Collaborative KillFile Help

The collaborative KillFile is one way moderators make unwanted messages un-viewable. Moderators have permissions to add, delete, and modify KillFile rules.

The KillFile page has three sections:

1. The Display section displays the current set of KillFile rules.
2. The Add Rule section lets the moderators add new rules.
3. The Command section allows the moderators to carry out various commands, which manipulate the status of the posts.

Fields

KillFile rules match a post by specifying various patterns on fields of the post. In most fields the patterns are specified as MySql regular expressions. The fields are:

• Crossposts (not in): This is a list of newsgroups from which crossposts are allowed (the KillFile kills crossposts NOT IN this set). This should not include alt.suicide.holiday. Currently each post may only crosspost to one additional newsgroup besides ash. The format of this field is a set of newsgroup names separated by commas. This is the only field which is not specified as a regular expression. An example for a value of this field is : alt.suicide.methods,alt.support.depression . Note that there should be no spaces in the field.
• Subject: The subject of the post.
• From: The author of the post, including email and nickname. Note that this field is modified such that it is always in the format: "nick <email>". If you wish to define a rule referring to the original formatting of the From field, you should use the "Rest of header" field which contains the original "From" header.
• Organization
• Rest of header: All other fields of header.
• Body : The body of the message

Display Section

In the display section the KillFile rules are printed out. Each rule is inside a box with a different background color. Each rule may refer to several different fields. Posts match a rule only if they match all fields of that rule (i.e., an AND over the fields). Posts will be killed if they match at least one of the rules (i.e, an OR over the rules).

There are two buttons for each rule, one for deleting the rule, and the other for updating it. Note that although each rule may refer to several different fields. fields cannot be added to or deleted from an existing rule. If a field needs to be added or deleted, you must add an entirely new rule and delete the old one.

Add Rule Section

Fill out any number of fields you want. Once the "Add" button is pressed, a new rule is added.

Command Section

There are various commands the moderator may activate:

• Filter: This activates the KillFile on all viewable posts, making all matching posts unviewable (killed). Note that this does not affect posts which have been previously killed, so if you made a mistake which caused too many posts to be killed, you cannot unkill them using this command.
• Unfilter: This command makes all killed posts viewable.
• Viewable: This is mainly for debugging.
• Show killed, Show viewable: Lets the moderator see the result of filtering by viewing all killed posts or all viewable posts.

When is the KillFile invoked?

Newly fetched posts will be killed automatically when they match the KillFile. Any update to the KillFile will take affect when new posts are received, however, changing the KillFile does not kill existing posts. Once the KillFile rules are changed, the moderator may need to manually to perform the "filter" command, to KillFile existing posts (i.e. posts which are already viewable by users).

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