XPost: alt.comp.software.thunderbird, news.software.readers   
   From: mariasophia@comprehension.com   
      
   J. P. Gilliver wrote:   
   >> Thanks for discussing this topic which it seems most of us haven't thought   
   >> much about as we rarely post to moderated newsgroups, and, for the most   
   >> part, when we did, it just worked. So we didn't think much about 'how'.   
   >   
   > Well, it seems clear to me that posts to a moderated newsgroup have to   
   > be sent to the moderator first (as emails?).   
      
   I agree. I think the flow is user > nntp server > email > moderator   
   but since privacy is paramount in any discussion of Internet posting,   
   I asked the following three questions moments ago on the peering ng.   
      
   Q1: Can users email a post to a moderated newsgroup with email privacy?   
   Q2: If using throwaway mail servers, what additional headers are required?   
   Q3: How does "typical" moderation work when the nntp header email is bogus?   
      
   >> I think, based on my tests, that the normal process is that the news server   
   >> admin decides which moderated groups he wants to peer and then he figures   
   >> out how each moderated group wants to be notified, where, it seems, as John   
   >> Gilliver noted, "in some cases there's a sort of central clearinghouse".   
   >   
   > It hadn't occurred to me that newsservers might do this; I had the   
   > impression that news clients did.   
      
   Me too! I wrote my own newsreader client which has no knowledge of   
   moderation, so when I sent my post to the moderated newsgroup using Jesse's   
   nntp server, it failed so I had assumed I didn't do the "email" right.   
      
   I didn't realize that in most (all?) cases, the newsreader (client) doesn't   
   treat a moderated newsgroup any differently than a non-moderated newsgroup.   
      
   Since privacy is the whole reason for me writing my newsreader (client), at   
   first I thought I needed to know what additional smtp-like headers I would   
   have needed to add, were we all openly know and reasonably easily accept   
   that most email addresses in nntp headers are bogus.   
      
   So the question, for me, initially seemed to be how do I sent an email from   
   a bogus account to a moderated newsgroup & yet to still maintain privacy.   
      
   Note that I know how to spoof headers to smtp servers, but also note that   
   this knowledge dates to the days when I set up my own SunOS smtp server.   
      
   That was decades ago and times have (vastly) changed in terms of privacy.   
      
   >> I think that address might be -moderated@moderators.isc.org   
   >> based on these tests with distinctly different results in that regard.   
   >   
   > When setting up Turnpike, some decades ago, I got the impression that   
   > the default for moderated 'groups _was_ some common address; the above   
   > rings a faint bell.   
      
   Yes. Me too that a faint bell is ringing that we "can" email to moderators.   
   We'd need to know what kind of "headers" those moderators need though.   
   And the email address.   
      
   But the additional issue is privacy.   
   So the email has to come from a real server but not look like it does.   
      
   Yuck.   
      
   > If the _client_ does it - which would seem a more efficient way, after   
   > all why involve the newsserver if that can be avoided - then the list of   
   > newsgroups must contain a flag for the ones that are moderated, so that   
   > the client knows to treat posts to it differently. (Posts _in_ it - i.   
   > e. from other posters, that have already been passed by the moderator[s]   
   > - can be treated the same as those in any other 'group.)   
   >   
   > As such, moderated 'groups must have some flag in the news client. I   
   > have a feeling there was such an indication in Turnpike. I've just   
   > looked at the properties of this 'group in Thunderbird, and I can't   
   > _see_ a "moderated" indication that isn't ticked, but maybe it only   
   > appears at all on moderated ones?   
   >   
   > ISTR there was also some mechanism for entering a different moderator   
   > from the default (@moderators.isc.org) one for 'groups that had a   
   > moderator whose address wasn't part of that organisation. (That -   
   > isc.org - is probably what I was [mis?]remembering as a central   
   > organisation - not really a clearinghouse.)   
   > []   
      
   I asked the three pointed questions above to the peering ng just now:   
    Newsgroups: news.admin.peering   
    Subject: How does "moderation" work with privacy in user Usenet posts?   
    Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2026 12:51:31 -0500   
    Message-ID: <10llff3$2qqc$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>   
   --   
   Had I known how it works, I would have written up a tutorial instead since   
   I'm a rare breed of person who delights in edifying everyone around me.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)