Welcome New Sources Moderator,

	What follows is a description of the moderator starter kit which is
intended to get you on your way.  I hope that you can find some of it useful... 

New Sources Group Moderator Checklist:

	1. Get the software needed to get you started.
           If you are reading this then you can check off number 1...

	2. Send mail to Gene Spafford (spaf@cs.purdue.EDU) informing 
           him of the two mailing addresses that you would like to have
           listed in the "List of Moderators" posting.  You will need
           to specify an address where you would like to have submissions
           to your group sent and and address for general comments and 
           requests.  They can be the same but some moderators have found
           that it is better to advertise the addresses as two separate
           addresses.  If you want them the same then that can be done
           with local aliasing giving you more flexibility in the future.

	3. Sources groups tend to be archived around the world.  Archiving
           is an important part of the job.  This is not to say that you
           need to do it personally but it is up to you to get an archive
           site or three to agree to archive your newsgroup.  In this manner
           you can direct your readership somewhere in the event that a
           posting gets lost enroute.  Sources are a resource that needs
           to be available when needed, not just when posted... A good 
           place to start is to look at the Introduction postings of other
           sources groups.  Send mail to the archive administrators listed
           in those postings asking them if they would be interested in
           helping you out.

	4. Please read the rfc.XXXX document in the docs directory. This
           is currently an in-progress copy of an FYI/RFC that a few of
           the sources newsgroup moderators are working on.
    
	5. After you have decided on the INFormational postings that you
           will be posting, send email to jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan Kamens) 
           so that he can list your INF postings in the "List of Periodic 
	   Informational Postings"

WHAT IS HERE:

This package supplies a set of tools for packaging, posting, verifying
and archiving submissions. There are many other pieces of software that
could help you in moderating your group. Chances are that there is much
missing from this starter kit.  If you find that there is something that
really needs to be included here, please let me know so that it can be
included for future new moderators.  Thanks.

What follows is a snapshot of what is used in comp.sources.misc.  It is
provided as an example of how it is being done in one sources group. It
is not meant to mean that this is the only way to do it because it isn't.
You will encounter many things that "you would do differently".  Remember
it is your newsgroup and the specifics are up to you and your readership.

To begin with, I have a directory where I do all my work for moderation
called /u1/csm.  Under that are 5 subdirectories.  Here is an lc of that
directory.

: /u1/csm:
Directories: 
    INF    bin    docs   queue   src

Files: 
    .index .issue README

The .index and .issue files are used by postit, the posting software 
that I use to record the last articles of each type posted.  These 
files are also used by post, the posting software written by Rich Salz.

The INF directory contains the template files for the INFormational 
postings that I post at the beginning of each new volume.  You will 
want to review/replace those files to suit your newsgroup. There is a
mail file, "sites", where I store mail I receive and send to the 
comp.sources.misc archive site administrators. Call it "cover
my a**"... :-)  I find it useful to keep that information around and
separate form other newsgroup related mail.  The sites mailbox has
helped me a few times...

: INF :
Files: 
    README inf1   inf2   inf3   inf4   inf5   sites

The bin directory stores c.s.misc related tools. shar, makekit and rkive
tools have been placed in a system directory for general use and do not
appear here.

postit, the posting program I use and the test posting program, imdpost
are stored here but have been removed since you will need to edit postit.c
before installing it. I use Cnews here and use force.batch to push out
postings to uunet and connected sites without having to wait for the scheduled
push.  If I screw up and want to quickly stop the queuing of a posted article,
I use cleanup to assure that the files are not batched for transfer. When I
need to requeue the files for transfer, I use bldbatch.  This does not happen
often but when it does, it is good to be able to recover from an error...:-)
Having a site to post from where you have root access is very helpful for
correcting errors before the get distributed off your system.  It is not
required, but helpful... :-)

bld_patchlog is used for building a .patchlog INF posting.  The archive tool
'rkive' will build a .patchlog automagically as long as the headers have been
added to the posting.

doarchive was used for building a INF archive listing of available software.

new_volume is used when I want to create a new volume.  You will want to edit
this one. It is very useful in making the transition to a new volume much 
easier.  

watch_csm is something I use to monitor news for articles where people 
mention comp.sources.misc of my name... I can't read every newsgroup so
this helps make it look like I do... :-) 

You will need to edit these as I have not done a very good job of making
them generic...  They are here only for giving you an idea of what you
may want to do.  

: bin :
Files: 
    bld_patchlog* bldbatch*     cleanup*      doarchive*    force.batch*
    new_volume*   watch_csm*

The docs directory contains the documents that you will definitely find
useful. There is an rfc being developed that discusses our job. archie.1
is the current manual page for the archive information service archie.
Soapbox is the rationalization as to why work is proceeding with the
rfc and why you should contribute your ideas to it. Uunet.archives is a
discussion of how I archive c.s.misc on uunet and some things to consider.

: docs :
Files: 
    archie.1       rfc.XXXX       soapbox    uunet.archives

src has the software tools that you will need to get started.  There are
two different sets of posting software, post written by Rich Salz and
postit written by Kent Landfield.  The choice of which to use is up to
you.  The difference is that post.c is more bare bones and postit.c has
just about everything in it.  Which is better is a matter of taste.
Post.c was the basis of all the posting software currently in use.  I 
wrote postit.c because I was upset at all the mistakes that I was initially 
making as well as I am an extremely lazy person.  The intention was to 
make this software dummy proof. The dummy was me... :-)  There are currently 
two different types of shars available, cshar and shar3.49.  I like to use
cshar except under certain situations when extremely large files are 
submitted.  I encourage you to setup a local hierarchy that gets distributed 
nowhere and test postings to that group. I made the hierarchy imd and the
group I use for testing, imd.sources.  I am including the sources for
rkive that automates the work of archiving.

: post :
Directories: 
    cshar    post     postit   rkive    shar3.49

The queue directory is my working queue. When I receive mail for c.s.misc,
I store the packages in this directory for unpacking and minimal testing.  
After I post software, I run rkive locally to assure that a mistake has 
not been made.  I have rkive archive the posting here both by archive-name
and by volume issue. Another cover my hindend. :-) The original submitted 
articles are moved to .junked for about a week as I assure that there is 
not any controversy over a posting.  A 'find' in a crontab entry keeps the
.junked directory from growing too large.

: queue :
Directories: 
    .junked

Files: 
    .articles .q

			General Notes:

I suggest that you also set up a mail responder for your submission address.
This assures the author/submitter that their submission has been received and
is in the queue somewhere.  This is as much public relations as it is 
notification.  By recognizing their submission, it gives you time to fit it
into your schedule.  If you do not respond then you will soon be receiving 
mail asking if you got their submission and where is it in the queue.  Better
to do it up front than have to deal with it later.  No moderator likes to
see "I sent it to c.s.whichever two weeks ago and I have heard nothing since.
Did the moderator die ?" messages on the net...

If you want to make some changes to your newsgroup that you feel will help
it be a better resource for all, don't be afraid to.  If you have some question
as to which way to go or how to implement an improvement, post a request to
comp.sources.d and ask.  Don't be afraid to ask the net.  The people are
helpful when given a chance.  Again, part of doing a good job means keeping 
your readership happy.  Any time you can involve them in the process of 
improving the newsgroup you are better off doing so.  Please remember, you 
are the moderator and regardless of what differing opinions may exist on a 
topic, you have the final say.

I would suggest that you use the newsgroup comp.sources.d for announcements
of short term interest. Messages such as "I will be at USENIX next week" really
have no place being posted to the newsgroup and archived.  Remember that all
articles posted to your newsgroup will be archived somewhere.  Who really cares
in a year that you took a vacation the previous September ... Postings to
comp.sources.d keeps the community informed while not cluttering up archives
worldwide with junk files. 

This ends the preaching :-).  Please take the time to read through the sources
for post and postit and decide which you want to use.  Get intimate with how
those sources work.  The chance are that you will need to modify them slightly
to suit your needs.  The cshar and shar3.49 and rkive sources need not be
studied too deeply other then how to use them.  They should not require that
you know the sources, just how to configure and use them.  Please read the
rfc.XXXX in the docs directory. It will explain the headers and may answer
some questions you may already have.  

If you have any questions, feel free to send me some mail.  If you have any
suggestions as to how to make this starter kit better, please let me know
as you will be helping the new moderator that will be coming behind you.

				-Kent+
---
Kent Landfield                   INTERNET: kent@sparky.IMD.Sterling.COM
Sterling Software, IMD           UUCP:     uunet!sparky!kent
Phone:    (402) 291-8300         FAX:      (402) 291-4362
Please send comp.sources.misc-related mail to kent@uunet.uu.net.
