'Moderated' means that all postings to a newsgroup go to a mail address instead of appearing in the newsgroup directly. The postings are then forwarded via email to a moderator, or group of moderators, or even an automated program, who decides whether to actually inject the article into the newsgroup or to reject it as not meeting guidelines spelled out in the group's charter.

The main purpose of newsgroup moderation is to enhance the quality of the discussions by preventing inappropriate postings to the newsgroup. Moderation should not be used to censor unpopular viewpoints, or those that the moderator simply disagrees with.

Moderation of sci.chem.organic synthesis will be lenient for any article in touch with the organic synthetic field. However, following postings will face rejection:

• Commercial posting lacking "current awareness character"
• Anonymous messages (no full name or e-mail address listed)
• Offensive language
• (Hidden) requests for illegal compounds

Moderators will not modify the body of the original message by adding comments or deleting lines in order to avoid any confusion. Articles not meeting this guidelines will be send to the originator with a short explanation of why it is not suitable for posting. No action will be taken for obvious off-topic postings.

Sci.chem.organic.synthesis was initially moderated by Koen Van Aken and Steve Patterson for a period of four months. Starting from November 1997, Professor Franklin (Georgia State University) took over the moderator job and has been moderating the newsgroup untill the end of 2005. The position of moderator of sci.chem.organic.synthesis is currently open.

The initial idea was to create a moderation team. Teunis vanRee, Frederic Denonne and Jeffrey Atkinson agreed to join the existing team. However, the experience learned that the job can be handled by one moderator. Please note that moderation is a volunteer position with no compensation other than a grateful community.

A facilitator provides additional services to the group and the moderation team by:

• maintaining the distribution script
• 'owners' of moderation submission, administrative and team mailing list addresses/facilities
• maintaining the official group archives or WWW access (future plan)