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WiscList : Moderating

If you have chosen a moderated disucssion mailing list, there are some things you should know about moderators and approving messages.

Approving Messages

You must be a list administrator to approve a message. There are two ways to approve messages: via the ListManager interface, or via email. When a user sends a message to the group, all list administrators receive a notification that a message needs to be approved. (You can turn off notifications, we'll get to that later). The email contains the headers and body of the post, but due to the complexity of some headers, it may be difficult to read. It is suggested that you view the message via the ListManager interface if you are having trouble reading it.

Approving Messages via ListManager (recommended)

  1. Login to ListManager as site administrator (see Logging in).

  2. Select the list you want to work with (see Selecting a list).

  3. Click on the Mailings tab. Click on Approval, then Need Approval. You will see a list of messages that need approving in the "Need Approval" table:



  4. Click on to open the Approval Wizard. This feature will show you each message one-by-one, allowing you to edit it, send it, reject it, and much more:



    1. From: indicates who sent the message

    2. Subject: subject heading of the message

    3. Date: date and time the message was sent

    4. Body: body of the message. The moderator can edit it.

  5. The other tabs are explained in the WiscList documentation. After the moderator has looked the message over and edited it, there are six options:

    1. Send Now - approves the message and sends it to the list.

    2. Delete Now - rejects the message and deletes it without notifying the sender.

    3. Delete with Feedback - rejects the message and deletes it, sending a message written by the moderator to the sender.

    4. Save - saves any changes to the message, but does not approve or send the message. The moderator can come back and send the message at any time.

    5. Save and Test - saves any changes to the message, and sends a test copy of the message to an email address of the moderator's choosing. The message can be approved or rejected at a later time.

    6. Cancel - cancels any changes made and does not send the message. Message remains in "Needs Approval" table.

  6. Each function should be self explanatory from this point forward, but if you are having trouble, you can reference the documentation.

Approving Messages via Email

  1. The email will contain a four-digit message ID number. Note this number.

  2. Compose a new email to lyris@lists.wisc.edu with any subject heading.

  3. In the message body, type:

    login [password]
    moderate approve [message ID]

    where [password] is your ListManager password for that particular list and [message ID] is the four-digit ID number.

  4. To reject the message, type:

    login [password]
    moderate reject [message ID]

  5. Send the message. You should receive a confirmation message shortly after.

  6. You will have to repeat this step for every notification you receive.

 

Delegating Moderators

The list administrator is, by default, the moderator of a moderated discussion mailing list. The list administrator can grant someone else priveleges to approve messages.

Creating a new list administrator

  1. Login to ListManager as a list administraotr (see Logging in).

  2. Select the list you want to work on (see Selecting a list).

  3. Click on the Utilities tab. Click on Administration, then Administrators, then List Administrators. You will see a "View List Admin" table displaying the current list administrators for that list.



  4. Click on the button. You will see this form:



  5. Enter the email address, name, and password for the new administrator. Then, click on to create the administrator.

Turning off moderation notices

If you or other list administrators are being flooded with moderating notices and want to turn off these notifications, follow these directions. It's important to realize that turning off moderating notices does not mean moderating is turned off. If no list administrator is receiving moderating notifications, the Need Approval table will need to be checked periodically for waiting messages.

  1. Login as site administrator, select the list you want to work with, and navigate to the "View List Admins" table (explained above).

  2. Click on the email address of the administrator you'd like to change.

  3. Click on the List Admin tab. You will see these options:



  4. Under Receive moderation notifications?, click "no". Then, click to save your changes. That administrator will no longer receive moderation notifications. The other options on this screen are expalined further in the WiscList Documentation.


Creating an additional list

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