META: Periodic posting of rgm.announce moderation policy

This is an automated periodic posting explaining the moderation policies
of rec.games.mud.announce. Below you will find a summary of how many
postings were approved, rejected, or rejected and complained about,
followed by the current moderation policies.

Statistics from Mon Sep 15  9:20:54 2003 to Sun Oct 12 16:31:03 2003
     11 postings approved
      1 postings rejected:
           0 inappropriate questions
           1 missing information
           0 too recently posted
           0 for other reasons
      0 postings complained about (spam)
      0 postings complained about (mmf)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Current rec.games.mud.announce moderation policy
Last modified 2/4/98.

>From the original charter for rec.games.mud.announce:

        The purpose of this group is to provide the users of text-based
        multiuser networked games (MUDs) a noise-free place to find
        informational posts about MUDs, including information about
        sites which host such games, availability of server and client
        source code, important events of note in both the virtual and
        the real world, and other informative postings. No discussion
        is to take place in this group.

Here are the moderation policies for rec.games.mud.announce.

A good article is:
 * INFORMATIONAL: an announcement about a MUD opening/closing/moving,
   a new code release, a conference or MUD party, an offer of a 
   site to run a MUD, a MUD recruiting coders or builders, etc.
 * MUD-RELATED: Text-based and graphical MUDs are ok, including
   talkers and web-based MUDs.
 * AUTHORITATIVE: announcements about MUDs should come from administrators
   of the MUD
 * COMPLETE: In a MUD ad or recruiting notice, always include:
    - The MUD's name (in the Subject: header)
    - The MUD's address or an email contact if the MUD is private
      (explain that the MUD is private)
    - The server type (diku, lpmud, tinymush, etc.) 
    - The MUD's theme (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.) or purpose (educational, etc.)
    - Enough information for the reader to make an informed judgment
      about the MUD
    - Qualifications desired, if a recruiting notice.
   In a code release notice, always include:
    - Where to get the code
    - Whether the code is free or commercial
    - A summary of features
   In a WWW site posting, always include:
    - The URL
    - A description of the information there 
 * POSTED NO MORE THAN ONCE PER MONTH 
 * IN GOOD TASTE: No slamming of other MUDs or admins, no blatant hyperbole
 * MEANT FOR THE PUBLIC
 * IN 7-BIT ASCII TEXT, without HTML or other MIME attachments
 * IN ENGLISH, or including an English translation
 * FORMATTED TO 75 COLUMNS WIDE or less.


A bad article is:
 * A QUESTION: questions are generally not appropriate
 * A REPLY TO ANOTHER ARTICLE: discussions are not appropriate
 * OFF-TOPIC: IRC isn't really a MUD
 * A "JOB WANTED" OR "SITE WANTED" post: Offering jobs or sites
   is ok, but asking for them is not. If I accepted "wanted" posts,
   the group would be inundated with them.
 * MISSING NECESSARY INFORMATION: "BigMUD rewls! Come play at
   foo.bar.com 4000!" is not sufficient.
 * POSTED TOO RECENTLY
 * A FLAME  ("This MUD is unfair! This MUD sucks! That wizard is a jerk!")
 * A PRIVATE NOTE, A LOG, A STORY. "Could so-and-so on such-and-such 
   MUD contact me?" is also not appropriate.
 * CROSSPOSTED TO INAPPROPRIATE NEWSGROUPS:
   - I will accept crossposting to any other rec.games.mud.*
     group and to alt.mud.programming, with these restrictions:
     - rec.games.mud is no longer in existence. Don't crosspost there
     - postings involving a particular type of server can crosspost
       rgm.<that server> (.lp, .diku, .tiny), and to rgm.misc,
       but don't crosspost an ad for an lpmud to rgm.diku or rgm.tiny
     - advertisements of MUDs should not be crossposted to rgm.admin
     - alt.mud and alt.mud.lp are obsolete. Don't crosspost there.
   - I will usually accept crossposting to other relevant, unmoderated
     groups, such as alt.fan.* groups.
 * TIME-CRITICAL: Due to the propagation and moderation delay,
   don't post anything that won't be valid 72 hours later.
   In particular, announcements of downtime should be for
   downtime of at least a week.
  

I reserve the right to:
 * Reject postings that exceed 100 lines (why not provide an
   ftp or WWW address instead?)
 * Reject postings that are uuencoded, mime-encapuslated, in HTML,
   encrypted, or otherwise not plain 7-bit human-readable ascii.
 * Edit subject lines to insert a prefix (such as OPENING,
   CODE RELEASE, AD, etc.) or otherwise make them more informative
 * Add or edit the Keywords: line
 * Chop signatures longer than 10 lines
 * Reject postings with lines longer than 75 characters, or word-wrap
   them.
 * Set the Followup-To: header to "poster" if you don't set it
 * Make no further attempts to inform you about a rejected article
   if the email provided in the headers bounces.
 * Remove newsgroups from the Newsgroups: line if I won't crosspost
   to them, and post the article only to those groups that I will.
 * Cancel any posting with an Approved line that has been forged
   without my prior approval. (Certain posts, such as Jennifer
   "Moira" Smith's FAQ, have such approval). I keep track of what
   I've posted and I will certainly cancel anything that tries
   to get around the moderator.

I will:
 * Add a moderator note if I change the formatting of a posting
 * Add an X-Moderator-Removed-Newsgroups: header if I remove newsgroups
   from the Newsgroups: line, unless there are just way too many
 * Post messages within 72 hours of receiving them, except on
   long weekends or major holidays. In fact, I generally post messages
   within 24 hours. If you don't see your post appear, please
   wait at least a week, and check for it on DejaNews before
   contacting me to ask about it; some sites have slow newsfeeds.
 * Return rejected postings with a message explaining the rejection
   unless I can't email the address from which you posted
 * Complain to the postmaster or news administrator of sites from
   which off-topic commercial messages or spam originates

I accept no responsibility for the truthfulness of any postings. I
will attempt to note errors where I can, and try to ensure that the
posters are reliable sources of information on the thing in question,
but the responsibility for the content of the posting lies with the
poster alone -- by posting to this group you agree to be the sole
party responsible for anything that you've said.

The following sites, having proven that they are no good for
anything but spam, are currently having their postings auto-bounced:

        albacom.net
        bellnexxia.net
        clark.net
        eci.com
        fr.uu.net
        fusion.bt.com
        hct.ac.ae
        hinet.net
        it.earthlink.net
        latnet.lv
        loxinfo.co.th
        mpx.com.au
        *.btinternet.com
        prodigy.com
        singnet.com.sg
        slip.net
        teleline.es
        tninet.se
        tuvok.tm.net.my
        verio.net

If you're a legitimate mudder who must post from one of these
sites, email your postings to rgm-announce @ pennmush.org instead.

     _________________________________________________________________

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Alan Schwartz ("Javelin"), Moderator for rec.games.mud.announce
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (rec.games.mud.announce submissions)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (private mail to the moderator)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~