Help on The NoCeM Registry

Table headers	Hyperlinked text in a column header of a table points to help on the column. Its wording – except when just 'Help' – refers to what any hyperlinked entries in the column body would point to. Example: Clicking on 'Policy Statement' in the header of the first column yields help on that column; clicking on a hyperlinked entry in the column body yields an issuer's policy statement.
*	An isolated hyperlinked asterisk always points to a note. All notes to The NoCeM Registry are on one separate web page.
Name	Issuer's real name or apparently preferred pseudonym. Issuers are listed in order of last name if present, else first word. See also our issuer listing policy.
Policy Statement	When hyperlinked, the 'Name' entry points to a website version of the issuer's NoCeM policy statement, declaring their intentions and criteria for composing their NoCeM notices.
	This mark in the 'Name', 'Issuer' or 'Type' field refers to the issuer or their type being newly listed in The NoCeM Registry. This means they will normally be listed with a permission entry of no.
Date	A date in very small purple print in the 'Name', 'Issuer' or 'Type' field refers to the last NoCeM notice we have stored in our records (this need not be the very last notice issued). Same with a mark of ‘Apparently retired’, without a date. Absence of such a mark usually means notices have been appearing regularly. This only serves to keep track of issuers who may have stopped issuing a certain type of notice, or have retired altogether.
E-mail	The 'E-mail' entry is always a hyperlinked 'e-mail' and points to e-mailing the issuer at their preferred or best available e-mail address.
Issuer	Contents of 'Issuer:' NCM header, or a characteristic substring thereof (at most 20 characters long), as it may be included as a valid entry in our default NoCeM permission file.
Type	Contents of 'Type:' NCM header, as a valid NoCeM permission file entry. This may be a wildcard '*' for 'all (other) types', but only in combination with a permission entry of no.
Perm	Our default NoCeM permission file entry, according to our spoolability policy. See NoCeM Permissioners for possible alternatives by others; see also How to Use The NoCeM Registry.
Criteria	Shorthand indication of issuer's deletion criteria for composing their NoCeM notices, color-coded: Green means consensus cancellation criteria only (with spam as of a threshold of at least 10). Yellow means criteria over and above consensus, but fairly within consensus metacriteria. Red means criteria clearly over and above consensus metacriteria.
Scope	Part of Usenet issuer's notices are normally targeting, e.g., 'Usenet' (i.e., all or most of it), a geographical hierarchy, or one or more individual newsgroups.
FAQ/Charter	When hyperlinked, the 'Scope' entry or any part thereof points to an applicable FAQ or charter. (This may be written in a language other than English).
PGP Key	Normally hyperlinked, 'Key' entry points directly to a web page from which an ascii-armored version of the issuer's PGP public key used for signing their NoCeM notices can be obtained. Our ascii PGP Keyring contains the public keys of all issuers listed with a permission entry of yes (in listing order).
Permissioner	Permissioner's real name or apparently preferred pseudonym. After our default entry, permissioners are listed in order of last name if present, else first word. See also our permissioner listing policy.
Spoolability policy	When hyperlinked, the 'Permissioner' entry points to a website version of an explanation of permissioner's policy or considerations for their yes/no permission entries.
E-mail	The 'E-mail' entry is always a hyperlinked 'e-mail' and points to e-mailing the permissioner at their preferred or best available e-mail address.
Characterization	Brief characterization of permissioner's policy, especially as to what may set it apart from that of other permissioners.
PGP Keyring	Normally hyperlinked, 'PGP Keyring' entry points directly to a text file with ascii-armored versions of issuers' PGP public keys. Entry value is file name.
Permission File	Normally hyperlinked, 'Permission File' entry points directly to a properly formatted, immediately usable NoCeM permission file. Entry value is file name.
> Text	In the FAQ, text preceded by '> ' and thereby appearing quoted is rendered thus only for clarity and is not a genuine quotation.
Levels of requirement	In keeping with the wording in certain FAQs, The NoCeM Registry uses in its policy the following three levels of requirement, for clarity rendered in bold colors: 'must' is an absolute requirement, failure to satisfy just one of which results in not being eligible. 'should' is desirable, but short of being absolute as described above. 'may' is optional but will, as a rule, at least 'speed things up'; 'may not*' mitigates mildly against.

How to Use The NoCeM Registry

If you are a news administrator, we trust that you don't need the step-by-step instructions given below (in fact, we fear they may even insult you). We have added them primarily to show others how easily you can alter our default files for any points where you may disagree with our policy (which, after all, ultimately reflects our humble opinion and judgment).

How to use our default files

Download our default PGP Keyring and NoCeM permission file.
Make any changes to your copies of these files as you see fit. (This is further elaborated below.)
If you want to find the differences between a newly downloaded NoCeM permission file and an earlier version you have been using, run a 'document compare' – a feature offered by most word processors – on the two files. See also our change log for a summary of changes to The NoCeM Registry.
Install the (altered) files with your NoCeM-On-Spool software.
Be sure to refresh the files regularly.

How to delete a type for an issuer

In your NoCeM permission file, delete the applicable line (or change the permission entry to no).

Example
Say that, for issuer Adri Verhoef, you want to honor his 'spam' notices, but – for whatever reason – not his 'binary' notices. To accomplish this, in issuer's section which reads:

nl-cancel@a3.xs4all  spam                 yes
nl-cancel@a3.xs4all  mmf                  yes
nl-cancel@a3.xs4all  binary               yes

Delete the third line, keeping only the first two. (Alternatively, change the third line's permission entry to no.)

How to delete an issuer

In your NoCeM permission file, delete all lines for issuer.
In your ascii PGP keyring, delete issuer's public key block.

How to add a type for an issuer

In your NoCeM permission file, compose and add a line for the desired type.

(This assumes that, for notices of the type you want to add, issuer uses a PGP key which is already on your keyring. If this is not the case, proceed as in 'How to add an issuer' below.)

How to add an issuer

In your ascii PGP keyring, add the issuer's PGP public key block (normally to be found via a hyperlinked 'Key' entry in the 'PGP Key' column of the The NoCeM Registry's main page).
In your NoCeM permission file, compose and add lines for issuer's types you want to honor.

Example
Say that you want to honor Kai Henningsen's notices for excessive cross-posting. Add his public key to your keyring and add to your NoCeM permission file the following line:

crosspost-stopper    velveeta             yes

How to get listed as an issuer

Publish a NoCeM policy statement, supplying all applicable information as listed in our issuer listing policy. Your NoCeM policy statement should be posted to the newsgroup news.admin.nocem*, cross-posted to any other relevant newsgroups with default follow-up to news.admin.nocem only. It should be PGP-signed with the key you will be using for your NoCeM notices.
For information on how to compose and issue NoCeM notices, see The NoCeM FAQ by Cancelmoose[tm].
Start issuing NoCeM notices to at least the newsgroup news.lists.filters.
Expect to – despite your reputation as a Net God(dess) – be initially listed with a permission entry of no.
See our spoolability policy for how to (maybe) get listed with a permission entry of yes.