Even though all Big 8 Usenet newsgroups have a Charter, in an unmoderated newsgroup there is no way to ensure that posts to the newsgroup abide by the Charter. Everyone is on the "honor system". Unfortunately, that oftentimes results in a newsgroup becoming a dumping ground for spam, profanity, off-topic posts, and (in the case of rasn - rec.autos.sport.nascar) flaming/bashing/personal attacks directed towards other posters, race teams, drivers and/or their families as well as the sport's media.

rasnm (rec.autos.sport.nascar.moderated) was created to provide a forum where all topics related to NASCAR (and stockcar racing in general) can be discussed without these distractions. The tools exist to ensure that the discussion remains civil and follows the rasnm Charter guidelines via a team of human moderators and a robo-moderation software called S.T.U.M.P.

Before you are permitted to post directly to rasnm without having a moderator review each of your submissions, your address must be registered with S.T.U.M.P. Until this is done, all of your submissions will be kicked-out to a moderator for review. However, the first on-charter submission you make to rasnm will cause the moderator who receives your article to register your address with S.T.U.M.P. This wil get you on auto-approve status and your future submissions will go directly to the newsgroup, bypassing the moderators (unless an automatic trigger like profanity causes S.T.U.M.P. to kick-out your submission to a moderator for review). You will retain your auto-approve status indefinitely unless you demonstrate an unwillingness to abide by the rasnm Charter. Please note that any address you use to post to rasnm must be a respondable address, although it may be munged to defeat the spambots. If munged though, it must be decipherable by a human. For example, the address ward@burton.com could be munged as: wardNO@SPAMburton.com

Per the charter, the following are unacceptable:

1) Bashing
2) Flames
3) Trolls
4) Commercial and Money-Making Posts
5) Profanity/Racial Slurs
6) Crossposts
7) Binaries
8) Posts without a respondable email address
9) Quotes of more than a few lines of copyrighted material

Also, if the post is not related to NASCAR, stockcar racing or rasner activites, it is considered off-charter. However, it is impossible to anticipate every attempt at finding a loophole in the charter. Therefore, the spirit of all the rules should be followed as opposed to looking for leaks and loopholes.

For more information about what is and what is not on-charter, please refer to the Charter itself at http//rasnm.carracing.com

The first time you attempt to post to rasnm, the software recognizes that you have not yet registered, and forwards your article to a moderator to await your registration agreement. The software then e-mails you a copy of the charter along with a registration form and a posting FAQ. Once you register your agreement with the moderators to abide by the charter, the article posted to rasnm and you are added to preapprove status. Once you are placed on "preapprove" status you are essentially on the "honor system" to abide by the Charter. The articles you submit to rasnm are posted directly to the newsgroup without going through a human moderator for approval. However, the robo-mod software does scan each article before posting it to rasnm, looking for any keywords such as profanity. If a keyword is found, it will forward your post to a moderator for approval.

There are two other categories that moderators use in upholding the Charter: "hand-moderate" and "auto-reject". "Hand-moderate" status means that every article you attempt to post is forwarded to a moderator for approval. Posters who repeatedly violate the Charter guidelines may be placed on "hand-moderate" status until such time as the moderation team agrees that the poster should be returned to "preapprove" status. "Auto-reject" status means that the software will bounce all attempts by you to post to rasnm. This category is used in extreme cases where a poster demonstrates that they have no intention of abiding by the rasnm Charter, as well as for spammers and mail-bombers. "Auto-reject" requires a 2/3 majority vote of the moderation team before it can be imposed.

In addition to these tools, the moderators are also able to mark a specific thread for "hand-moderate" status if the topic or tone of the thread has become off-charter.

No, it does not mean that. Since 99.9% of the posters to rasnm are on "preapprove" status, the moderators do not see their posts until it is on the newsgroup. A poster on "preapprove" status could in fact begin to post off-charter material to the newsgroup. If that happens though, the moderators have the tools necessary to respond to these off-Charter violations - by either e-mailing the poster, placing them on "hand-moderate" status or placing them on "auto-reject" status.

Nothing. Responding to off-charter posts is the job of the moderation team. Responding to off-Charter posts with another post to rasnm serves only to perpetuate the thread, so let the moderation team do their job. Also note that the moderators do not normally respond publicly to off-charter posts, preferring to work quietly behind the scenes to make rasnm a better newsgroup for us all.

If however, you are concerned about a particular post or thread which appears to you off-charter, then by all means voice your concerns to the moderation team via e-mail at rasnm-mods@carracing.com Just realize that they don't need to get 50 e-mails telling them about a flame or spam post that they would have already seen anyway.

Yes and no. The rasnm Charter requires that the moderators treat all participants equally regardless of personal likes or dislikes, but it also instructs the moderators to evaluate each situation individually when responding to Charter violations.

What this means is that while two separate violations of the rasnm Charter may *appear* to be the same type of violation, the past history of the parties involved make each violation unique. Therefore the action taken by the moderators is determined by what the situation warrants. For instance, a violation of Charter by someone who has a history of abiding by the Charter in their posts may be ignored the first time. However, the same exact offense by someone who has repeatedly demonstrated their unwillingness to abide by the charter may be dealt with more strongly.

You may appeal decisions to the moderation team by emailing them at
rasnm-mods@carracing.com