This is a brief introduction to the WebMod interface and the actions you can take there.
Every ASF committer who is a member of a PMC or PPMC may log on and use the WebMod interface. For each PMC or PPMC you are on, you have access to moderate all of that project's lists. For example, if you are on the httpd PMC, you may moderate all `@httpd.apache.org` lists.
The WebMod interface has a tabbed panel, with one tab for each mailing list that you have access to that has one or more emails awaiting moderation, and/or emails that have been marked as spam. The header of each tab has two numbers separated by a slash: the first number is how many emails need moderation; the second number is how many emails in this list have been marked as spam, but not yet deleted (see more on marking and deleting spam emails, below).
To moderate a list, click the tab with the name of the list. To preview the first couple of lines of an email body, click the subject line. Click again to dismiss the preview.
When you have assessed an email, you may choose one of four actions for it, as described in the next paragraph. These actions take place instantly, and other users see the result when they use the interface. Thus, if you accept or reject an email, it disappears from the list of pending requests for all other WebMod users with access to moderate that list.
Note: Once you have accepted or rejected an email, you cannot undo the action. It is not possible to cancel an email that has been accepted, nor to accept an email that has been rejected. So please be careful.
If you have incorrectly marked an email as spam, you can override by using accept or reject as appropriate.
You can hide lists which only contain messages already marked as spam by you or someone else. To do so, click the checkbox at the end of the header.
As a moderator, you have access to the following actions for each email in the moderation queue:
You can also select one or more messages using the checkboxes on the left. Click the appropriate button above the list of emails to apply the function to all the selected emails. (The buttons only appear if at least one mail has been selected) Note that 'mark selected as spam' ignores any emails that you have already marked as spam, which speeds up processing.
Be very careful when accepting multiple emails, as this cannot be undone.
Details of unprocessed mails are shown in black. If an email has been marked as spam, there are various different markings that are used:
To end your session, click the Log out link.