should not be formatted in HTML code (as certain versions of 
Netscape and Microsoft Internet News are known to post), nor should 
they be use MIME attachments.  HTML-style emoticons, such as <sarcasm> 
</sarcasm>, are all right, however, as is the posting of URLs. 

The moderators are authorized to reject articles that do not meet the 
topical or formatting criteria given above, or to reformat 
misformatted messages so that they meet posting standards.  Moderators 
may also reject posts, particularly long ones, that consist 
overwhelmingly of quoted material.  "This is a test" posts, posts that 
add nothing substantial, and add new content only to the effect of 'me 
too', 'no', and the like, may also be rejected if they fail to serve 
the purpose of furthering discussion. 

Anyone whose article is rejected or modified will usually be mailed a 
brief note, consisting of a personally written note and/or a 
boilerplate response containing an explanation to inform him why his 
posting was rejected and what kind of adjustments he should consider 
making if he wishes to resubmit the article.  (Though in the case of 
spam, the moderator should feel free to ignore it entirely.)  If 
desired by the poster, further assistance or advice will be given by 
the moderators. 

Conversation, chat, and the mutual fun of the participants are all 
important.  Off-topic threads that began as on-topic threads will not 
be rejected as long as they retain some periodic relevance. 
Moderators may insert subject line keywords or alter subject lines to 
reflect topic drift, but will reject chat-type posts only when they 
become completely irrelevant. 

Though messages may be reformatted by the moderators, they will _not_ 
be edited for content; they will be either accepted or rejected--it is 
up to the poster to decide to make any changes himself before 
resubmitting.  Subject lines may be altered by the moderator only if 
he deems it necessary (ie, if the subject line includes a spoiler, the 
subject of the message thread has drifted away from the original 
subject line, etc.).  Keyword [tags] may be added if necessary. 

Some approved messages may have a clearly delineated moderator's note 
appended to the end or beginning.  Such moderator's notes will be used 
for administrative purposes only, never for interjection of personal 
comments. 

Crossposting between rec.toys.transformers.moderated and other 
newsgroups (including both moderated & unmoderated 
Transformers-related groups and non-Transformers-related groups) is 
permitted and even encouraged, so long as it is not excessively 
crossposted (ie, spammed) and does not violate the charter of the 
other newsgroups.  (The moderators of rec.toys.transformers are not 
expected to ensure personally that every message is on-topic for every 
group, though they should at least try use their common sense in such 
matters.)  However, whether to crosspost is entirely up to the person 
who submits the article. 

The moderators should try to ensure that a crossposted message is 
on-topic for each of the crossposted groups, and should consult with 
the moderation staff of any other moderated groups in the crosspost 
list if necessary.  The moderators will _never_ alter articles' 
Newsgroups lines; if an article is excessively or off-topically 
crossposted, they will simply reject it. 

The complete text of all rejected articles (save perhaps for massive 
binaries) will be returned to the poster so that he may make any 
necessary adjustments himself before resubmitting it or posting it 
elsewhere. 

If new moderators are required, they are selected from among those 
responding to a request for volunteers posted in the newsgroup. 
Removal of an existing moderator is by the decision of the other 
active moderators. 

Commercial postings are prohibited, given the existence of a 
rec.toys.transformers.marketplace group for that very purpose.  The 
moderators are authorized to reject postings which are commercial in 
nature and do not fit the criteria mentioned here and earlier in this 
document. 

NO specific individuals or groups are excluded from 
rec.toys.transformers.moderated (except on a post-by-post basis, the 
same as everyone else) nor will any specific individuals or groups be 
shown favoritism. 

To provide for the necessity of future changes, this charter may be 
amended or altered by a 2/3 vote of the currently active moderators. 


EMAIL ADDRESSES 

Here are the email addresses for all of the current moderators, plus 
the moderation administrative addresses. 

Moderator: "Christopher E. Meadows" <robotech@eyrie.org> 
Moderator: Tim Skirvin <tskirvin@killfile.org> 
Moderator: Vulcana <pawright@eyrie.org> 
Moderator: Grrrlgoyle <derigel@ccnet.com> 
Moderator: Diana Calder <dcalder@mnsi.net> 
Moderator: Darrell Cobb <dfcobb@home.com> 
Moderator: Daniel Sauve <ahsdreamwalker@home.com> 
Moderator: "Richard C. Mistron" <orioneos@sprynet.com> 

Administrative contact address: tskirvin+rttmod@killfile.org 
Article submission address: rtt+sub@killfile.org 
