To the Moderator:
I have been an on and off again user of mtm for many years.
I recently posted an article and have no idea how long it
takse to pass through modertion and get posted.

I went to the web site noted as a footnote on Dick's posts
and cannot find pertanent information. Do I have to be
granted some kind of permission to post a question to this
group?

Tia
Neil Baker
neil[at]neilbbaker.com

Moderator:
It usually gets posted once a day, sometimes twice.
Sometimes I judge at Beer/Mead/Cider competitions on
a weekend and miss Saturday.

AskTax.org was taken done when I moved to Panix. It
will be up soon.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

MTW <mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

In addition to your formatting program, perhaps there's also
software out there that will strip out MIME and HTML.

Stu

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Dick Adams <rdadams[at]panix.com> wrote:

- quote -

Maybe not a good idea.

Most folks ISP's assign an IP address via DHCP which can
change from time to time (or even be different for every
use) rather than a static IP address which is always the
same. Also many folds may post from various locations -
home, work, traveling, etc - all with different and ever
changing IP addresses.

--
-Ernie-

Moderator:
This is a resolvable issue.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Some form of robo-moderation is probably a good idea.

But, is it practical to impose a relatively short 60
character per line limit when it appears that a large
variety of different email "clients" are in use??? If it is
necessary to impose a limit, may I suggest doing a survey as
to what limit would generally work.

Also, you didn't mention HTML messages. Aren't these a
hassle?

MTW

Moderator:
I have been formatting at 60 cpl for at least 11 years.
HTML has always been a problem and so has MIME. My
preference is they just disappear.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Dick Adams <rdadams[at]panix.com> wrote:

- quote -

Sorry I haven't been able to comply. I always heard that 72
characters was standard for usenet, but my news program will
not go below 65 characters per line.

What's your best suggestion to make your life easier under
these circumstances?

Stu

Moderator:
That's why I have a reformatting program.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

"Dick Adams" <rdadams[at]panix.com> wrote:

<snip> B Create a login ID process that will auto-recognized
- quote -

Dick, all of the proposal sounds reasonable, but this
particular requirement may be an issue. Not all of us have
ISPs who provide a dedicated IP address.

Also...I presume that you will obfuscate any contributor
email addresses to minimize address harvesting.

Hank Murphy
speaking only for myself

Moderator:
The IP address is a resolvable issue.

I proposed obfuscating emaill address within the last four
years and it was not well received. Thankfully Google has
gone ahead and done it. Please note my choice of penalty
for spamming is a .45 caliber sexual sterilization in a
remote desert location about 10am in the morning.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

- quote -

The vast majority of ISPs serve IP addresses dynamically,
which means your IP address will likely change frequently.

Plus, users who sit behind a NAT box (almost anyone who
works at a decent-sized company) will all appear to have the
same IP address.

- quote -

Who are "non-users"? If I am reading the newsgroup, am I not
a user? If I am not reading the newsgroup, I obviously won't
see the ads anyway.

Are you going to embed ads inside of "non-user" posts? This
would be a usenet no-no.

- quote -

Will I still be able to post from Google Groups or other
news readers? Or only from the web site?

Moderator:
One problem with marriage is that almost everyone gets
treated better before marriage than afterwards. Susan
is an exception. Robo-moderation is unlike marriage in
that it can live with dynamic IP addresses, PGP's(?), etc.

There is absolutely no advertising in the newsgroup <period)
Any advertising will be on the website and whether or not
you go there is a matter of personal choice.

It is my expection that how you do what you do will not
change, but there will be more options available.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

On Jul 25, 6:22 pm, Dick Adams <rdad...[at]panix.com> wrote:

- quote -

I have no serious problems with the suggestions. My linewrap
works fine so I don't need a limit on line length. I can see
remembering to hit Carriage Return .. er Enter .. could be a
challenge for some of us but I've eventually coped with
similar rules in the past.

Regards,
Bill

Moderator:
Line wrap becomes a problem in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, ....
generations of replies. Unlike the moderator of
misc.legal.moderated who sends rejection notices of
under-quotation, over-quotation, and a varity of other
idiosyncratic nuances, I always felt rejection notices
were a wast of my time and chose to run a formatting
program to avoid the line wrap problem.


<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

- quote -

Most or all of the moderation is handled by a piece of
software. In the robomoderated groups I run, there's a list
of frequent contributors with a history of sending in
reasonable messages whose stuff is approved automatically.
Everything else typically goes to manual moderation, perhaps
after a pass through a spam filter to discard the obvious
spam.

Robomoderation is a well-established technique that I
invented in 1994 for the soc.religion.unitarian-univ
newsgroup. It works very nicely both to minimize moderation
delays and to decrease the load on the human moderator.

Note to the human moderator: if JIK has any trouble setting
you up, I'd be happy to add you to the setup that runs
soc.religion.unitarian-univ, misc.transport.air-industry,
and some other groups.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl[at]iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, ex-Mayor
"More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.

Moderator:
Thank you for the kind offer.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Dick Adams <rdadams[at]panix.com> wrote:

- quote -


Autorecognizing IP addresses is fine, but what would happen
if my dynamic IP address changes? Some people's IP changes
rarely, other's rather frequently, I'm told.

--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

Moderator:
You would get treates just as you are treated today.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Dick Adams wrote:

- quote -

Explain "robo-moderation".

C$,
H

Moderator:
This must be an Alabams Problem. <g> Robo is short for
robot which is meant to imply automatic (if a submission
meets certain certeria). I do not know the criteria at
the moment, but it will be disclosed on a timely basis.

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

Let's start with the makor problems I encounter:
1. Forgeries by sociopathic trash;
2. Spam and advertisements in the guise of taxation
3. Line wrap

What is proposed:
1. Go to robo-moderation by the grace of Jonathon Kamens
2. Build a website that will
A. white list known, trusted users;
B Create a login ID process that will auto-recognized
white listed users by IP address;
C. Limit reaponses to 60 characters to line;
D. generate advertising revenue from non-users; and
E. Things yet to have been thought of or suggested.
3, I modify the posting software ro it is useable by
multiple people without my idiosyncracies.

All constructive ideas and criticisms will be appreciated.
I've been running tis for 11 years so you should know that
I am open to change - except I don't feel any responsibility
for sending rejection notices except as a professional
courtesy!

Dick

<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The above is intended for educational purposes only. > << It does NOT constitute legal OR professional advice. > << It cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of > << the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed > << upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2006) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >