On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 13:45:23 GMT, Gary E. Tayman wrote:
Pardon me if my questions sound really dumb, but who is the designated
moderator for this newsgroup and what powers does he have? ( Not a
criticism of the moderator, but just wondering if there are any real means
of enforcement.)

There isn't a moderator. Usenet is open to the big wide world.
Moderated groups are usually called something like whatever.moderated.

if there is anything I can do to help clean it up, I'd be happy to make an
attempt.

You could look at the headers, and work out the sender's ISP,
then complain to their abuse department (usually reachable by
abuse@their-isp's-domain) - on two grounds: one, if the group
you are reading has a charter you can complain that they have
broken it, assuming the charter says spam is unwelcome. Two,
you could complain about all the crossposting to irrelevant
newsgroups. You would have to forward a copy of the original
post or else quote the article ID.

It depends on the ISP as to how seriously they take it and
chances are the spammer will start up elsewhere even if his
account is closed, but if it makes you feel better that's
what you can do.


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