The List Moderation Interface allows list moderators to moderate a list through the Web Interface, rather than using email. To start moderating a list, click on
List Moderation from the Toolbar. The List Moderation screen has a list selection area at the top. Click the drop-down menu to select the list you want to work with. Unlike the other list selection areas that show the lists for which the logged-in user is the owner, this one only shows the lists for which the user may act as moderator.
If you are moderator to more than one list, select the list you want to moderate. If there are no messages for you to moderate, the only action possible is to “refresh" using the
[Refresh] button, which looks for messages to moderate in the selected list.
The first column contains check boxes, one per message. The second column shows the Subject of the message. The third column shows the
From email address that sent the message. The fourth column shows the
Date in the message (not necessarily when the message was received). When
All Moderators is checked, two extra columns are displayed showing whether your account received the moderation request or other accounts did; if the
Moderator= keyword is set to "
All" with multiple moderators, both columns will be checked for all messages.
If you can tell at a glance which messages to approve or reject, or to change report criteria (using the search), simply check all the boxes corresponding to the messages you want to act upon.
Click the [Submit] button to perform the selected action on the messages and/or re-display the screen using the selected criteria.
Sometimes, you cannot immediately tell whether a message should be accepted or rejected without reading the contents of the message. To open the message contents, click on the subject of the message to display a new view that shows only one message.
If the message is multi-part (the example includes an HTML part), the part displayed is determined by your preferences. The main mail headers of the message are also displayed. If you wish to approve or reject the message, select the appropriate action and then press the
[Submit] button.
If the logged-in email address is an owner of the list, and if the "From" address of the message is a subscriber to the list, then the email address in the main moderation view is a link and the
Change Subscriber Settings option is shown on the message view. Both lead to the Interface for viewing and changing the subscriptions settings.
Both are convenient for lists that have Default-Options=REVIEW, with a policy of changing the subscription to "
NOREVIEW" after the first on-topic posting to the list. The moderator/owner may look at the message, decide that the subscriber may be removed from moderation, change the subscription settings to "
NOREVIEW", and then approve the message. Be sure to change the settings first because the message will no longer be displayed after it has been approved or rejected.
Note: After using the subscriber settings, always use the
[Back] button to return to the List Moderation Interface and not the "Back" feature of the browser. The "Back" feature of the browser may cause past approve/reject commands to be repeated, and errors will be displayed, complaining that the "cookies" do not correspond to any existing messages awaiting moderation. This does not do any harm at all to your list, but may still be disconcerting.
