This webpage explains the operation of uk.radio.amateur.moderated, a newsgroup within the UK hierarchy.

uk.radio.amateur.moderated is, as its name suggests, a moderated newsgroup. Postings made to the group are reviewed against the moderation policy before they appear on the newsgroup. Some of the moderation mechanisms are automated, others require human intervention. Details of how to contact the moderation team, and the list of messages pending, accepted and rejected are shown below.

Further general information on the UK hierarchy is available at: http://www.usenet.org.uk/

Charter for uk.radio.amateur.moderated

( This is a copy of the official charter published at http://www.usenet.org.uk/uk.radio.amateur.moderated.html#uk.radio.amateur.moderated )

uk.radio.amateur.moderated is for the discussion of amateur ("ham") radio, also known as the Amateur Radio Service, in the United Kingdom. Possible topics include past, present, and future operating practices; events; contests; past, present, and potential-future rules; power limitations; authorised frequencies; allowed modes and band plans (or other gentlemen's agreements) that govern how we are to operate; what constitutes the acceptable operation of amateur stations.

This newsgroup is only intended to supplement, not supercede, any other amateur radio newsgroups.

General communications law or government policy of various government agencies is also on-topic, as long as the discussion relates to amateur radio. Examples would be emergency communications, local antenna restrictions, and property deed restrictions applying to operation of amateur radio stations.

Discussion of other types of radio, such as Citizens Band, Broadcast, other Personal Radio Services, Commercial or Private Land Mobile, and Marine or Aviation services are off-topic, except when *directly* related to amateur radio. Similarly, discussion of methods violating applicable communications law and regulations concerning radio equipment or operations are off-topic.

Moderation Policy

(Last revised September 2017)

• Commercial advertisements
• Any kind of spam, including chain letters and money-making schemes
• Posts in HTML
• Binaries, apart from PGP signatures, X-Face headers, and other ancillary article meta-data
• Forgery of valid e-mail addresses
• Excessive morphing/nym-shifting
• Copyright violations. Pointers to news articles, blogs, etc. on this topic are welcome but are required to use only short extracts
• Personal attacks and flames, as defined by the moderation team
• Advertising specific items and/or services for sale that are not directly related to amateur radio, or are related to the submitter's regular business as a wholesaler or dealer
• Links to "objectionable" web content, including pornographic sites, sites encouraging illegal activities, or sites deemed unacceptable by the moderation team. The moderation team will cursorily check the contents of specific links to confirm on-topic content, but acceptance for posting does not imply endorsement or approval of the entire present or future contents of that web site
• Discussion of moderation decisions. See below for information on appealing moderator action

Moderators are not obliged to accept any post.

Moderators may use whatever tools they feel appropriate to ensure the smooth running of the group.

The moderators shall keep and publish regularly a detailed policy document detailing how moderation is currently performed.

Moderators should attempt to ensure that discussions can continue without undue delay, and should therefore attempt to make a decision on all posts within a few hours of submission.

There shall be a team of moderators between 2 and 10 in number. The current moderators will elect a chief moderator to carry out the moderation administrative housekeeping actions and act as spokeperson. Moderators may appoint their own successors and may remove any active or inactive moderator at their discretion.

The moderation policy and tools used will enforce the following guidelines:

• Crossposting is generally not allowed. Occasional administrative articles crossposted to rec.radio.info and/or the *.answers newsgroups (e.g., uk.answers, rec.answers, news.answers) may be permitted with prior coordination with the moderation team
• Postings must be in plain text. In particular no HTML or mixed text and HTML posts will be allowed
• No binary postings of any sort will be accepted. Exceptions will be made for cryptographic signatures and such
• Messages must not have a 'Followup-To' header that points out of uk.radio.amateur.moderated (other than to "poster")
• Messages must not continue a thread that has been "closed" by the moderators
• The moderators do not intend to rigidly enforce a "dirty words" list. Context and tone, as well as UK cultural assumptions, will be taken into account. The civil tone and language content of the newsgroup should aim for a dignified adult forum, one that can frankly address controversial topics, but one that is not childish or abusive, nor uses profanity for ad-hominem attacks or for shock value
• Occasional announcements of casual sales of amateur radio equipment that is owned for personal use will be permitted, provided that the subject lines are prefixed appropriately, e.g. [FS], [WTB], and [FA] for for-sale, want to buy, for auction, respectively. This permissive moderation policy towards for-sale items will be maintained provided that such submissions do not overwhelm uk.radio.amateur.moderated with advertisements, to the detriment of regular discussion articles
• The moderators intend to approve article submissions that contain discussion, news, and announcements about amateur radio, not necessarily have uk.radio.amateur.moderated be a newsgroup-based simulation or representation of what might actually be communicated by amateur radio. This is a subtle point, but essentially what is intended is that so-called "rag-chewing" (open-ended discussion) should be topically related to amateur radio, not just what could be legally discussed over amateur radio, to avoid overwhelming the newsgroup with what could be considered off-topic material.
• Humorous, frivolous or off-topic posts will sometimes be permissible if they are followups to an on-topic discussion, at the discretion of the moderators.
• Priority will be given to new, original, non-repetitive, and newsworthy material written primarily for a Usenet audience. Quotes and references to outside material may be provided to help support discussion, assertions, and understanding, but should be used sparingly. The source of any outside material quoted should be acknowledged.
• Signatures (sigs) at the end of posts must also comply with the moderation policy and in particular must not be abusive or defamatory or contain commercial advertising. The moderators may also at their discretion reject a signature which contains political slogans or solicits votes or support in respect of any election or campaign.

Posters who feel that their posts have been unfairly rejected, either for specific content or by a specific moderator, may appeal the decision. They may do so by contacting the moderators at the Administrative Contact address below. The moderators will discuss and vote on the appeal and respond within 14 days if the appeal is successful. The moderators will also reply within 14 days to unsuccessful submitters of any appeal that is on-topic, reasoned, civilly stated, and is not substantially an attempt to revisit the subject matter and arguments of a previous unsuccessful appeal.

The moderation panel makes decisions by consensus, or failing that by majority vote. The identity of the moderator responsible for a particular decision, and a moderators's vote in collective decisionmaking, are not revealed outside the panel - unless the moderator in question chooses to do so.

Submitters whose appeals have been rejected may seek redress of their ongoing grievance by appealing to the readers of the uk.net.news.moderation newsgroup. The uk.radio.amateur.moderated moderators would prefer that those wishing to appeal moderation decisions for uk.radio.amateur.moderated utilise that newsgroup's appeals process first, and only post to uk.net.news.moderation if that appeal is unsuccessful. Such publicly posted appeals should also contain the contents of the rejected (or approved) article in dispute and the full text of any replies from the moderators. Such appeals should also attempt to argue for or against a moderation decision based on the contents of the uk.radio.amateur.moderated charter and moderation policies. The moderators may choose not to publicly reply to complaints about moderation decisions posted to uk.net.news.moderation that are not based on the charter or moderation policies, are uncivil, that misrepresent facts, or are substantially an attempt to revisit the subject matter and arguments of a previous unsuccessful appeal.

Contacting the moderators

The moderators can be reached at
uram-moderators@chiark.greenend.org.uk
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/uram/

If there are problems contacting the moderators, then you may contact the moderators via postmaster (at) chiark.greenend.org.uk

A summary of approved and rejected posts is available at
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~webstump/l.uram

Moderators:

(Last revised, May 2017)

• Brian Howie, GM4DIJ
• Roger Hayter, GW8BFO
• Thomas Gray, HB9FUH
• Ian Clifton
• David Taylor GM8ARV

Matthew Vernon is not a moderator, but maintains the moderation machinery.

PGP key

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