The NoCeM FAQ. V0.93

I intend this to be a net-developed project. The client code that I have written is intended to demonstrate the standard-- eventually I hope people will rewrite and change it as needed.

Part I -- About the NoCeM concept itself.

A: NoCeM (pronounced No See 'Em) may well be:

• A solution to the spam problem.
• A solution to the spam-cancel problem.
• A way to "edit" Usenet if that's what you want.
• A way to have others "edit" Usenet for you, if that's what you want.
• A way to have no one alter what you see on Usenet, (to the degree that this is possible.)

A: There are many people out there with opinions on what should be posted to Usenet. Some have very widespread support, such as spam cancellers. Others, such as those who would like to silence a point of view, are not supported. There are many situations that fall between those two.

Under the NoCeM model, any person on the net who sees something they think shouldn't have been posted can issue a NoCeM notice. However, just as with any other type of Usenet message, the weight the notice carries will be no greater than the poster's net.reputation. If people agree with the issuer's criteria AND also feel that this person is a good judge of that standard then they will accept his/her notices. Of course the opposite holds true.

When a NoCeM notice is accepted by a user it will perform a pre-specified action. Most likely it will mark that message as read in the user's newsrc. However, it could also be configured to: remove that message from the news spool, mark that message TO be read (if you always want to read what some person suggests), or display a random message from the list (to check up on an issuer). While I would prefer to have this operate on a per-user basis, if it's your machine, it's your decision.

A: Unfortunately, yes. As has always been true, upstream feeds and your sysadmin always can control what you see. While I would discourage admins from applying NoCeM notices on their spools, it's their machine and it's their right to choose what traffic they carry. If you feel your admin/feed is exerting too much control over what you are seeing, then you probably should be seeking a new source of information.

A: The NoCeM standard specifies that all notices must be public key signed in order to be accepted. You use a special keyring to control who you give access to.

A: As I see it, there are 3 major uses for this right now.

1. Spam/EMP's can be marked for "hiding". Such notices should carry "Action: hide" headers, have "@@NCM" in the subject, and be crossposted to alt.nocem.misc.
2. Spews can be dealt with the same way-- "Action: hide", "@@NCM" in the subject, and it should go to alt.nocem.misc and the newsgroup (at a minimum). This should also carry a "Newsgroup:" ncm header.
3. A person can make him/herself a "pseudo moderator" of a group, by issuing notices just for one group. If you wish to do this:
   1. You should only mark articles for that group,
   2. you should post it with a subject of "@@newsgroup" (*NOT* @@NCM),
   3. it should be posted to alt.nocem.misc (and the newsgroup, if its denizens want it there.) and
   4. it should carry a "Newsgroup:" ncm header.
   
   This can be accomplished in two ways-- the usual "Action: hide" notices, or with "Action: show" notices. Using the latter will mark all messages in that newsgroup as read, except for those in the notice. (Currently, the "show" method is severely limited.) A future implementation will aim at special features of newsreaders, such as nn's .nn/select file.

Part II -- So you want to receive NoCeM notices???

To get and use Moose's client, you need:

• MIT PGP 2.6.* or PGP 2.6i. 2.6ui won't work well.
• To have a copy of Cancelmoose's public key (it's in the servers).
• To be able read alt.nocem.misc.

At the moment, there are no active efforts to add NoCeM capabilities to non-unix newsreaders. (although a number of authors did express interest.) If you would like to see this, contact the authors of your newsreader.

Part III -- So you want to issue NoCeM notices???

• You must get and learn to use PGP.
• You should create a key pair, and put your public key in the keyserver. All notices must be signed.
• You might wish to consider getting multiple key-pairs, if you will be issuing:
  • highly experimental notice types.
  • notices with very disparate functions. (pseudo-moderating a newsgroup, and 'hiding' offensive messages.)
  • automatic notices from a multi-user machine (higher risk of divulging the secret key.)
• You should post a statement to alt.nocem.misc, stating what your intentions are, and what criteria you will use to compose your notices. This should be crossposted to any other relevant newsgroups. It should be signed with your PGP key. Eventually, this statement will become part of a FAQ.
• The notices should start with "@@BEGIN NCM HEADERS" on a new line. Anything before this will be ignored by the client. Any line that starts with a # will be ignored.
• Next should be header lines. These should minimally include:
  • Version:
  • Issuer:
  • Type:
  • Action:
  • Newsgroup:
  • Count:
  • Notice-ID:
• Next should be "@@BEGIN NCM BODY" on a new line.
• Each body line should start with either A) an delimited message-id or B) one or more TABs. Lines that begin with a TAB are assumed to refer to the previous message-id. After the tab, should be a space separated list of the newsgroups that this articles appears in. (This list is very important and must be accurate - it should be taken from the bad message's headers.)
• The message should then end with "@@END NCM BODY". Anything after this will be ignored, unless it's another notice.
• As mentioned above, the notice should then be public-key signed. During testing I ask that people use textmode to help debugging.
• This signed notice can now be distributed. Remember that this is timely information. Try to avoid crossposting to moderated groups that don't QUICKLY process postings. Eventually a mailing list or web would be best.
• Because NoCeM ignores data outside the delimiters, this notice could also double as a human-readable report. If your notice is intended to...

  hide spam

  post to alt.nocem.misc (and other abuse groups) and put "@@NCM" in the Subject.

  hide spew

  post to alt.nocem.misc (and other abuse groups) and the newsgroup in question. Put "@@NCM" in the Subject line. Make sure your notice includes a Newsgroup:

  pseudomoderate a newsgroup

  post to alt.nocem.misc and that newsgroup (if it's wanted there). The subject should contain "@@newsgroup". [IMHO, it's a bit early yet for this use.]

• When posting, be sure to include a (@@) tag in your Subject line. Also, be sure that your posting does NOT have a "References:" header-- this is used to detect and avoid followups to notices. And of course, when widely crossposting, make sure you set followups appropriately.
• Also, when posting a copy of the offending message, it is VERY important to quote it with >'s or some other symbol, to move it off the left margin.
• A signed NoCeM notice MUST MUST MUST have balanced NoCeM delimiters (2 begins and 1 end). If you leave off the "end" delim it could be possible for a less trusted or non-trusted person to add message-ID's to your report.
• Lastly, please read alt.nocem.misc for updates as things change. I anticipate the eventual formation of news.lists.nocem as well as various web sites and mailing lists, to speed up distribution.

More info on the headers....

Version:

mandatory - stage 3 must check for this, and make sure it can handle the message format, before continuing. Therefore this should likely be the first header present. (Thus only the starting delimiter and version header need be backward compatible.)

Issuer:

Some indentifying string.

Action:

hide

the body contains message-ids that the issuer wishes the user NOT to see. An admin might wish to erase such messages.

show

the body contains message-ids that are recommended for reading.

The End (for now...)