Soc.history.war.world-war-ii is a moderated Usenet newsgroup set up for the discussion of the era 1939-1945, but ranging as far back as 1918 and as far forward as the 1950's for discussion of events leading to the war and post-war events such as the occupation of Japan and Germany.
The moderators of the group will use their discretion in determining which articles are suitable for posting. In general, messages will be rejected for one of four reasons:
1.) Some messages cannot be posted because of technical difficulties. We cannot, for example, post non-text files (including attachments, messages with html formatting, images, uuencoding, binhex, and other formats). We also have problems with messages that quote more lines from preceding messages in a thread than they add in new material (that is, messages with more lines that begin with a ">" than lines without a ">"). These difficulties are a matter of limitations in the software used by the moderators to approve and post messages -- not a matter of choice on the part of the moderators. As a result, messages that are or contain non-text files or that have more than 50% quoted lines will be returned by e-mail to their sender with a request to modify them in order to eliminate the technical obstacles to their being posted.
2.) Some messages cannot be posted because they violate the civil, intellectually responsible atmosphere of the group. Messages that deny the existence of the Holocaust or attempt to discredit historical evidence of the genocide committed by the Nazis, for example, will be rejected by the moderators. Ad hominem attacks on other posters, messages likely to provoke a flame war, and derogatory remarks about entire races or ethnic groups will also be rejected. While we want people to feel that they can argue passionately over the real historical issues of World War II in the newsgroup, the moderators are committed to maintaining a polite, adult atmosphere at all times.
3.) Some messages cannot be posted because our group just isn't the appropriate venue for them. Queries for World War II veterans, for example, are not really appropriate to our group and should be directed instead to soc.veterans (since we generally do not have a lot of vets among our regulars). Because our regulars come from all over the world, we will also not accept announcements of regional events (including announcements of television or radio broadcasts). In addition, discussion of current politics and other off-topic messages are inappropriate and will not be posted. Feel free to consult the moderators in advance or check the group’s charter (available at http://gsteinbe.intrasun.tcnj.edu/ww2/newsgroupfaq.htm) if you are unsure as to whether a particular topic is appropriate for our group or not.
4.) Some messages cannot be posted because they violate basic Usenet etiquette. The moderators will, for example, reject all advertisements, spam, duplicate messages, blank messages, test messages, messages with excessively long signatures, messages that consist of long lists of URLs, replies that include no context about the question they answer (no quoting or summarizing of the preceding message), and other breaches of Usenet etiquette. Messages that are poorly formatted and difficult or confusing to read will be returned to the sender with a request to reformat and resubmit. Requests for replies by e-mail will not be allowed (unless private replies will be summarized and posted in the newsgroup for everyone to read). Anonymity and messages with invalid e-mail addresses will be allowed (as long as the anonymous messages abide by the other rules of the group), but the moderators are not responsible for messages that cannot be rejected or returned to their sender because their sender's e-mail address is invalid.
Any poster may appeal the rejection of an article. To do so, send
an e-mail to ww2-mod@acpub.duke.edu
and not to the rejecting moderator. Include the reason for the appeal and the entire text of
the rejection notice. The moderation panel, excluding the original rejecting moderator,
will consider your appeal. Decisions will be made by majority vote of moderators
(other than the original rejecting moderator).
Questions for the moderators should normally be sent by e-mail to ww2-mod@acpub.duke.edu
rather than to the newsgroup. If, however, you have a comment or question that
you think is of interest to all posters in the group, you may send it to the entire
group. Such messages will be posted only if they adhere to the general rules about
the appropriate tone of postings (i.e., no personal attacks and no attempts to incite flame wars).
Messages with questions or comments for the moderators should also have a subject
line that reflects the fact that they have administrative rather than historical content (e.g., "ADMIN: Missing
Posts?" or "MODERATORS: Question about Appeals").
NOTE: All messages received by the moderators are approved and posted in the newsgroup or are returned to their sender with a rejection notice. Some news servers, however, are not reliable about forwarding messages to the moderators properly. If a message that you have sent to the newsgroup does not receive a response from the moderators and does not appear in the archives of the group at http://groups.google.com/ within 48 hours of your sending it, it has probably been lost in cyberspace. If your news server regularly loses messages in this way, you may want to use the group's e-mail address rather than its news address to submit your messages. Simply send your messages for the newsgroup to ww2-sub@acpub.duke.edu. Sending your messages to this e-mail address instead of to the newsgroup itself will guarantee their proper forwarding to the moderators. (Please be advised that messages approved and posted in the newsgroup sometimes take as long as 48 hours to appear on your local news server; so, wait at least thee days before becoming concerned about a missing message.)
More information, including the charter and history of the newsgroup, as well as additional information about moderation policies, is available at http://gsteinbe.intrasun.tcnj.edu/ww2/newsgroupfaq.htm.