What is a moderated Newsgroup?
Moderated newsgroups are usually discussion forums which are regulated for content by a certain individual. Unlike non-moderated newsgroups, where postings are not censored and basically anything goes, you can be held responsible for your comments if they are posted to a moderated group. All moderated newsgroups will contain the word “moderated” in the title of the newsgroup (i.e. alt.computer.consultants.moderated).
Moderated newsgroups (ex. rec.martial-arts.moderated) work a little differently. Normally a newsgroup post is sent directly to the news server for publication. Postings to moderated groups are instead sent to a person, the moderator, who reviews the post to make sure it is on-topic, and meets any other rules of the newsgroup charter. Only then, after approval, is the post sent to the whole group. The moderator is usually an active poster to the group, and is happy to answer any questions you might have concerning the group.
Usenet newsgroups can be “unmoderated” (anyone can post) or “moderated” (a moderator reviews all submissions and decides which ones to post publicly). When posting to a moderated group, your post will only appear on Google Groups Beta and propagate to the rest of Usenet if the moderator approves it. If you cross post a message (i.e. post the same message in more than one group) and one of the groups is moderated, the message will ONLY be sent to the moderator of the moderated group. It is up to the moderator to decide if the message should be propagated to all of the groups on the list. Because your message will not be posted until approved by the group’s moderator, Google cannot ensure that your post will appear in a timely manner (or that it will appear at all). The propagation and timely appearance of your post are entirely up to the group’s moderator.
) I’ve seen lots of metaphors for the Usenet, and one of the most colorful is that it’s an information tsunami–a massive wave of words that floods over your machine–divided into thousands of little waves showing up in each newsgroup. It doesn’t take long to realize that a system where anyone can publish (post in Usenet parlance) anything results in an unbelievable flood of information. If you’re interested in a specific topic like reviews of current movies, the last thing you want to read are fifty articles that start out talking about the type of camera used to film a particular sequence and end up in an esoteric discussion of Japanese export tariffs! Yet not only can this happen, it very commonly does happen in Usenet groups. There are a variety of solutions, and one that has proven highly successful as the network has grown and expanded is to have a person or group of people act as newspaper editors, moderating the flow of information on the net, acting as moderators. Groups that
