Well, I don't know about good but I'll tell you what I do. :-)
When a message needs to be approved for distribution, the message
remains in the email queue on my server. Three reasons why I think this
is a good thing:
1. Maintains the integrity of the original message.
2. I can send warning/delayed messages while the message remains in
the queue. As an extension I can also return the message when it
has been in the queue long enough. This assume you have a queue
where a message "sit" until it is released.
3. I can send reminders to the moderator while the message remains
in the queue. As an extension, I can even change who the
moderator is and start the process again.
What I send to the moderator is a message that is multipart/mixed. The
first part begins with the command to release the message (but see
below), continues with an explanation of what is happening, and finishes
with the alternate commands (delete, reject, etc.). The second part is
a copy of the message. The message is setup so that the envelope from
is NULL and the message from points to where the command must go. The
explanation includes a pointer to a "help desk."
Moderators typically need only "reply" to the message, make one change
to the command, and the message will be released. Commands include an
internal identifier for the message and a one-time use token for a
modicum of security.
The change they have to make is change a keyword "no" to be "yes" in the
command. The reason for this is it never ceases to amaze me the broken
things that mailers do. I have had experiences where a moderator
message is returned, goes to the command server, but fortunately does no
harm since I require this change.
Jim
On Wed, 23 May 2001, Keith Moore wrote:
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 16:38:50 -0400
From: Keith Moore <moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu>
To: ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org
Cc: moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu
Subject: what's a good format for sending messages to a moderator?
I'm in the process of updating bulk_mailer, and the new version will have
a lot more ability to redirect messages based on several criteria:
whether the author is a subscriber, whether the author is on a list of
people with permission to post, whether there are too many recipient
addresses in the message header, whether the list address is in the
message header, and so on.
naturally, one of the options is to forward such messages to a moderator
who can then decide whether they're really okay for the list.
the question is: what format for such messages is the most compatible
with various user agents - to allow them to review the message and send
it back to the list if approved?
or, since my guess is that there isn't a way to do this that is supported
by existing user agents, perhaps a better question is this: would it
be worthwhile to define a standard profile of MIME to be used when
forwarding a message to a moderator for approval, and to send the message,
once approved, back to the list? would UA authors support such a thing?
Keith
p.s. what I'm doing currently is quite simplistic: prepend an
extra set of headers:
-----------------------------------------------
To: moderator
Subject: listname: reason for forwarding to moderator
Content-Type: message/rfc822
forwarded message goes here
-----------------------------------------------
and then it's fairly simple for a shell script to strip off those
headers and remail it back to the list. but I'm using MH.
I suspect most folks aren't using an interface that is so easily scripted...