What is a moderated newsgroup and how does it work?
In unmoderated newsgroups, the local news server software normally makes messages posted to the newsgroup available for reading soon after they are posted, and the messages then spread to other news servers over the next few days. In a moderated newsgroup, the local news server software will automatically e-mail the message to a moderation address, where a moderator acts as a gatekeeper, posting to the newsgroup only those messages which the moderator allows to be posted. The basis of moderation is the consent of the users of the group, in Usenet, by the vote on the charter and moderator(s). In the 8 Usenet news hierarchies (comp, rec, soc, sci, misc, news, talk, & humanities) a moderated newsgroup is created by the same RFD/CFV (RFD: Request for Discussion, CFV: Call for Votes) process used to create or modify other newsgroups, with the difference that the RFD and CFV will include language specifying moderator(s) and moderation policy. (See the Guidelines) Non-Usenet news hierarchies
