Subject: RFD: comp.lang.perl.moderated moderated
From: [email-masked] (Mark-Jason Dominus)
Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 11:58:09 GMT
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.perl.modules,comp.lang.perl.announce

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
               moderated group comp.lang.perl.moderated

This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of
comp.lang.perl.moderated This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you
cannot vote at this time.  Procedural details are below.

For your newsgroups line:
comp.lang.perl.moderated        Perl language. (Moderated)

RATIONALE: comp.lang.perl.moderated

The comp.lang.perl.misc group presently has very high
traffic: typically about 250 articles per day.  Much of this
traffic is given over to people asking off-topic questions,
and questions answered in the FAQ.

In these circumstances, a number of regular posters to the
group have stopped reading comp.lang.perl.misc, while new
readers can find it difficult to find relevant posts.  The
result is reduced usefulness of the existing
comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.

This comp.lang.perl.moderated group is proposed as high
signal-to-noise group where readers will not be subjected to
the types of articles described above. The intention is to
provide a useful resource for inexperienced Perl programmers
and to attract and retain experienced programmers who can
make a substantial contribution to the group.

comp.lang.perl.misc would still be left in place for more general
discussion, and for those topics that no one seems to agree
on a place for.

CHARTER: comp.lang.perl.moderated

The group will be moderated by a computer program and by a moderation
panel.

All posters to the group must be registered.  The moderation program
will hold submissions from first-time posters, who will be sent
registration instructions in addition to the group charter and
pointers to relevant references.  After registration, the submission
will be forwarded to the moderation panel.

By submitting a registration, users agree to abide by the provisions
of this charter.

In addition, the moderators will reject any article:

+ which is cross-posted, save for the blanket cross-posting
  provisions described below;

+ which contains a binary file. In so far as it is
  practicable, the moderation program shall be configured so
  as to pass PGP signatures and similar authentication
  schemes, while rejecting articles containing binary files;

+ which is encoded primarily using a markup scheme, with the
  exception of Plain Old Documentation (POD). In so far as
  it is practicable, the moderation program shall be
  configured so as to pass articles containing short
  fragments of markup embedded within them;

+ which is encoded in any MIME type considered inappropriate
  by the moderation panel. Initially, only articles of
  text/plain MIME type will be accepted by the moderation
  program;

+ which contains an excessive amount of quoted text;

+ which appears to be to be a duplicate of a previously submitted
  article;

+ which has a subject header starting with the string 'Re: ' but
  doesn't contain a `References:' header;

+ which contains an excessively long signature;

+ which contains an advertisement or commercial solicitation
  of any sort; (EXCEPTION: The Perl Insitute may post
  commercials that its board deems to be of general interest
  to the Perl community, such as announcements of upcoming
  Perl-oriented conferences.)

+ which does not contain an informative subject line.

  Recent examples:

          Subject: Can anyone help me?????????
          Subject: Help wanted for new perl programmer
          Subject: Please help me!!
          Subject: beginner question

+ which asks a question that is already answered in the
  comp.lang.perl FAQ lists;

+ which is unrelated to Perl or otherwise off-topic;

+ which is a factually incorrect answer to a previously
  posted question, within reason;

+ which is, in the opinion of the moderation panel,
  otherwise unsuitable for posting;

The moderation panel may at its discretion implement any
technical solutions it considers necessary to enforce the
provisions of this charter.

Posters are requested not to post answers to questions which
are explicitly addressed in the documentation, including the
relevant FAQs.  A pointer to the relevant resource should
instead be emailed to the questioner.

Any article rejected by the moderators will be returned to
its author together with a copy of the charter of the
relevant group and a brief note explaining the reason for
the rejection.  No attempt will be made to verify the
validity of the poster's address, and bounces will be
discarded.

The moderators of comp.lang.perl.announce, comp.answers and
news.announce.newgroups, and any successor groups thereto,
are hereby granted permission to cross-post to
comp.lang.perl.moderated at their discretion.

While permission to routinely cross-post to the group will
not be granted in other cases, the moderation panel will
consider requests on a case-by-case basis, and grant
approval if they deem that this would be of significant
benefit to the readership of the group. This provision
applies especially, but is not limited to, relevant FAQs.

The moderation panel will consist of at least six members.
All members of the moderation panel shall be authorized to
cancel any article which is in violation of this charter.

Any article submitted by a member of the moderation panel
outside the exercise of his or her administrative role will
be subject to the full moderation procedure described
herein.

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: comp.lang.perl.moderated

New moderators may be appointed, and old ones removed, by a
two-thirds majority vote of the moderation panel.

The moderation panel will initially consist of:

Moderator: Mark-Jason Dominus <[email-masked]>
Moderator: Steven Potter <[email-masked]>
Moderator: Chris Nandor <[email-masked]>
Moderator: Nathan V. Patwardhan <[email-masked]>

END MODERATOR INFO.

PROCEDURE:

This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes.  In this phase
of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroup
should be raised and resolved.  The discussion period will continue
for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this
proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For
Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion
warrants it.  Please do not attempt to vote until this happens.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation
guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How
to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal".  Please refer to these
documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any
questions about the process.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD has been posted to:
news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, comp.lang.perl.misc,
comp.lang.perl.modules, comp.lang.perl.announce,
the perl5-porters mailing list.

Proponent: The Perl Institute <[email-masked]>
Proponent: Larry Wall <[email-masked]>
Proponent: Tom Christiansen <[email-masked]>
Proponent: Randal Schwartz <[email-masked]>
Proponent: The Perl Journal <[email-masked]>
Proponent: Tim O'Reilly (Founder and CEO, O'Reilly & Associates) <[email-masked]>
Proponent: Jon Orwant <[email-masked]>
Proponent: Chip Salzenberg <[email-masked]>
Proponent: Mark-Jason Dominus <[email-masked]>