From suzieflame@suzieflame.com Mon Sep 16 21:30:02 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Suzieflame Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine Subject: RFD: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <1032211511.20027@isc.org> Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 21:25:11 UTC Lines: 443 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11818 news.groups:410792 rec.skiing.alpine:223677 REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated This is the formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of a world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine.moderated. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below. Newsgroup line(s): rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Discussion of alpine ("downhill") skiing. (Moderated) This is a moderated group for the discussion of equipment, techniques, and non-prejudicial issues relating to Alpine ("downhill") skiing. RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine ("downhill") skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets at least one hundred messages a day, with the volume doubling during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the group have left because of these well-known conditions. The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed group. Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport and recreation of alpine ("downhill") skiing can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcomed and a FAQ will be made available. CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Note: This Charter is intended to be read in conjunction with the Moderation Policy which is appended. (a) Rationale The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing ths sport currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there. The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and Policy. (b) On- and off-charter postings This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety and upcoming events. It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify. The final arbiter of this will be the moderators, working within the guidelines of the Policy as appended. Any submission which is relevant, civil and not in violation of the moderation policy will be accepted for posting. (c) Moderation Policy This is appended to the Charter and is divided into three sections: 1. Restrictions on Articles 2. Moderators' Role 3. General Administration END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Article submission address: RSAM@tbc.com Administrative contact address: RSAM-admin@tbc.com Moderator: tbc Moderator: tbc Moderator: tbc Moderator: tbc END MODERATOR INFO. MODERATION POLICY: Appendix: Moderation Policy for RSAM 1. Restrictions on Articles 1.1 Acceptable topics 1.2 On-charter threads 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified 2.2 Rejected posts 2.3 Basis for rejection 2.4 Undeliverable email 2.5 Moderators' opinions 2.6 Off-charter posts 2.7 Removal of auto-approve status 2.8 No retromoderation 2.9 Administrative mailing list 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators 3.2 Removal of moderators 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ 3.5 Disclaimer 3.6 Approval of posts 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy 1. Restrictions on Articles The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out in its Charter, namely that "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing ths sport currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there." 1.1 Acceptable topics This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. Any article about alpine skiing which does not contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted. Potential topics might include the following: Races Technique Equipment Ski areas News stories Rules Safety This list is not definitive. 1.2 On-charter threads Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above. It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off- charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question. Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not acceptable. 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4.1 Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion. 1.4.2 Binaries will not be accepted. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable. 1.4.3 Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be accepted. The moderators will send a short note to the poster explaining how s/he can set the newsreader to post in plain text. 1.4.4 Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service, is considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted. 1.4.5 Crossposts are not accepted for technical reasons. The sole exceptions Usenet Administrative crossposts, such as those from news.announce.newsgroups. 1.4.6 Posts containing racial abuse, offensive, prejudicial, false or malicious statements about people associated with the sport, or other posters, are not acceptable. 1.4.7 All posts must have a return address which is valid (eg: username@domain.com) or decipherable (eg: username@domain.nospam.com). If email addresses are 'spam- proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make. 1.4.8 Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder. It is acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing articles on the web with a brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material must be credited. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted in violation of a copyright. 1.4.9 Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other than the actual poster - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action. 1.4.10 Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the poster's site will not be accepted. 1.5 Unacceptable behaviour Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited period, and/or be subject to further action. 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will NEVER modify content. 2.2 Rejected posts The moderators will return a rejected post to the originating email address with an explanation for the rejection. If applicable, he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable. Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion. If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote. 2.3 Basis for rejection No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a posts content. 2.4 Undeliverable email The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or undeliverable email. 2.5 Moderators' opinions Moderators' opinions will be expressed only within their own posts, not within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. 2.6 Off-charter posts As recognised in Section 1.2, discussions can and do veer off- charter. Moderators will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do so, further action may be taken at the discretion of the moderators. 2.7 Removal of auto-approve status All decisions concerning the removal of a poster's auto-approve status require a two-thirds majority of moderators to be enforced. 2.8 No retromoderation No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy. 2.9 Administrative mailing list Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup. The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a message to: listserv@yahoogroups.com with the following in the body: subscribe RSAM-admin The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention. In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators that abuse is taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings. 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators The moderation team will periodically need new members. Posters interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators. 3.2 Removal of moderators Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds majority vote of the other moderators. 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.3.1 Any discussion of revision of this moderation policy must include "[MODPOL]" at the beginning of the subject line. 3.3.2 After discussion in the newsgroup, the moderators will accept or reject the change based on their judgment as to the group's collective opinion. 3.3.3 Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators. 3.3.4 The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group within 24 hours of the decision. 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message welcoming new posters and the URL for the newsgroup FAQ. The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some of the requirements of the Moderation Policy. Posters will be expected to comply with these guidelines. 3.5 Disclaimer The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters must assume full responsibility for the content of their own posts. 3.6 Approval of posts The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter. 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web witin the Google archive. END MODERATION POLICY. PROCEDURE: This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups should be raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it. Please do not attempt to vote until this happens. All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups. This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the process. DISTRIBUTION: This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, rec.skiing.alpine. Following acceptance of this RFD by the moderator of news.announce.newgroups, a pointer will be posted to: rec.skiing.annouce rec.skiing.backcountry rec.skiing.nordic Lead Proponent: Suzie Flame Proponent: tbc Proponent: tbc Proponent: tbc Proponent: tbc From suzieflame@suzieflame.com Mon Oct 7 23:00:23 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Suzieflame Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine,aus.snow,rec.skiing.backcountry Subject: 2nd RFD: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <1034031079.21485@isc.org> Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 22:51:19 UTC Lines: 482 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11825 news.groups:415358 rec.skiing.alpine:228332 rec.skiing.backcountry:29651 REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated This is the formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of the world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine.moderated. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below. Newsgroup line(s): rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated) CHANGES from previous RFD: - Editorial changes as suggested - Moderator list added as per discussion on news.groups - Moderation Policy now integral part of Charter - On- and off-topic posts given more explicit wording - Moderators given more freedom to self-determine on- and off-topic - Section on robo- and hand-moderation policies RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions. The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed group. Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome. The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup. CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (a) Rationale The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there. The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy. (b) On- and off-charter postings This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also welcome to contribute. It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify. A list of definitely off-topic posts would include (but not be limited to) those containing a discussion of the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy). The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation Policy.. (c) Moderation Policy 1. Restrictions on Articles 1.1 Acceptable topics 1.2 On-charter threads 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified 2.2 Rejected posts 2.3 Basis for rejection 2.4 Undeliverable email 2.5 Moderators' opinions 2.6 Off-charter posts 2.7 Removal of auto-approve status 2.8 No retromoderation 2.9 Administrative mailing list 2.10 Robo Moderation 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators 3.2 Removal of moderators 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ 3.5 Disclaimer 3.6 Approval of posts 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy 3.8 Changes to this Charter 1. Restrictions on Articles The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there." 1.1 Acceptable topics This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. Any article about alpine skiing which does not contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted. Potential topics might include the following: - Races - Results - Techniques - Equipment - Ski areas, locations for skiing - Tips - Clothing - Advice - Trips - News or other stories related to skiing - Rules - Safety information - Questions regarding weather and snow conditions - Recreational or other events connected to skiing - Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion) This list is not exhaustive or definitive. 1.2 On-charter threads Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1. It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread. Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not acceptable. 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.3.1 Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as appropriate eg., telemark. 1.3.2 Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable. 1.3.3 Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be accepted. The moderators will send a short note to the poster explaining how s/he can set the newsreader to post in plain text. 1.3.4 Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted. 1.3.5 Crossposts are accepted, but the decision to propagate a cross posted message to rec.skiing.alpine.moderated lies solely with the moderation team 1.3.6 Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be used with postings, but the poster should ensure that the context is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this moderation policy. 1.3.7 All posts must have a return address which is valid (eg: username@domain.com) or decipherable . If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make. 1.3.8 Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder. It is acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material must be credited. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted in violation of a copyright. 1.3.9 Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster. 1.3.10 Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable except as part of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the poster's site will not be accepted. 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action. 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles. 2.2 Rejected posts The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email address with a short explanation for the rejection. If applicable, he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable. Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion. If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote. 2.3 Basis for rejection No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy. 2.4 Undeliverable email The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or undeliverable email. 2.5 Moderators' opinions Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only within their own posts t the newsgroup, and not within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this moderation policy. 2.6 Off-charter posts As recognised in earlier, discussions can and do veer off-charter. Moderators will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of the moderators. 2.7 Removal of auto-approve status All decisions concerning the removal of a poster's auto-approve status require a two-thirds majority eg., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced. 2.8 No retromoderation No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy. 2.9 Administrative mailing list Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup. The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a message to: listserv@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com with the following in the body: subscribe RSAM-admin The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention. In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators that abuse is taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings. 2.10 Robo Moderation In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation management system. The system will provide the following functions as a minimum:- - Ability to support a team of moderators - Ability to determine if a user is new or established - Ability to ban a user permanently or temporarily - Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases - Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation - Ability to support WWW access. It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames must be hand-moderated for their first three posts, and thereafter they will be switched to automatic moderation. Automatically moderated posts will be subjected to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional steps to mitigate the abuse, including temporary or permanent banning. 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators The moderation team will periodically need new members. Posters interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9. 3.2 Removal of moderators Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds majority vote eg., 6 of 9, of the other moderators. 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.3.1 Any discussion of revision of this moderation policy within the newsgroup must include "[MODPOL]" at the beginning of the subject line . 3.3.2 After discussion in the newsgroup, the moderators will accept or reject the change based on their judgment as to the group's collective opinion. 3.3.3 Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators. 3.3.4 The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group within 48 hours of the decision. 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message welcoming new posters. The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy. Posters will be expected to comply with these guidelines. 3.5 Disclaimer The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of their own posts. 3.6 Approval of posts The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter. 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web within the faqs.org structure, and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup. 3.8 Changes to this Charter This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least six weeks. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Article submission address: RSAM@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com Administrative contact address: RSAM-admin@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com Moderator: Andrew James Moderator: Mike Speegle Moderator: Eric Holeman Moderator: Nomen Klature Moderator: Aaron Daniel Moderator: Lal Truckee Moderator: Kurt Knisely Moderator: Let Mikey Ski It! Moderator: Mary Malmros END MODERATOR INFO. PROCEDURE: This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups should be raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it. Please do not attempt to vote until this happens. All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups. This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the process. DISTRIBUTION: This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, rec.skiing.alpine, aus.snow rec.skiing.backcountry Following acceptance of this RFD by the moderator of news.announce.newgroups, a pointer will be posted to: rec.skiing.nordic alt.usenet.kooks blarp.com web board epicski.com web board skilovers.com web board Proponent: Suzie Flame From Suzieflame@suzieflame.com Wed Oct 30 03:00:02 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Suzieflame Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine,aus.snow,rec.skiing.backcountry Subject: 3rd RFD: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <1035945985.8780@isc.org> Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 02:46:25 UTC Lines: 561 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11831 news.groups:419225 rec.skiing.alpine:231861 rec.skiing.backcountry:29792 REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated This is the formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of the world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine.moderated. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below. Newsgroup line(s): rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated) CHANGES from previous RFD: - Editorial changes as suggested - Moderator list updated as per discussion on news.groups - Moderator "Nomen Klature" withdrawn - Moderation addresses added - Crossposting issue updated - Return address munging issue updated - Auto-approval/banning process more flexible/clarified - Linewrap hopefully fixed? RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions. The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed group. Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome. The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup. CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (a) Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists) The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there. (b) Posting Guidelines This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also welcome to contribute. It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify. A list of definitely off-topic posts would include (but not be limited to) those containing a discussion of the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy). The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation Policy. (c) Moderation Policy 1. Restrictions on Articles 1.1 Acceptable topics 1.2 On-charter threads 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified 2.2 Rejected posts 2.3 Basis for rejection 2.4 Undeliverable email 2.5 Moderators' opinions 2.6 Off-charter posts 2.7 No retromoderation 2.8 Administrative mailing list 2.9 Robo-moderation 2.10 Auto approval 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators 3.2 Removal of moderators 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ 3.5 Disclaimer 3.6 Approval of posts 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy 3.8 Changes to this Charter 1. Restrictions on Articles The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there." The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy. 1.1 Acceptable topics This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. Any article about alpine skiing which does not contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted. Potential topics might include the following: - Races - Results - Techniques - Equipment - Ski areas, locations for skiing - Tips - Clothing - Advice - Trips - News or other stories related to skiing - Rules - Safety information - Questions regarding weather and snow conditions - Recreational or other events connected to skiing - Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion) This list is not exhaustive or definitive. 1.2 On-charter threads Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1. It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread. Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not acceptable. 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.3.1 Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as appropriate eg., telemark. 1.3.2 Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable. 1.3.3 Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be accepted. The moderator will send a short note to the poster explaining why the post was rejected. 1.3.4 Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted. 1.3.5 Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand moderation. 1.3.6 Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this moderation policy. 1.3.7 Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:- username@domain.com or decipherable e.g.:- username@domain.nospam.com If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make, otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable. Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them. 1.3.8 Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder. It is acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted in violation of a copyright. 1.3.9 Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster. 1.3.10 Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable except as part of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the poster's site will not be accepted. 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action. 1.5 Banning All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced. 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles. 2.2 Rejected posts The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email address with a short explanation for the rejection. If applicable, he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable. Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion. If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote. 2.3 Basis for rejection No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy. 2.4 Undeliverable email The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or undeliverable email. 2.5 Moderators' opinions Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this moderation policy. 2.6 Off-charter posts Discussions can and do veer off-charter. Moderators will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of the moderators. 2.7 No retromoderation No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy. 2.8 Administrative mailing list Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup. The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a message to: rsam-admin at DESPAMxmission.com with the following in the body: subscribe rsam-admin The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention. In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings. 2.9 Robo-moderation In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation management system. The system will provide the following functions as a minimum: - Ability to support a team of moderators - Ability to determine if a user is new or established - Ability to automatically reject posts - Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases - Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation - Ability to support WWW access. 2.10 Auto approval It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter they may be switched to automatic approval without notice. Automatically approved posts will still be subject to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit. 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately notify the other moderators of the action taken. 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators The moderation team will periodically need new members. Posters interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9. 3.2 Removal of moderators Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a simepl majority vote of all modertors not under threat of removal eg., in the case of 9 moderators a majority would be 5 of the remaining 8 not under review. Only one moderator may be voted on for removal at a time. 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.3.1 Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL] at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing list. 3.3.2 After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration to the opinions of the groups's participants. 3.3.3 Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators. 3.3.4 The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group within 48 hours of the decision. 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message welcoming new posters. The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy. Posters will be expected to comply with these guidelines. 3.5 Disclaimer The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of their own posts. 3.6 Approval of posts The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter. 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org) and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup. 3.8 Changes to this Charter This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least six weeks. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Article submission address: rsam at DESPAMxmission.com Administrative contact address: rsam-admin at DESPAMxmission.com Moderator: Andrew James (ajames54 at DESPAMhotmail.com) Moderator: Mike Speegle (mikespeegle at DESPAMnetscape.net) Moderator: Eric Holeman (eholem1 at DESPAMicarus.cc.uic.edu) Moderator: Bdubya (bdubya at DESPAMinteraccess.com) Moderator: Lal Truckee (lal_truckee at DESPAMyahoo.com) Moderator: Kurt Knisely (pcpinhead at nospam.please) (Xmission?) Moderator: Let Mikey Ski It! (msaemisch at DESPAMyahoo.com) Moderator: Mary Malmros (malmros at DESPAMnautilus.shore.net) Moderator: Bruno Melli (bruno at DESPAMfc.hp.com) Technical: Klaus Biggers (klaus at DESPAMxmission.com) END MODERATOR INFO. PROCEDURE: This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes. In this phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups should be raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it. Please do not attempt to vote until this happens. All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups. This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal". Please refer to these documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the process. DISTRIBUTION: This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, rec.skiing.alpine, aus.snow, rec.skiing.backcountry Following acceptance of this RFD by the moderator of news.announce.newgroups, a pointer will be posted to: rec.skiing.nordic blarp.com web board epicski.com web board skilovers.com web board powdermag.com web board Proponent: Suzie Flame From dave@technopagan.org Sat Nov 9 01:00:02 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: "David E. Smith" Reply-To: rsamvote@technopagan.org Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry Subject: CFV: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated Followup-To: poster Message-ID: <1036803231.86039@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Expires: 1 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2002 00:53:51 UTC Lines: 591 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11832 news.groups:420475 rec.skiing.alpine:233358 rec.skiing.backcountry:29853 FIRST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Newsgroups line: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated) Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent. Proponent: Suzie Flame Votetaker: David E. Smith RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions. The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed group. Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome. The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup. CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (a) Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists) The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there. (b) Posting Guidelines This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also welcome to contribute. It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify. A list of definitely off-topic posts would include (but not be limited to) those containing a discussion of the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy). The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation Policy. (c) Moderation Policy 1. Restrictions on Articles 1.1 Acceptable topics 1.2 On-charter threads 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour 1.5 Banning 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified 2.2 Rejected posts 2.3 Basis for rejection 2.4 Undeliverable email 2.5 Moderators' opinions 2.6 Off-charter posts 2.7 No retromoderation 2.8 Administrative mailing list 2.9 Robo-moderation 2.10 Auto approval 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators 3.2 Removal of moderators 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ 3.5 Disclaimer 3.6 Approval of posts 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy 3.8 Changes to this Charter 1. Restrictions on Articles The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there." The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy. 1.1 Acceptable topics This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. Any article about alpine skiing which does not contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted. Potential topics might include the following: - Races - Results - Techniques - Equipment - Ski areas, locations for skiing - Tips - Clothing - Advice - Trips - News or other stories related to skiing - Rules - Safety information - Questions regarding weather and snow conditions - Recreational or other events connected to skiing - Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion) This list is not exhaustive or definitive. 1.2 On-charter threads Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1. It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread. Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not acceptable. 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.3.1 Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as appropriate eg., telemark. 1.3.2 Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable. 1.3.3 Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be accepted. The moderator will send a short note to the poster explaining why the post was rejected. 1.3.4 Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted. 1.3.5 Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand moderation. 1.3.6 Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this moderation policy. 1.3.7 Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:- username@domain.com or decipherable e.g.:- username@domain.nospam.com If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make, otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable. Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them. 1.3.8 Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder. It is acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted in violation of a copyright. 1.3.9 Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster. 1.3.10 Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable except as part of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the poster's site will not be accepted. 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action. 1.5 Banning All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced. 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles. 2.2 Rejected posts The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email address with a short explanation for the rejection. If applicable, he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable. Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion. If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote. 2.3 Basis for rejection No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy. 2.4 Undeliverable email The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or undeliverable email. 2.5 Moderators' opinions Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this moderation policy. 2.6 Off-charter posts Discussions can and do veer off-charter. Moderators will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of the moderators. 2.7 No retromoderation No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy. 2.8 Administrative mailing list Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup. The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a message to: rsam-admin@xmission.com with the following in the body: subscribe rsam-admin The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention. In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings. 2.9 Robo-moderation In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation management system. The system will provide the following functions as a minimum: - Ability to support a team of moderators - Ability to determine if a user is new or established - Ability to automatically reject posts - Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases - Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation - Ability to support WWW access. 2.10 Auto approval It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter they may be switched to automatic approval without notice. Automatically approved posts will still be subject to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit. 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately notify the other moderators of the action taken. 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators The moderation team will periodically need new members. Posters interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9. 3.2 Removal of moderators Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time. 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.3.1 Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL] at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing list. 3.3.2 After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration to the opinions of the groups's participants. 3.3.3 Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators. 3.3.4 The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group within 48 hours of the decision. 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message welcoming new posters. The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy. Posters will be expected to comply with these guidelines. 3.5 Disclaimer The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of their own posts. 3.6 Approval of posts The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter. 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org) and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup. 3.8 Changes to this Charter This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least six weeks. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Moderator: "Andrew James" Moderator: "Mike Speegle" Moderator: "Eric Holeman" Moderator: "Nomen Klature" Moderator: "Bdubya" Moderator: "Lal Truckee" Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" Moderator: "Mary Malmros" Moderator: "Bruno Melli" Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com END MODERATOR INFO. IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: READ THIS BEFORE VOTING The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest in reading the proposed newsgroup, and soliciting votes from uninterested parties defeats this purpose. Do *not* distribute this CFV; instead, direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups. Distributing specific voting instructions or pre-marked copies of this CFV is considered vote fraud. This is a public vote: All email addresses, names and votes will be listed in the final RESULT post. The name used may be either a real name or an established Usenet handle. At most one vote is allowed per person or per account. Duplicate votes will be resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote. Voters must mail their ballots directly to the votetaker. Anonymous, forwarded, or proxy votes are not valid, nor are votes mailed from WWW/HTML/CGI forms (which should not exist). Votes from nonexistent accounts or with munged, spam-blocked, or undeliverable addresses are invalid and will NOT be counted. Please direct any questions to the votetaker at HOW TO VOTE: Extract the ballot from the CFV by deleting everything before and after the "BEGINNING OF BALLOT" and "END OF BALLOT" lines. Don't worry about the spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your reply inserts. Please, DO NOT send the entire CFV back to me! Fill in the ballot as shown below. Please provide your real name (or established Usenet handle) and indicate your desired vote in the appropriate locations inside the ballot. Examples of how to properly indicate your vote: [ YES ] example.yes.vote [ NO ] example.no.vote [ ABSTAIN ] example.abstention [ CANCEL ] example.cancellation DO NOT modify, alter or delete any information in this ballot! If you do, the voting software will probably reject your ballot. When finished, MAIL the vote to Just "replying" to this message should work, but check the "To:" line. Votes mailed to any other email address, including that of the votetaker, will NOT be counted. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the votetaker about the problem. You are responsible for reading your ack and making sure your vote is registered correctly. If these instructions are unclear, please consult the Introduction to Usenet Voting or the Usenet Voting FAQ at http://www.stanford.edu/~neilc/uvv. ======== BEGINNING OF BALLOT: Delete everything before this line ======= .----------------------------------------------------------------------- | 1ST CALL FOR VOTES: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated | Official Usenet Voting Ballot (Do not remove this line!) |----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Please provide your real name, or your vote may be rejected. Established | Usenet handles are also acceptable. Place ONLY your name (ie. do NOT | include your e-mail address or any other information; ONLY your name) | after the colon on the following line: Voter name: | Insert YES, NO, ABSTAIN, or CANCEL inside the brackets for each | newsgroup listed below (do not delete the newsgroup name): Your Vote Newsgroup --------- ----------------------------------------------------------- [ ] rec.skiing.alpine.moderated ======== END OF BALLOT: Delete everything after this line ============== DISTRIBUTION: Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following group: rec.skiing.nordic This CFV was created with uvpq 1.0 (Feb 26 2001). PQ datestamp: 980322 From newgroups-request@isc.org Wed Nov 20 08:30:02 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: n.a.n moderation team Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine Subject: DECISION: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <1037780717.58894@isc.org> Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 08:25:17 UTC Lines: 42 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11843 news.groups:422797 rec.skiing.alpine:235159 the news.announce.newgroups moderation team has decided the following: the 2nd CFV will be posted without any changes from the 1st CFV. voting will continue as usual. here's why: the change between the last RFD and the CFV (the reinsertion by mistake of the moderator known as "Nomen Klature") is not viewed as the sort of major change due to which we would cancel and restart the vote as a matter of course. a number of factors went into that decision, including the original PQ (which did not contain NK's name but had to be resubmitted for other reasons), the size of the moderation panel, NK having been thoroughly discussed, the opinion of the members of rec.skiing.alpine about that particular person, the rules that the moderation panel is intending to follow regarding adding and removing moderators, the general consensus among the people who will use the group that those rules seem reasonable, and the lack of controversy over that particular moderator among the members of r.s.a -- if any of these factors were different, the decision might also be different. while we were contemplating for some time whether to change the 2nd CFV to correct the error, we have in the end decided against it. the mistake seems to have a very minor effect in this case, and we don't see it as sufficient to change long-term practice of having the 1st and 2nd CFV be the same. and we didn't like the sort of actions a change of ballot could reasonably call for (individual notification of prior voters with invitation to revote), which would possibly be just as confusing to people who did not follow the discussion as restarting the vote. we don't believe this is in the interest of either the voters or the process. we are in the process of instituting measures to make it harder for mistakes like this one to slip through in the future. -- -piranha team member usenet group advice news.announce.newgroups moderation From dave@technopagan.org Wed Nov 20 11:00:02 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: David E. Smith Reply-To: rsamvote@technopagan.org Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry Subject: 2nd CFV: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated Followup-To: poster Message-ID: <1037789373.59579@isc.org> Supersedes: <1036803231.86039@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Expires: 1 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 10:49:34 UTC Lines: 601 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11844 news.groups:422803 rec.skiing.alpine:235163 rec.skiing.backcountry:29970 LAST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Newsgroups line: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated) Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent. Proponent: Suzie Flame Votetaker: David E. Smith RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions. The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed group. Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome. The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup. CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (a) Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists) The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there. (b) Posting Guidelines This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also welcome to contribute. It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify. A list of definitely off-topic posts would include (but not be limited to) those containing a discussion of the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy). The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation Policy. (c) Moderation Policy 1. Restrictions on Articles 1.1 Acceptable topics 1.2 On-charter threads 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour 1.5 Banning 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified 2.2 Rejected posts 2.3 Basis for rejection 2.4 Undeliverable email 2.5 Moderators' opinions 2.6 Off-charter posts 2.7 No retromoderation 2.8 Administrative mailing list 2.9 Robo-moderation 2.10 Auto approval 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators 3.2 Removal of moderators 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ 3.5 Disclaimer 3.6 Approval of posts 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy 3.8 Changes to this Charter 1. Restrictions on Articles The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there." The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy. 1.1 Acceptable topics This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. Any article about alpine skiing which does not contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted. Potential topics might include the following: - Races - Results - Techniques - Equipment - Ski areas, locations for skiing - Tips - Clothing - Advice - Trips - News or other stories related to skiing - Rules - Safety information - Questions regarding weather and snow conditions - Recreational or other events connected to skiing - Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion) This list is not exhaustive or definitive. 1.2 On-charter threads Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1. It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread. Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not acceptable. 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.3.1 Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as appropriate eg., telemark. 1.3.2 Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable. 1.3.3 Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be accepted. The moderator will send a short note to the poster explaining why the post was rejected. 1.3.4 Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted. 1.3.5 Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand moderation. 1.3.6 Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this moderation policy. 1.3.7 Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:- username@domain.com or decipherable e.g.:- username@domain.nospam.com If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make, otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable. Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them. 1.3.8 Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder. It is acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted in violation of a copyright. 1.3.9 Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster. 1.3.10 Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable except as part of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the poster's site will not be accepted. 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action. 1.5 Banning All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced. 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles. 2.2 Rejected posts The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email address with a short explanation for the rejection. If applicable, he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable. Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion. If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote. 2.3 Basis for rejection No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy. 2.4 Undeliverable email The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or undeliverable email. 2.5 Moderators' opinions Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this moderation policy. 2.6 Off-charter posts Discussions can and do veer off-charter. Moderators will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of the moderators. 2.7 No retromoderation No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy. 2.8 Administrative mailing list Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup. The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a message to: rsam-admin@xmission.com with the following in the body: subscribe rsam-admin The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention. In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings. 2.9 Robo-moderation In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation management system. The system will provide the following functions as a minimum: - Ability to support a team of moderators - Ability to determine if a user is new or established - Ability to automatically reject posts - Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases - Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation - Ability to support WWW access. 2.10 Auto approval It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter they may be switched to automatic approval without notice. Automatically approved posts will still be subject to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit. 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately notify the other moderators of the action taken. 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators The moderation team will periodically need new members. Posters interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9. 3.2 Removal of moderators Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time. 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.3.1 Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL] at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing list. 3.3.2 After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration to the opinions of the groups's participants. 3.3.3 Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators. 3.3.4 The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group within 48 hours of the decision. 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message welcoming new posters. The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy. Posters will be expected to comply with these guidelines. 3.5 Disclaimer The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of their own posts. 3.6 Approval of posts The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter. 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org) and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup. 3.8 Changes to this Charter This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least six weeks. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Moderator: "Andrew James" Moderator: "Mike Speegle" Moderator: "Eric Holeman" Moderator: "Nomen Klature" Moderator: "Bdubya" Moderator: "Lal Truckee" Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" Moderator: "Mary Malmros" Moderator: "Bruno Melli" Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com END MODERATOR INFO. IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: READ THIS BEFORE VOTING The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest in reading the proposed newsgroup, and soliciting votes from uninterested parties defeats this purpose. Do *not* distribute this CFV; instead, direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups. Distributing specific voting instructions or pre-marked copies of this CFV is considered vote fraud. This is a public vote: All email addresses, names and votes will be listed in the final RESULT post. The name used may be either a real name or an established Usenet handle. At most one vote is allowed per person or per account. Duplicate votes will be resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote. Voters must mail their ballots directly to the votetaker. Anonymous, forwarded, or proxy votes are not valid, nor are votes mailed from WWW/HTML/CGI forms (which should not exist). Votes from nonexistent accounts or with munged, spam-blocked, or undeliverable addresses are invalid and will NOT be counted. Please direct any questions to the votetaker at HOW TO VOTE: Extract the ballot from the CFV by deleting everything before and after the "BEGINNING OF BALLOT" and "END OF BALLOT" lines. Don't worry about the spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your reply inserts. Please, DO NOT send the entire CFV back to me! Fill in the ballot as shown below. Please provide your real name (or established Usenet handle) and indicate your desired vote in the appropriate locations inside the ballot. Examples of how to properly indicate your vote: [ YES ] example.yes.vote [ NO ] example.no.vote [ ABSTAIN ] example.abstention [ CANCEL ] example.cancellation DO NOT modify, alter or delete any information in this ballot! If you do, the voting software will probably reject your ballot. When finished, MAIL the vote to Just "replying" to this message should work, but check the "To:" line. Votes mailed to any other email address, including that of the votetaker, will NOT be counted. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the votetaker about the problem. You are responsible for reading your ack and making sure your vote is registered correctly. If these instructions are unclear, please consult the Introduction to Usenet Voting or the Usenet Voting FAQ at http://www.stanford.edu/~neilc/uvv. ======== BEGINNING OF BALLOT: Delete everything before this line ======= .----------------------------------------------------------------------- | 1ST CALL FOR VOTES: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated | Official Usenet Voting Ballot (Do not remove this line!) |----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Please provide your real name, or your vote may be rejected. Established | Usenet handles are also acceptable. Place ONLY your name (ie. do NOT | include your e-mail address or any other information; ONLY your name) | after the colon on the following line: Voter name: | Insert YES, NO, ABSTAIN, or CANCEL inside the brackets for each | newsgroup listed below (do not delete the newsgroup name): Your Vote Newsgroup --------- ----------------------------------------------------------- [ ] rec.skiing.alpine.moderated ======== END OF BALLOT: Delete everything after this line ============== DISTRIBUTION: Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following group: rec.skiing.nordic This CFV was created with uvpq 1.0 (Feb 26 2001). PQ datestamp: 980322 Votes in error -- Please vote again, or contact the votetaker ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ adam@tipperlinne.com (Adam Edwards) ! Ack bounced pete@boxman.uottawa.ca (Pete Hickey) ! Ack Bounced tingrinfan@earthlink.net (Sam Seiber) ! No vote statement in message From dave@technopagan.org Wed Nov 20 22:30:02 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: David E. Smith Reply-To: rsamvote@technopagan.org Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry Subject: 2nd CFV: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated Followup-To: poster Message-ID: <1037831307.65999@isc.org> Supersedes: <1037789373.59579@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Expires: 1 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 22:28:27 UTC Lines: 601 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11845 news.groups:422852 rec.skiing.alpine:235241 rec.skiing.backcountry:29989 LAST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Newsgroups line: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated) Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent. Proponent: Suzie Flame Votetaker: David E. Smith RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions. The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed group. Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome. The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup. CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (a) Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists) The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there. (b) Posting Guidelines This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also welcome to contribute. It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify. A list of definitely off-topic posts would include (but not be limited to) those containing a discussion of the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy). The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation Policy. (c) Moderation Policy 1. Restrictions on Articles 1.1 Acceptable topics 1.2 On-charter threads 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour 1.5 Banning 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified 2.2 Rejected posts 2.3 Basis for rejection 2.4 Undeliverable email 2.5 Moderators' opinions 2.6 Off-charter posts 2.7 No retromoderation 2.8 Administrative mailing list 2.9 Robo-moderation 2.10 Auto approval 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators 3.2 Removal of moderators 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ 3.5 Disclaimer 3.6 Approval of posts 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy 3.8 Changes to this Charter 1. Restrictions on Articles The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there." The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy. 1.1 Acceptable topics This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. Any article about alpine skiing which does not contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted. Potential topics might include the following: - Races - Results - Techniques - Equipment - Ski areas, locations for skiing - Tips - Clothing - Advice - Trips - News or other stories related to skiing - Rules - Safety information - Questions regarding weather and snow conditions - Recreational or other events connected to skiing - Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion) This list is not exhaustive or definitive. 1.2 On-charter threads Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1. It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread. Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not acceptable. 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.3.1 Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as appropriate eg., telemark. 1.3.2 Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable. 1.3.3 Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be accepted. The moderator will send a short note to the poster explaining why the post was rejected. 1.3.4 Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted. 1.3.5 Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand moderation. 1.3.6 Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this moderation policy. 1.3.7 Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:- username@domain.com or decipherable e.g.:- username@domain.nospam.com If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make, otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable. Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them. 1.3.8 Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder. It is acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted in violation of a copyright. 1.3.9 Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster. 1.3.10 Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable except as part of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the poster's site will not be accepted. 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action. 1.5 Banning All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced. 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles. 2.2 Rejected posts The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email address with a short explanation for the rejection. If applicable, he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable. Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion. If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote. 2.3 Basis for rejection No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy. 2.4 Undeliverable email The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or undeliverable email. 2.5 Moderators' opinions Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this moderation policy. 2.6 Off-charter posts Discussions can and do veer off-charter. Moderators will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of the moderators. 2.7 No retromoderation No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy. 2.8 Administrative mailing list Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup. The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a message to: rsam-admin@xmission.com with the following in the body: subscribe rsam-admin The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention. In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings. 2.9 Robo-moderation In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation management system. The system will provide the following functions as a minimum: - Ability to support a team of moderators - Ability to determine if a user is new or established - Ability to automatically reject posts - Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases - Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation - Ability to support WWW access. 2.10 Auto approval It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter they may be switched to automatic approval without notice. Automatically approved posts will still be subject to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit. 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately notify the other moderators of the action taken. 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators The moderation team will periodically need new members. Posters interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9. 3.2 Removal of moderators Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time. 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.3.1 Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL] at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing list. 3.3.2 After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration to the opinions of the groups's participants. 3.3.3 Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators. 3.3.4 The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group within 48 hours of the decision. 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message welcoming new posters. The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy. Posters will be expected to comply with these guidelines. 3.5 Disclaimer The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of their own posts. 3.6 Approval of posts The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter. 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org) and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup. 3.8 Changes to this Charter This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least six weeks. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Moderator: "Andrew James" Moderator: "Mike Speegle" Moderator: "Eric Holeman" Moderator: "Nomen Klature" Moderator: "Bdubya" Moderator: "Lal Truckee" Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" Moderator: "Mary Malmros" Moderator: "Bruno Melli" Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com END MODERATOR INFO. IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: READ THIS BEFORE VOTING The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest in reading the proposed newsgroup, and soliciting votes from uninterested parties defeats this purpose. Do *not* distribute this CFV; instead, direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups. Distributing specific voting instructions or pre-marked copies of this CFV is considered vote fraud. This is a public vote: All email addresses, names and votes will be listed in the final RESULT post. The name used may be either a real name or an established Usenet handle. At most one vote is allowed per person or per account. Duplicate votes will be resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote. Voters must mail their ballots directly to the votetaker. Anonymous, forwarded, or proxy votes are not valid, nor are votes mailed from WWW/HTML/CGI forms (which should not exist). Votes from nonexistent accounts or with munged, spam-blocked, or undeliverable addresses are invalid and will NOT be counted. Please direct any questions to the votetaker at HOW TO VOTE: Extract the ballot from the CFV by deleting everything before and after the "BEGINNING OF BALLOT" and "END OF BALLOT" lines. Don't worry about the spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your reply inserts. Please, DO NOT send the entire CFV back to me! Fill in the ballot as shown below. Please provide your real name (or established Usenet handle) and indicate your desired vote in the appropriate locations inside the ballot. Examples of how to properly indicate your vote: [ YES ] example.yes.vote [ NO ] example.no.vote [ ABSTAIN ] example.abstention [ CANCEL ] example.cancellation DO NOT modify, alter or delete any information in this ballot! If you do, the voting software will probably reject your ballot. When finished, MAIL the vote to Just "replying" to this message should work, but check the "To:" line. Votes mailed to any other email address, including that of the votetaker, will NOT be counted. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the votetaker about the problem. You are responsible for reading your ack and making sure your vote is registered correctly. If these instructions are unclear, please consult the Introduction to Usenet Voting or the Usenet Voting FAQ at http://www.stanford.edu/~neilc/uvv. ======== BEGINNING OF BALLOT: Delete everything before this line ======= .----------------------------------------------------------------------- | 2ND CALL FOR VOTES: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated | Official Usenet Voting Ballot (Do not remove this line!) |----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Please provide your real name, or your vote may be rejected. Established | Usenet handles are also acceptable. Place ONLY your name (ie. do NOT | include your e-mail address or any other information; ONLY your name) | after the colon on the following line: Voter name: | Insert YES, NO, ABSTAIN, or CANCEL inside the brackets for each | newsgroup listed below (do not delete the newsgroup name): Your Vote Newsgroup --------- ----------------------------------------------------------- [ ] rec.skiing.alpine.moderated ======== END OF BALLOT: Delete everything after this line ============== DISTRIBUTION: Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following group: rec.skiing.nordic This CFV was created with uvpq 1.0 (Feb 26 2001). PQ datestamp: 980322 Votes in error -- Please vote again, or contact the votetaker ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ adam@tipperlinne.com (Adam Edwards) ! Ack bounced pete@boxman.uottawa.ca (Pete Hickey) ! Ack Bounced tingrinfan@earthlink.net (Sam Seiber) ! No vote statement in message From dave@technopagan.org Sun Dec 1 15:15:03 2002 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: "David E. Smith" Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry Subject: RESULT: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated passes 293:21 Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <1038754832.68022@isc.org> Supersedes: <1037831307.65999@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Date: Sun, 01 Dec 2002 15:00:33 UTC Lines: 876 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11850 news.groups:423566 rec.skiing.alpine:236518 rec.skiing.backcountry:30107 RESULT moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated passes 293:21 There were 293 YES votes and 21 NO votes, for a total of 314 valid votes. There were 16 abstains and 2 invalid ballots. For group passage, YES votes must be at least 2/3 of all valid (YES and NO) votes. There also must be at least 100 more YES votes than NO votes. There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted. If no serious allegations of voting irregularities are raised, the moderator of news.announce.newgroups will create the group shortly thereafter. Newsgroups line: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated) Voting closed at 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002. This vote was conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent. Proponent: Suzie Flame Votetaker: David E. Smith RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions. The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed group. Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome. The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup. CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (a) Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists) The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there. (b) Posting Guidelines This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also welcome to contribute. It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify. A list of definitely off-topic posts would include (but not be limited to) those containing a discussion of the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy). The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation Policy. (c) Moderation Policy 1. Restrictions on Articles 1.1 Acceptable topics 1.2 On-charter threads 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour 1.5 Banning 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified 2.2 Rejected posts 2.3 Basis for rejection 2.4 Undeliverable email 2.5 Moderators' opinions 2.6 Off-charter posts 2.7 No retromoderation 2.8 Administrative mailing list 2.9 Robo-moderation 2.10 Auto approval 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators 3.2 Removal of moderators 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ 3.5 Disclaimer 3.6 Approval of posts 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy 3.8 Changes to this Charter 1. Restrictions on Articles The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam, commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there." The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy. 1.1 Acceptable topics This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing. Any article about alpine skiing which does not contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted. Potential topics might include the following: - Races - Results - Techniques - Equipment - Ski areas, locations for skiing - Tips - Clothing - Advice - Trips - News or other stories related to skiing - Rules - Safety information - Questions regarding weather and snow conditions - Recreational or other events connected to skiing - Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion) This list is not exhaustive or definitive. 1.2 On-charter threads Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1. It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread. Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not acceptable. 1.3 Unacceptable posts 1.3.1 Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as appropriate eg., telemark. 1.3.2 Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable. 1.3.3 Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be accepted. The moderator will send a short note to the poster explaining why the post was rejected. 1.3.4 Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted. 1.3.5 Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand moderation. 1.3.6 Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this moderation policy. 1.3.7 Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:- username@domain.com or decipherable e.g.:- username@domain.nospam.com If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make, otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable. Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them. 1.3.8 Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder. It is acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted in violation of a copyright. 1.3.9 Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action. The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster. 1.3.10 Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable except as part of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the poster's site will not be accepted. 1.4 Unacceptable behaviour Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action. 1.5 Banning All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced. 2. Moderators' Role 2.1 Posts not modified Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles. 2.2 Rejected posts The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email address with a short explanation for the rejection. If applicable, he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable. Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion. If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote. 2.3 Basis for rejection No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy. 2.4 Undeliverable email The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or undeliverable email. 2.5 Moderators' opinions Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this moderation policy. 2.6 Off-charter posts Discussions can and do veer off-charter. Moderators will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of the moderators. 2.7 No retromoderation No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy. 2.8 Administrative mailing list Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup. The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a message to: rsam-admin@xmission.com with the following in the body: subscribe rsam-admin The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention. In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings. 2.9 Robo-moderation In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation management system. The system will provide the following functions as a minimum: - Ability to support a team of moderators - Ability to determine if a user is new or established - Ability to automatically reject posts - Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases - Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation - Ability to support WWW access. 2.10 Auto approval It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter they may be switched to automatic approval without notice. Automatically approved posts will still be subject to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit. 2.11 Removal of auto-approve status A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately notify the other moderators of the action taken. 3. General Administration 3.1 New moderators The moderation team will periodically need new members. Posters interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9. 3.2 Removal of moderators Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time. 3.3 Revisions to this policy 3.3.1 Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL] at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing list. 3.3.2 After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration to the opinions of the groups's participants. 3.3.3 Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators. 3.3.4 The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group within 48 hours of the decision. 3.4 Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message welcoming new posters. The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy. Posters will be expected to comply with these guidelines. 3.5 Disclaimer The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of their own posts. 3.6 Approval of posts The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter. 3.7 Location of Charter and Moderation Policy The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org) and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup. 3.8 Changes to this Charter This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least six weeks. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Moderator: "Andrew James" Moderator: "Mike Speegle" Moderator: "Eric Holeman" Moderator: "Nomen Klature" Moderator: "Bdubya" Moderator: "Lal Truckee" Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" Moderator: "Mary Malmros" Moderator: "Bruno Melli" Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com END MODERATOR INFO. DISTRIBUTION: Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following group: rec.skiing.nordic rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Final Vote Ack Voted Yes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ a.dingo~mebay.biz John Schmidt a.j.heney~btinternet.com Alex Heney abricker~texas.net Austin Bricker adaniel~triad.rr.com Aaron Daniel adrenochrome~3pin.net Adrenochrome adrianhammon~yahoo.co.uk Adrian Hammon ajames54~hotmail.com Andrew James alangbaker~telus.net Alan Baker allenlybarger~qwest.net Allen Lybarger an492~freenet.carleton.ca Ottawaws andrew-johnston~btconnect.com Andrew Johnston andrew~bdel.com Andrew McLean andy~amc-comm.demon.co.uk Andy Willcock anne246~hotmail.com Anne Strohm apr_temp~yahoo.com Andrew R arizona~ispwest.com Paul Parisi Armin.Hasenkox~teckcominco.com Armin Hasenkox astro~skiutah.com AstroPax a_kerrison~yahoo.com ant bashley~myrealbox.com The Real Bev bassuk~u.washington.edu James Bassuk bbense~SLAC.Stanford.EDU Booker C. Bense BDeMaat~aol.com Bob DeMaat bdubya~interaccess.com bdubya ben.ferg~xtra.co.nz Ben Ferguson ben.hodson~turningleaf.co.uk Ben Hodson biffoday~yahoo.com Erik Leonard billg~bacchae.f9.co.uk Bill Godfrey billwilkinson~prodigy.net Bill Wilkinson Bob.Peters~wcom.com Bob Peters bobirene~attbi.com pigo bouvin~daimi.au.dk Niels Olof Bouvin brentf~pacbell.net Brent Fairbanks briansnat~att.net Brian Sniatkowski brozen~torah.org Flanker bruce~pobox.com Bruce Crawford bruno~peakpeak.com Bruno Melli BssnRX~aol.com James Kirker bstrohm~juno.com Betty Strohm bteddy~gtcom.net bteddy bursaria~pacific.net.au Susannah Franey cfchoi~lycos.com Chris Choi ch2~uswest.net Clark chester~black-diamond.com Chester Bullock chief-curmudgeon~subdimension.com Rinaldi J. Montessi chris.anderson~codeway.com Chris Anderson chris~txbarnes.com Chris Barnes chriseb~ukshells.co.uk Chris Ebenezer chuckh~softhome.net Chuck cinetrix~telus.net R.Landy coffee_boy101~hotmail.com Mr. Splodge couch_carcass~yahoo.com Joe Marshall cowpunk~attbi.com CowPunk cparker6~houston.rr.com Charley Parker crash2000~sympatico.ca Punch culken~netscape.net ken word cwilkes~webone.com.au Craig Wilkes c_ish~mindspring.com Christopher Ish aka CBI dan~angband.org Runs With Scissors daniel.okine~hp.com Daniel Okine dans~drydog.com Dan Anderson dave~digitrain.com David Huet davebath~excite.com David E. Bath davemay~attbi.com David May daveytaylor~lycos.com Davey Taylor david.nirenberg~att.net David Nirenberg david.off~voila.fr David Off david~kimble.co.uk David Off davidandkylecrist~yahoo.com David Crist davidharris99~rogers.com David Harris davidmc37865~hotmail.com David McConnell dc~panix.com David W. Crawford dcvetkovic~gmx.net Dragan Cvetkovic ddean~calpoly.edu DantheMan dewdew~bendcable.com DDDavidson dfrost~maths.tcd.ie Dermot Frost dhackney~optusnet.com.au Denis Hackney dimennaw~fidnet.com William L. DiMenna djhski~usa.net Dave in Spokane djohnson+1~spamblocked.com David Johnson dkh~xmission.com David Hayes Dmckeon~swcp.com Denis McKeon DMiller851~aol.com Dan Miller dnielsen~seanet.com Drew Nielsen dnimon~idirect.com David Nimon donohd00~rcn.com Dr David dougvance~telus.net Doug Vance dwight.reed~verizon.net Dwight Reed dwolff~panix.com David Wolff ecw1216~ix.netcom.com Ted Waldron Ed~Bertsch.org ed bertsch editor~FirstTracksOnline.com Marc Guido Editor~windsurf.ca ottawaws eholem1~uic.edu Eric Holeman elpirata~bigpond.com Clive Stansfield endless~skistreak.com Endlessseason Ernieman~charter.net Ernieman eskwired~panix.com EskWIRED ESWPeace~aol.com Esther Webb ev~cs.columbia.edu Eviatar Yemini everett92107~attbi.com Don Everett eyre~math.utah.edu David Eyre fcnpereira~mac.com Fernando Pereira FeedMeFeeedMe~aol.com FeedMeFeeedMe fhinden~orange.net Frances Hinden Fredd~volcanomail.com Fredd freehold~theworld.com freehold~shell.theworld.com fsziegler~excite.com Fred Ziegler fun.no~all.at Ari Asikainen fwbrown~bellsouth.net Wayne Brown gary~ouraycountyhomes.com J. G. Dunn gdm~theworld.com Gregory Mughati ggw+rsam~wolves.durham.nc.us Gregory Woodbury gincognito~canada.com Gincognito gja~meowing.net greg andruk gmueller~theworld.com gmueller~world.std.com gordharr~island.net Gordon gordy100~attbi.com str8line gravity~charter.net Mark Bryant (Gravity) gregas~cliffhanger.com Greg Sadowy gregh34~hotmail.com Greg Hilton gregor.ronald~canterbury.ac.nz Gregor Ronald groszko~uiuc.edu Victor guertin~middlebury.edu David Guertin hannigan~world.std.com Martin Hannigan hogarth~eircom.net Hogarth Hoodfam~aol.com Drew Hood ichiloe~hotmail.com Chiloe icmk05~operamail.com Ian King imer~mulakaj.com Imer Mulakaj informant_xyz~yahoo.com informant irwin~stat.ohio-state.edu Mark Irwin j-furlonger~adfa.edu.au John Furlonger j.decourcey~erols.com James DeCourcey jabrooks~mindspring.com Jim Brooks jackwan1~iwon.com Jack Wan jayster726~yahoo.com jaysan jbenson~foxinternet.net Jan Benson jbyrnes~frii.com John Byrnes jc1771~hotmail.com J Curtin jdg~diogenes.sacramento.ca.us John David Galt jerry.abramson~oracle.com Jerry Abramson je_cs~telus.net CHARLES SCOTT jimotto~duke.edu Jim Otto jjbradley~erols.com John Bradley jlowder~aconex.com Jason Lowder John~iskijay.com John Grainger Johnston.Scot~dorseylaw.com Scot J. Johnston jparker~rrmh.rrps.k12.nm.us Jan Parker jrredho~swcp.com John Red-Horse jstrohm~ev1.net Jim Strohm jtnskis~crestedbutte.net Jack Nixon Julian.Mattay~csiro.au Julian Mattay jvandijk~proscenium.ca Jordan van Dijk jvwalker51~earthlink.net Vincent Walker kam~piste.demon.co.uk Kam Ho katew~enteract.com Kate the Short kentastn~swbell.net KentB keri~drawpaintcreate.com Keri L. Tishner kjn~planet.nl Jeroen van Kessel knotnook~traverse.com Kneale Brownson kowallek~iglou.com Dennis Kowallek l.a.ram~ix.netcom.com Lou Ramsay lal_truckee~yahoo.com lal_truckee lattier~fuse.net David L. Lattier lmcgrath~uwsa.edu Lisa McGrath lordboots~yahoo.com boots lowell.skoog~alpenglow.org Lowell Skoog lundy~umich.edu Michael Lundy mahatmakanejeeves~swissinfo.org Mahatmakanejeeves mail~sebastian-brocks.de Sebastian Brocks malmros~shore.net Mary Malmros marie_holmes75~yahoo.com Marie Holmes markfelber~earthlink.net mark matt_allen_g~hotmail.com Matthew Gay aka AntiSoCalSkier maverick~nym.alias.net Maverick mcs~hpesmcs.fc.hp.com Mike Sedmak mcw~telesynthesis.com Michael C. Watz mdstatman~hotmail.com Jim Maar megan.matthews~optusnet.com.au Robert Croll meltzr~earthlink.net Howie Meltzer merril3~yahoo.com Richard Merrill mikael.segercrantz~pp.inet.fi Mikael Segercrantz miken~sauna.com Mike Naughton mikespeegle~netscape.net Mike Speegle mistypnd~vermontel.net RICHARD WALSH morrison427~yahoo.com Jim Morrison morton~ida.org Richard Morton mrcrab~charter.net Randy Smith n.fisher4~verizon.net Nate Fisher naddy~mips.inka.de Christian Weisgerber nasafox~aol.com NASAFOX nate~midmaine.com Nadine neil~neil.swingler.name Neil Swingler news~clydesoles.com Clyde Soles nick_prior~hotmail.com Nick Prior Olaf~easynews.com Olaf Timandahaff p.mcmillan~uq.edu.au QuietAsAMouse pakirk~attbi.com Peter Kirkpatrick pan~syix.com Pan patrickj~interchange.ubc.ca Patrick Johnston paul.s.wolf~alum.wpi.edu Paul S. Wolf paulh~wrevel.com Paul Harwood pete~newmud.comm.uottawa.ca pete hickey peter_hood~ausi.com Peter Hood phil~panix.com Phil Gustafson physicsman000~yahoo.com Tom Mann plenz~lenny.sfrn.dnai.com Patrick Lenz qa3171~email.mot.com Jayson Tran r.driedger~sympatico.ca Ross Driedger randyw~fw-nh.na.teleatlas.com Randy Witlicki rb~hpesrb.fc.hp.com Richard Blumberg redalert~myway.com redalert Richard.Cook~Colorado.EDU Richard Cook richardross~mac.com Richard Ross rick~bcm.tmc.edu Richard H Miller rickk~shaw.ca Rick Knowlan rjs~fdy2.demon.co.uk Robert Swindells rjuliano~cfl.rr.com Robert Juliano rlcarr~animato.arlington.ma.us Rich Carreiro rlee~swcp.com Bob Lee rlove3~rochester.rr.com Rebecca Love rob~uberlogik.com Rob Ward robert~chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk Robert Marshall robin~robingray.co.uk Robin Gray roger~rgtilbury.demon.co.uk Roger Tilbury ron_olsen~qwest.net Ron Olsen RozNor67~cox.net Peri rphenry~cox.net Richard Henry russell~thehovel.net Russell Kerrison saemisch~mac.com Mike Saemisch sbfaulds~ihug.co.nz Stuart Brodie sentience_soma~yahoo.com Allison D. SHERIT1~aol.com Sheri shuffman~ichips.intel.com Sam Huffman siegman~stanford.edu Anthony E. Siegman SkiNut~telus.net SkiNut Skirecr2~aol.com Janet W. Collins slaby~magma.ca John Slaby smasia~hotmail.com Seth Masia smlucas~flashmail.com Steven Lucas sn0wv1xen~yahoo.com SnowVixen sniadoch~frontiernet.net Henry J. Sniadoch snoig~hotmail.com snoig~hotmail.com snoskier1~yahoo.com Mark A Denhart spooge~petitmorte.net Spooge squid~panix.com Yeoh Yiu sr~ruhs.co.uk Stephen Reid stallard~bbn.com Dave Stallard stig_othedump~hotmail.com Stig_othedump (David Aitken) strohm~airmail.net John R. Strohm stuartmc~northweb.com Stuart A. McCreary Sue~mashtub.demon.co.uk Sue White svengolly~myrealbox.com Sven Golly svseckinger~worldnet.att.net steve seckinger tam-rantzau~mail-online.dk Tamarisk taz~theworld.com taz~theworld.com ted_harper~yahoo.com Ted Harper tempdog~erols.com A [Temporary] Dog the.robertsons~gte.net Matt Robertson thecskier~aol.com TCS (The Colorado Skier) thomas.w.taylor~att.net Tommy Taylor thor~anta.net Thor Kottelin tina~tripacerdriver.com Tina Marie tingrinfan~earthlink.net Sam Seiber tingrinfan~worldlink.net Samuel Seiber tmoero~yahoo.com tm Toddar~aol.com ToddD tom~xor.cc Tom Geldner tpurcell~pgcps.org Patricia Purcell trent~trentland.com trent trunky2~hotmail.com Jim Wilson tryanc~theworld.com Ryan Cleary ts~UWasa.Fi Timo Salmi TxSkier~aol.com Dan Simpson uglymoney~yahoo.com uglymoney usenet~nosila.net Mark C. Brown ussengineer~yahoo.com Brian Schwadron vaidas~ameritech.net Vaidas Simaitis vern93~comcast.net Vern93 "Dave' walt~boatnerd.com Walt wamftrox~zeta.org.au Michael wdittman~yahoo.com William Dittman webbj~erols.com John Webb weghe~xs4all.nl Harry van de Weghe werner~ccwf.cc.utexas.edu Werner west~ghunter.mv.com Guido wild_bill426~yahoo.com Billy Carlton Sawyer wiz~verinet.com Wiz wwfiv~attbi.com William W. Farley IV w_lang~bellsouth.net Warren Lang xpozur~attbi.com Steve Lapierre xtrxtc~hotmail.com Justin Cram Voted No ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ bill~scconsult.com Bill Cole cat~idiom.com cat denebeim~deepthot.org Jay Denebeim,,, Ekkehard~Uthke.de Ekkehard Uthke ellis~spinics.net Rick Ellis fungus~OCF.Berkeley.EDU Henry Fung graham.drabble~lineone.net Graham Drabble harder~ifa.au.dk Jesper Harder heather299~aol.com Heather hkt69~earthlink.net Henrietta K. Thomas kmorgan~spamcop.net Kathy Morgan michael.dahms~fh-flensburg.de Michael Dahms miliff~qnet.com Mary Shafer Iliff mmontcha~OregonVOS.net Matthew Montchalin psmyth~gmx.net Peter Smyth scottabe~hotmail.com Scott Abraham stainles~bga.com Dwight Brown suzieflame~hotmail.com Suzieflame thorn55~hotmail.com Thorn Usdlaw2l~aol.com Jack Hanna zofran~deepthot.org Cheryl L Martin Abstained ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 216-5888~mcimail.com Arthur L. Rubin franck.t~netcourrier.com Franck T h.stilmack~jach.hawaii.edu Henry Stilmack jamesrheckman~yahoo.com Jim Heckman joe~sfbooks.com Joe Bernstein joele~pop4.net Joel Ehrlich lsimonetta~newsguy.com Leo G. Simonetta max~alcyone.com Erik Max Francis mmrosa~bigpond.net.au Michal Rosa moleski~canisius.edu Martin X. Moleski, SJ mwfrisco~hotmail.com mwfrisco p.texier~genindre.org Patrick Texier rra~stanford.edu Russ Allbery tjmc~enteract.com tjmc van.ette~inter.nl.net Robert-Jan van Ette yan~storm.ca Yves Bellefeuille Votes in error ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ adam~tipperlinne.com Adam Edwards ! Ack bounced txchris~devidalNOSPAM.tv Chris Devidal ! Ack bounced To restore the email addresses above, pipe the ack list through the following command: sed -e 's/~/@/g'