Bernie Cosell <
bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
I can't remember: what are the rules for amending the charter to a
newsgroup? I want to make a very simple change [which I will post to the newsgroup for comments before I do], but I don't know if there is more to
it than that.
There is no formal means of amending the charter and no repository for charters, other than the charter archived with the RFD/CFV/RESULTS
postings. In practice, for an open group the charter is whatever the
group culture has settled on. For a moderated group, the moderator can
make changes. Posting them to the group for comments before you do is a
nice courtesy.
The simple change is that the charter specifies that lines
must be <72 characters long, in accordance with the email format RFC specifying maximum line length. Based on that rule, virtually every post I reject is because it has very-long lines. It seems that the very old Microsoft convention [newlines are actually "new paragraph" and lines can
be as long as needed] has prevailed for a LOT of clients and the posters probably don't even know what "line length" is [or how to do it in any convenient way other than by putting in newlines by hand]. Thanks!
Probably at least half of the posts rejected in the groups I moderate
are because of long lines, which is enforced by the software so the
posts get rejected before I even see them. I'm using Brian Edmonds
Robomod, and I'm really grateful that he's hosting my groups. When I
see a rejection notice for a post with long lines that might have been otherwise acceptable, I email the poster suggesting that they correct
the long lines and resubmit.
--
Kathy
Moderator or co-moderator for news.newusers.questions, news.admin.net-abuse.policy, news.announce.newusers.
comp.software.shareware.*, news.groups.proposals, news.admin.moderation, misc.writing.screenplays.moderated
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