Q: How can I reject messages awaiting moderation directly from my email inbox?

By Jacob Haller
Senior Support Engineer, L-Soft

With a moderated email list, incoming messages are typically forwarded to the moderators with a link to approve them. If the message shouldn't be approved, then a moderator can simply delete the confirmation request. The message will then expire a week later and won't be distributed. However, if you prefer, you can add a link to the confirmation messages, allowing you to also reject messages directly from your inbox, rather than just waiting for them to expire. This tech tip shows how to do this.

You can already approve and reject messages in the moderation queue with the LISTSERV web interface by going to "List Management" > "List Moderation", but it's also possible to do this directly from each confirmation message by adding a rejection link into the confirmation template. Note that with this technique, if moderators click on the rejection link, and they are not already logged in to the LISTSERV web interface, then they will be prompted to log in, and the message will not be rejected until they do.

With that understood, to add the rejection link, go to "List Management" > "Mail Templates", and locate the MSG_POSTING_CONFIRM_EDITOR mail template. Find these lines:

To APPROVE the message:
&OK_URL

Then simply add a link to also reject the message like this:

To APPROVE the message:
&OK_URL

To REJECT the message:
&WA_URL;?LCMD=OK+REJECT+&COOKIE;

If you also want to add instructions on how to reject the message purely via email, then add the following, making any desired changes to the wording:

To reject this message via email, reply to this message and type or paste the following into the body of your response:

.ce OK REJECT &COOKIE;

If possible, remove any other text (the quoted message you're replying to, or your signature) from your response.

The .ce at the start of the line containing the command centers the text and can be left out if desired.

These steps should give you maximum flexibility so that you can reject messages awaiting moderation using the LISTSERV web interface or directly from your inbox, whichever is more convenient for you.