Moderate

The moderate command allows you to act upon a moderated message contributed to a mailing list.

The options for the moderate command are to either approve or reject a contributed message to a moderated mailing list.

The basic syntax of the moderate command is:

moderate [approve | reject] moderate-id …

You can specify more than one Moderate ID on the moderate command line.

If you are a list administrator set to receive moderated message notifications, then you will receive email notifications of each moderated message. The notification message will include the moderate command you need to send back to approve or reject the messages. In addition, if there are any other pending messages, these will also be listed, at the bottom of the notification message, along with commands to approve or reject them.

Alternatively, you can schedule a message to be released at a specific time, or resubmit a message such that it sends again after a specified period of time. To schedule a message for release at a specific time, the syntax is:

moderate time [hh:mm | yyyy/mm/dd] moderate-id _

Thus, if you want to schedule a message to release today, you can specify the exact time you want the message to go out, in 24-hour format (24:00). If you want to schedule the message for release for some date in the future, you must specify the date in yyyy/mm/dd format, such as 2000/05/02 (May 2, 2000).

To resubmit a message for auto-approval on a periodic basis, the syntax is:

moderate resubmit numdays moderate-id _

In the above example, you would substitute "numdays" with the period of time you want to message to wait before sending itself out again. Thus, if you have a FAQ for your list, and the moderation notification for the FAQ indicates the moderate id is 2112, and you want the FAQ to be released every 30 days, you would use the following command:

moderate resubmit 30 2112

Example

By default, ListManager sends out MIME-digest moderated message notification. The digest consists of two parts: the first part is the notification with the message appended, and the second part is the message all by itself. By separating it into two parts, ListManager allows you to better perform the two functions necessary for moderation: 1) viewing the message to make sure everything looks okay, and 2) responding to ListManager to either approve or reject the message.

If the message contains mail merge tags, ListManager will merge them in prior to sending the moderated message notification to you. Thus, you can view the message exactly as it will go out to the list.

The following message is an example of a moderated message notification. The beginning of the message explains the purpose of the message, and at what time (if any) the message will be automatically approved. Commands for approving or rejecting this message via email are given. The message in question is then displayed. At the bottom of the email message, the currently pending moderated messages are summarized, and commands for approving or rejecting them in bulk is also given.

The following message destined for Bach has been received. This message requires your approval before it will be sent to the list.
If you take no action, this message will be automatically approved at midnight tonight.
---
To approve this message, send the following two line message to lyris@lyris.yourcompany.com
login (enter your password here)
moderate approve 103
---
To reject (delete) this message, send the following two line message to lyris@lyris.yourcompany.com
login (enter your password here)
moderate reject 103
---
From: michael@acme.com
Subject: Great new CD
that new recording of the Brandenburg Concerto is really good!
Michael Smith
-----------------------------------------------------
The following moderated messages are currently pending:
* Message 100
* Subject: Best recording available?
* Message 102
* Subject: My new piano
* Message 103
* Subject: Great new CD
---
To approve these messages, send the following two line message to lyris@lyris.yourcompany.com
login (enter your password here)
moderate approve 100 102 103
---
To reject (delete) these messages, send the following two line message to lyris@lyris.yourcompany.com
login (enter your password here)
moderate reject 100 102 103
You can configure ListManager to send out MIME-digest moderated message notifications or standard moderated message notifications by using the command line option "moderatenotification" with either old (standard) or new (MIME-digest).