Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sundc!hadron!netxcom!stewart
From: stewart@netxcom.DHL.COM (John Stewart)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: moderated newsgroup with no moderator address
Summary: define backbone in /usr/lib/news/mailpaths
Message-ID: <3021@netxcom.DHL.COM>
Date: 18 Jan 90 19:27:45 GMT
References: <22310@usc.edu>
Reply-To: stewart@.UUCP (John Stewart)
Organization: NetExpress Communications, Inc.
Lines: 40

In article <22310@usc.edu> blackcat@neuro.usc.edu writes:
>This is supposed to be trivial ... but, when your newsgroup is
>marked as moderated ... but there is no moderator address ...
>and everyone posting to the newsgroup is supposed to be able to
>approve their articles (providing they can figure out how to do
>it) ... how does one approve their own articles?

DON'T APPROVE YOUR OWN ARTICLES -- unless you want to be flamed to a crisp. :-)

To find out more about moderated news groups you should read Gene
Spafford's regular postings in news.lists (also in news.groups and
news.announce.newusers).  Look for the subjects "How to Construct the
Mailpaths File ..." and "List of Moderators ..."  Among other things,
he says:

    If your system is running 2.11 news, posting to moderated newsgroups
    is done by mailing your submission to well-defined aliases at a nearby
    well-connected site.  The mail path to that site should be in your
    news library, in the file "mailpaths" -- there is no need to update
    a moderators file.  Information on how to construct the paths in the
    "mailpaths" file are posted monthly in a companion article.

    If you are NOT running 2.11 news, you are *STRONGLY* advised to upgrade
    to it so as to take advantage of this feature, as well as the numerous
    bug fixes and other enhancements.  

The use of the mailpaths file is described in the "USENET Version B
Installation" document under paragraph 3.17. "mailpaths."  It is better
described in Spaffords "How to Construct ..." article, which also
contains a directory of the "well-connected" sites.  For example,
this site (netxcom) uses uunet to forward articles to moderators.
So the file /usr/lib/news/mailpaths contains the line:

backbone	uunet!%s

So when someone posts to comp.sources.unix the contribution is sent to
uunet!comp-sources-unix.  uunet will then forward the message to the
actual moderator.

Hope this helps.