Kavi Help CenterKavi Mailing List Manager Help
| Chapter 6. Moderation | ||
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Part I. Concepts | 
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Table of Contents
Moderation is the process of filtering messages sent to a mailing list through a human gatekeeper. Individuals who are designated as moderators often hold a position of responsibility in the organization served by the list. For instance, in lists used as discussion forums for work groups, group chairs frequently act as list moderators.
This document discusses the advantages of list moderation, the mechanics of moderation, how list policy and configuration influence the moderation process and tips on troubleshooting moderated lists. If you want to know how to moderate a message or assign moderators to a list, see How to Moderate a Mailing List.
Back to topMan is a slow, sloppy and brilliant thinker; the machine is fast, accurate and stupid. |
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| --William M. Kelly | ||
Automated processes can only do so much to protect list quality. For example, the software can instantly analyze an email to determine whether the sender is allowed to post messages directly to the list or if the message should be sent for moderation. However, the software doesn't really know "who" the sender is. It only knows that it has found the sender's email address on a subscriber list. To the software, the privilege of direct posting belongs to the sender's email address because it is on the subscriber's list, rather than to an individual because of their relationship with the organization and the community served by the list. If an individual is subscribed to a list under their primary email address, and sends one message from their primary address and a second message from their alternate email address, the software sees these messages as having different senders. A human moderator is able to perceive that these messages are from the same individual using multiple email addresses. If the email from the alternate address was sent to the moderation queue, the moderator may approve that message because the moderator knows who the sender is.
Virus and spam filtering software can search the body of an email or an attachment for patterns that are known to occur in viruses (i.e. virus signatures) and detect nearly all the malware and most of the spam and delete the messages instantly. What they can't do is to keep an authorized user from posting a caustic flame or inappropriately off-topic message—a moderator can. If you want to eliminate all spam, not just the percentage caught by the spam filter, or make sure other inappropriate content is kept off the list, it needs to be moderated.
Advantages of moderated posting:
Moderators prevent spam.
Moderators help keep content on-topic by rejecting off-topic messages and providing helpful suggestions to users whose posts are rejected.
Moderators help maintain a positive environment for list users by rejecting messages containing harsh or abusive language.
Moderators can allow deserving nonmembers to post to lists that are ordinarily closed to nonmembers.
Moderators prevent spam!!!
On every moderated list, list policies regarding user level and access control are enforced first through automated processes and secondly through human intervention. Depending on configuration, a moderated list may send every incoming message to the moderation queue or it may check for the sender's email address on subscription lists to determine the sender's access level, then route the message according to rules applied to all senders at this level. Once a message has been sent for moderation, it can only be posted to the list if a moderator approves it.
Moderation doesn't just work restrictively. It provides an avenue for intelligent circumvention of automatically applied list rules, allowing a human moderator to make exceptions to rules that ordinarily exclude individuals from posting. For example, only subscribed members are allowed to post directly to a 'Members' list, but sometimes administrators or other staff may need to post messages. If the list is moderated, a moderator can approve these posts.
When a message is sent to the moderation queue, the message is forwarded to everyone on the moderators list and a copy of the message is stored in the queue. A moderator can approve, reject or ignore the email. A stub is created for each message in the queue and used to store information about what action was taken on the message.
When a moderator approves a message, the message is posted to the list, then deleted from the queue. A rejected message is deleted. Messages in the queue that are ignored eventually timeout and are removed from the queue. Once a message is gone from the queue because a moderator has acted on it or it has timed out, no action can be taken on it. For instance, if a moderator rejects a message so it is deleted from the queue, another moderator will not be able to approve the message at a later time.
A moderator accepts an email by forwarding it to a specific email address, and rejects an email by forwarding it to a different email address. These email addresses act as email address commands. This is explained in greater detail in How to Moderate a Mailing List.
To control access to posting, many moderated lists apply different rules to different levels of senders. Lists can be configured so that users sending email from email addresses on certain lists, such as the Moderator List or one of the subscriber lists (i.e., Regular Subscriber or Digest Subscriber), have access to posting privileges that senders who aren't on these lists do not. The way a list applies rules to different levels of senders is configured in the underlying list type. List type configuration will be discussed in greater detail in the following section.
The Kavi® Mailing List Manager relies on ezmlm for mailing list configuration and rules, so it uses the subscriber levels recognized by ezmlm to manage incoming messages. Like ezmlm, it can only determine the identity of a sender by their email address. It recognizes four subscriber levels: moderators, subscribers, posters and public (i.e. senders whose email addresses aren't on any of the subscriber lists). To the software, posting privileges belong to the email address, rather than the individual. For more information, read Subscriber Types and Access Control.
We'll use the Moderated Private Discussion Group default list type as an example of differentiated access to posting. Lists based on this list type allow senders whose email addresses qualify them as subscribers, posters or moderators to post directly, while messages from public senders are moderated. The other default list type that is configured to enforce rules based on differentiated subscriber levels rejects messages from everyone except moderators, which it sends for moderation.
If you are creating or editing a list, you need to understand how to match list policy or requirements to an appropriate list type. If you are moderating a list, you need to understand how to apply list policy when moderating, but this documentation can only point you towards some generic sources of information. The finer points of this discussion are organization-specific, and therefore outside our scope.
List rules should be spelled out in the Policy and Usage Statement displayed on the list's home page. They should include information about who is allowed to post to the list and what action is taken (i.e., post, moderate or reject) to messages from different levels of list users.
If you are creating a list, you will insert a Policy and Usage statement when you add the list. If you don't yet have a full-fledged statement and need to create one, you might begin by expanding on the list requirements. For more information, see Mailing List Policy and Usage Statements.
To some extent, this is a circular relationship. List policies or requirements determine the selection of a list type, and rules enforced in the list type should be explained in the Policy and Usage statement. List type selection is simple if you focus on using the list policy or requirements to answer the question of who will be allowed to post to the list, and who will be allowed to subscribe. For detailed information on list type selection, see List Types. The different kinds of moderated list types are described in the next section.
The process:
When the mailing list receives an email, it reads the email header to determine the identity of the sender, or in actuality, the sender's email address.
The mailing list software looks for the sender's email address on its subscriber lists. If it finds the address, it classifies the sender's access level according to which list the addres is on. If the address is on several lists, the software assigns the sender the highest level. For instance, if the sender is a moderator, their email address will appear on the 'Moderator List', but it will also be on one of the two subscriber lists (i.e., the 'Digest Subscriber' list or 'Regular Subscriber' list) so the moderator can receive list messages. The list classifies the sender as a moderator.
The mailing list is configured to allow everyone except the public to post messages directly to the list, and accept public messages but send them for moderation. Since this message is from a moderator, it is posted directly to the list.
If the mailing list software receives a message from a different sender and doesn't find the sender's address on any of its lists, it classifies the sender as a public level user. This list is configured to send public messages for moderation, so this message is sent to the moderation queue.
If you are creating a list and want to use a list type with differentiated user access control, be sure the Policy and Usage Statement is explicit about how the list handles messages from subscribers and from the general public to minimize support requests. This should include the information that the mailing list only recognizes senders correct access level when they use the address under which they're subscribed.
The Poster List only applies under certain configuration settings. See Poster in the Subscriber Types document for more information on this topic. It is also discussed in the Add Posters section of How to Moderate.
Moderators can always post, but on a list that moderates all posts, even moderators can't post directly. There are two types of lists that moderate all posts. Lists such as those based on the Moderated Public Discussion Group don't differentiate between different levels of users. They consider all senders to be public users, and automatically forward all incoming messages to the moderation queue.
Lists such as those based on the Announce Only default list type only accept posts from moderators, then send them for moderation. This gives the moderator an opportunity to double check the content of their post as well as screen out any 'Return-Path' forgeries. This type of forgery requires an unusual level of determination because the forger must crack system security, but this type of forgery would be posted to other types of lists.
There are only four different configurations for lists with message moderation. If you are moderating or troubleshooting a list and aren't sure how your list is configured, or if you are creating or editing a list type and need to know more about your options, you should read this section.
If you require more detailed information about the configuration of a list than the Policy and Usage Statement provides, see Accessing list type configuration options for instructions.
- Public list with moderation
For public lists with moderation, such as lists based on the default list type Moderated Public Discussion Group, the mailing list only recognizes one level of user when it receives messages for posting: the public. Since it considers all messages to be public, every message posted to the list is automatically sent to the moderation queue (even messages sent by moderators). No messages are rejected by this kind of list, although they may be rejected by the spam or virus filter before they reach the list.
- All posts are moderated and only moderators are allowed to post
The most restrictive kind of moderation, used for situations where the list content must be strictly controlled. As mentioned previously, this type of configuration prevents malicious users from impersonating a moderator by forging the identity of the sender on an email posted to the list. It also gives moderators an opportunity to double check whether they really want to post every email they send to the list. This comes in handy on those occasions when a moderator accidentally presses Send instead of Save on their MUA. The Announce Only default list type uses this kind of moderation, since announcements generally have a higher standard of quality control than informal newsletters, and may be used to disseminate information to fulfill legal obligations. This type of configuration is frequently used by lists aimed at key committees, such as an organization's Board of Directors or Members lists.
- Some posts are moderated, but not all
Subscribers and higher-level users are allowed to post directly while messages from the public are moderated. The Moderated Private Discussion Group default list type uses this configuration.
If you are a list user or an administrator troubleshooting a moderated list, the most important thing you can remember is that the software only recognizes a sender and their access level based on the email address they use. Most of the problems encountered on lists of this type are caused by this difference in human and machine perspective. Humans often expect the mailing list to grant them the same level of access no matter which email address they use, because, after all, the access level was granted to them as an individual, based on who they are in relation to the organization and the group served by the list. This is true in the real world, but in the virtual reality of the software, they are their email address, and it is their email address that has been granted these permissions. If a user is having a problem with list access, check to see whether they are sending email from the address under which they are subscribed, and whether the level of access they are expecting is granted to this level of subscriber or not. Refer to the section on Subscriber levels in the Access Control concepts document for more information.
If you are running into problems with access control mechanisms, and aren't sure how the list is configured, see Accessing list type configuration options.
Another common situation in moderated lists is that an email seems to have disappeared when it has actually been forwarded to the moderation queue. The amount of time a message can sit in a moderation queue is configurable, so it varies, but most lists give moderators several days before messages timeout and are removed from the queue.
Administrators can check the mail logs to find out whether a message has been sent to the moderation queue.
For help troubleshooting other issues, see How to Use the Email Troubleshooting Flowcharts to identify which flowchart best fits your needs.
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| Chapter 5. List Types |  |
Chapter 7. How to Moderate a Mailing List |