Q: The 'moderators' file that comes with INN has only the following
lines:

	gnu.*:%s@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
	*:%s@uunet.uu.net

Should this be changed?  That is, if at Usenet site, does the news
admin have to configure this file in order for INN to email the local
posts to moderated newsgroups to the correct moderator?  In this case
then, every time a new moderated group is created, and/or changes its
moderator, it should be necessary to change this file.

A: Fortunately not! But also see below.

First of all, the default configuration says, "The moderator for
foo.bar is foo-bar@uunet.uu.net".  The good people at UUNET keep mail
aliases for all the moderated newsgroups so that as moderators come and
go, they will always forward to the correct person.

A: But it also wouldn't be bad ...

The default entry could/should be changed to:

*:%s@moderators.uu.net

as this points to several servers around the world which have the
records. This is good to balance the load on the servers. See the MX
entry to see what servers there are. Be careful with that change, as
the response packet is too large for a UDP response and the nameserver
has to switch to TCP connections in order to get the response;
unfortunately not all nameservers are able to do this.

Refer to the "How to Construct the Mailpaths File" FAQ, for an
explanation of the moderation mechanism.  This article explains the
'mailpaths' file from C News, which is similar in nature to the INN's
'moderators' file although with a different syntax.

The file 'moderators' could be modified, though, according to that
article.  For example, there are other sites that do what UUNET does,
and they might be closer to you.

Also, you might want to take a look to the inn.conf(5) man page to read
the 'moderatormailer' parameter description.

See also: #6.7, #5.32

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