[As revised effective 15 August 2000, to allow crossposting.
 Crossposted newsgroups list has been moved to Posting Guidelines,
 per the charter change.]

MISC.KIDS.MODERATED CHARTER

Misc.kids.moderated is an inclusive on-line community of parents and
other people who are concerned with raising children.  Participants 
are invited to engage in open discussion of parenting issues and
exchange information about raising children, in an atmosphere of
civility, friendship, and fun.

Acceptable topics include but are not limited to questions about
parenting issues, tips on various aspects of child care, and sharing
of parenting experiences and insights.

Unacceptable posts include but are not limited to commercial posts,
website announcements, posts promoting or defending pedophilia, and
items cross-posted to groups other than those specifically named
in the Cross-posting Policy section below.

Posters are encouraged to state their own views and share their
experiences, but to refrain from making assumptions about the
motivations of other parents.  Posters are expected to maintain a
basic tone of civility.  Prohibited uncivil discourse includes but
is not limited to name calling.  Posters should avoid the derogatory
labeling of child-rearing practices as "child abuse."  Posters are
asked to keep in mind that every family is different.

Posts containing unsolicited advice questioning the right, worthiness,
suitability and/or readiness of any individual (or members of any
group) to parent are unacceptable in this newsgroup.  If an individual
chooses to post asking for advice on when or whether to have children,
respondents should be careful to address their comments only to the
original poster and not explicitly generalize to others in similar
situations.

Posts on certain topics require a brief subject tag in brackets at 
the start of the subject line so that readers can easily identify 
those posts -- for example, [FS] to designate "for sale" notices. 
If posters do not include tags on posts about these specific topics, 
moderators will add the tags as required. The list of topics requiring 
a subject tag is maintained by moderators; the moderators will make 
all possible effort to keep the number of required tags to a bare 
minimum. The list of required tags is posted regularly to the group 
and available on the group website <http://www.misckids.org>.  This 
posting also includes a list of optional tags posters may wish to use 
on their own. Some tags are used by moderators only; for example, 
[ADMIN] and [FAQ] are used to denote administrative and informational 
posts.

Commercial Policy:

Commercial postings are not acceptable, whether they are initiated by
established businesses or enterprising individuals.  Posters may
include their business address and URL in a .sig of reasonable length
(8 lines or less).  Also, posts offering occasional "for-sale" used
childcare items from individual posters are permitted; such posts
should be tagged [FS].

Moderation Policy:

Misc.kids.moderated shall employ a combination of human and
robomoderation.

1) The robomoderator screens every article submitted to
misc.kids.moderated.  It returns any article that falls into any
of the following categories, automatically sending a note explaining
the reasons for rejection:

     A) Articles that contain original text of more than 75 characters
        per line
     B) Articles crossposted to newsgroups not allowed for crossposting
        by the moderators (posting guidelines will specify newsgroups  
        allowed for crossposting).
     C) Articles that contain more than 400 lines
     D) Encoded binary files (except PGP and other short digital
        signatures)
     E) Other non-plaintext formats at the moderators' discretion
     F) Attachments to posts

2) The robomoderator searches each submission for certain trigger
words, forwarding any submissions containing these trigger words to
the panel of human moderators for review.  The list of trigger words
is maintained by the moderators, who modify the list as needed.

Trigger words present in the text of messages may indicate off-topic
posts, topics requiring a subject tag, or issues that have proven
sensitive in the past (thus requiring attention by moderators).  For
example, "MAKE MONEY FAST" is likely to indicate an off-topic spam,
"for sale" indicates a topic for which a subject tag is required,
and "child abuse" indicates a sensitive topic.

3) Items with no trigger words are then checked to see whether the
poster is on the "express posting list."  Items submitted by posters
not on the express posting list are referred for moderation by the
panel, while items submitted by posters on the express posting list
are posted without further moderation.

Posters desiring to join the express poster list can register at
www.misckids.org/express.html or by sending an e-mail to:
request-express@misckids.org.  In either case, the prospective 
express poster will be asked to state explicitly that they agree to 
follow the posting guidelines.  Posters who have not yet registered will 
receive an invitation to join after they have made four consecutive 
acceptable posts.  Posters preferring never to use the express posting 
mechanism need not register.  Express posters can designate a particular 
post for hand moderation by using the word 'handmod" anywhere in
their post.

In the case of a serious security breach on the express poster list,
the moderators may choose to either suspend additions to express
posting or switch the group to temporary hand moderation for a
period of up to two weeks.

4)  If a moderator accepts the article, it is posted to the newsgroup.
If the moderator feels the article should be rejected, that moderator
writes a comment explaining why and re-queues the article for review
by a second moderator.  If the second moderator concurs that the
article should be rejected, that moderator rejects the post, causing the 
robo-moderator to send a notice to the poster.  If the second moderator 
feels the post is acceptable, it is posted to the newsgroup.  Any 
moderator who is unsure about the appropriateness of a post may poll 
the moderation board for additional opinions.

5)  The moderation panel may cancel articles that have been posted to
misc.kids.moderated due to forgery, errors in the moderation script,
or other technical problems.

In cases where a poster using the express-posting mechanism violates
the posting guidelines, the moderators respond in a manner that seems
appropriate to the level of offense: they may send a note of reprimand
to the poster, issue a public disavowal that the article does not meet
posting guidelines, and/or revoke express-posting status for an
appropriate probationary period.  In rare cases where an express-
posted article contains flagrant violations of the charter, the
offending article may be canceled by the request of three moderators,
subsequently confirmed by a two-thirds vote of the available
moderation board.  Flagrant violations include posting private
information (like phone numbers) where the victim objects or where
there is evidence of hostile intent, newsgroup flood attacks or other
net abuse, posts promoting pedophilia, and off-charter posts which,
through apparent malice, circumvent the normal functioning of the
robomoderator.  Posters registering for express poster status agree to
this provision, along with the group's other posting guidelines, as a
condition of becoming an express poster.

The moderators may, at their discretion, substitute or supplement
other technology for cancels if and when such a new technology proves
to be more practical.

6) The number of active moderators in the moderation panel is
initially ten, with a minimum of 7 active moderators at any time.
Additional moderators may be recruited from the readership as demand
warrants.  If a moderator wants to retire from the moderation panel,
he or she must make a public statement at least one month prior to
retirement so that a replacement moderator may be found.

The moderation board consists of the moderation panel plus additional
advisors, who are available to provide non-binding advice to any
moderator who requests it while deciding the disposition of a
borderline post.  The number of advisors is no more than half of the
number of moderators.

When vacancies occur, anyone may volunteer to become a moderator or
advisor with the consent of more than half of the current moderation
panel.  Moderators or advisors may be removed by a vote of
two-thirds of the moderation panel.

Moderators may request to be put on inactive status due to family
or work demands, and one of the advisors may serve as a substitute
moderator during the leave of absence.

7) All changes in policy are decided by a two-thirds majority of the
moderation board.  Before making any major changes, the moderators
will conduct a two-week public comment period on the newsgroup at
large.