Moderating messages sent to the list
When a list is moderated, all messages have to be approved of by one of the moderators before being distributed to the list. After sending a message to a list, subscribers are automatically notified by email that their message will be moderated. As for moderators, they also receive a notice message from Sympa, which includes the message to moderate.
You can perform moderating tasks either by email, by answering the messages received from Sympa, or through the mailing list web interface. To do that, click on the 'Message' link in the 'Moderate' submenu: you are brought to a page that displays all messages to be moderated (the most recent messages are on top of page). To read a message, click on its subject.
You have two options:
- authorize the message distribution on the list;
- reject the message and notify sender: when you reject a message, it is better to notify its sender...
All moderators can decide to distribute a message or not. However, the first moderator to process the message will carry the day. You will be notified by Sympa if you try to process a message that has already been moderated. When there are several moderators, it is easier to moderate messages from the mailing list web interface: thus, you will be able to view all messages remaining to be moderated.
Whatever the date and time of moderation, the date and time of sending of the message do not change. Thus, if the distribution of the message is allowed with a lot of delay, it is possible to receive a message dated January 1st on December 31st!
In case the message was rejected with a notice, the subscriber who had sent it is notified by email. You can customize the message he/she gets.
Checking the 'Reject without notification' checkbox allows you to prevent the message author from receiving a notification.
Checking the 'Add to blacklist' checkbox both skip the rejection notification and adds the message author to the list own blacklist. You can manage the blacklist via the 'edit blacklist' button at the bottom of the page.
If you wish to customize the rejection message that is sent to a message author, you can do so via the 'Manage rejection messages' button. The message management page will let define a set of rejection messages and define the default one.
Reminder: you can add or remove moderators through the list administration module. To do that, from the list information page, click on 'Admin', on 'Edit list config', and then on 'List definition'.
It is also possible to process messages after their distribution on the list; this can be useful when a list is not moderated. If you want to delete a message, search for it in the online message archive and click on the 'Tag this mail for deletion' button in the upper right corner of the message. A confirmation message displays; click on 'OK'. The message will be deleted after a few seconds. Be careful: this operation is irreversible!!! If you delete a message, you will not be able to retrieve it.