How are changes made to a moderated group?
Changes to the moderation panel and to moderation criteria, scheme, procedure, or process are often carried out by the moderator(s) with the informal or tacit approval of the readership. A newsgroup could conduct its own votes on proposals for changes. Groups with a panel of moderators often have a procedure for replacing a retiring moderator, or for firing one of the panel. If the only or last remaining moderator wishes to resign, s/he might ask for volunteers, and either select one or more new moderators, or perhaps poll the users of the group on their preferences. If no volunteer is acceptable to the group, or, as has happened in a few cases, a moderator has vanished from the net without warning or explanation, the moderated newsgroup may be left silent. Few moderators have seemed to vanish, and there seems to be no accepted method to replace a moderator who cannot be found, although the RFD process seems like a reasonable approach.
