From Harvey.S.Cohen@att.com Thu Dec 14 13:04:14 1995 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: Harvey.S.Cohen@att.com Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,soc.culture.jewish Subject: RFD: soc.culture.jewish.moderated moderated Followup-To: news.groups Date: 14 Dec 1995 18:04:10 -0000 Organization: . Lines: 129 Sender: tale@uunet.uu.net Approved: newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: <818964249.20565@uunet.uu.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Archive-Name: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Xref: uunet news.announce.newgroups:8013 news.groups:179056 soc.culture.jewish:209662 REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) moderated group soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a Request For Discussion for the creation of a newsgroup to be named soc.culture.jewish.moderated RATIONALE: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Between two hundred and three hundred messages per day are posted to soc.culture.jewish. More than half are entirely off-topic. The off-topic messages originate in other groups, such as misc.kids.health or talk.origins, and are cross-posted to s.c.j. Once a thread is cross-posted, followups continue to go to s.c.j. This would not be a problem if all readers had software with suitable killfile capabilities. In the real world, though, most readers will not have such software for several years. For them, s.c.j. is difficult to read because of the high volume of chaff. The new group would, technically, be moderated. However, the "moderator" would simply be software to reject all cross-posted articles. Exceptions would be made for administratively necessary cross-posts (such as RFDs and CFVs) and for cross-posts from groups in the soc.culture.jewish.* hierarchy that are themselves moderated (e.g., soc.culture.jewish.parenting). The charter of the new group would be identical to the charter of soc.culture.jewish. The complete charter of soc.culture.jewish is in the FAQ, at ftp://shamash.nysernet.org/israel/lists/scj-faq/HTML/index.html The most crucial parts are reproduced at the end of this RFD. Why not go all the way and have a human moderator or a mailing list? 1) The key problem is the sheer volume of off-topic messages. Blocking crossposts would solve the key problem. 2) There is general agreement that no one individual should be able to censor s.c.j. If only crossposts are blocked, then anyone is free (within the bounds of Netiquette) to submit any message to s.c.j. CHARTER: soc.culture.jewish.moderated What topics are appropriate for s.c.j.m? soc.culture.jewish.moderated is for discussions concerning Judaism and the surrounding culture (Yiddishkeit, Hebrew, Jewish motherhood, etc.). This includes discussions regarding the various recognized movements within Judaism, debates over halacha, Torah interpretations, etc. "Divrey Torah" - long or short sermons relating to Judaism and Torah, are especially welcome. Survey questions are also appropriate, such as "How does your community organize its free loan societies and scholarships for poor Jews who want a Jewish education?" Discussions about aliyah and Zionism are appropriate, but only if they remain in a Jewish context. If you want to talk about the more political or secular aspects of these subjects, it is more appropriate to use soc.culture.israel. Factual discussions of the holocaust (shoah) are allowed in s.c.j; however, those wishing to discuss that issue might want to explore instead the newsgroup soc.culture.jewish.holocaust. s.c.j.h is a moderated newsgroup that serves as a storagehouse for all kinds of information from various sources on the Holocaust in Europe that occurred between 1942-1945 (along with the events leading up to it that happened in the early 30's). The newsgroup includes Holocaust materials from both personal testimonies of survivors and their families and "hard" facts from historians and observers. It is moderated to prevent any anti-Semitic or race-baiting comments from Neo-Nazis or self-proclaimed "academic" Holocaust deniers or revisionists, and is not be a forum for discussing whether or not the Shoah happened; instead, s.c.j.h is a place for intelligent and factual discussion of the Shoah. For those Usenet readers who wish to debate the existence of the Holocaust, they are encouraged to read the groups alt.revisionists and soc.history, along with the group alt.skinheads. What topics are not appropriate for s.c.j.m? Middle East politics, especially international issues concerning Israel, belong in talk.politics.mideast (t.p.m), not s.c.j.m. Discussions of internal Israeli politics belong in soc.culture.israel (s.c.i). Discussions of Israeli Culture are inappropriate for s.c.j.m; rather, they belong in s.c.i. If the group il.talk exists, it is also appropriate for discussions of Israeli culture, but note that its distribution is limited to Israel and sites receiving the il distribution (for example, nysernet.org). Material that is available from a listserv is inappropriate to post to s.c.j.m (that is, the entire newsgroup shouldn't receive the list). However, a single weekly message listing the lists available is reasonable. The FAQ Committee is current incorporating this information into the reading list portion of the FAQ. One sample from a new list is allowed. Readers of s.c.j.m are committed to their religion; it is inappropriate to "witness" or preach. Discussions of so-called "Messianic Judaism[sic]," and the Christian missionary organization calling itself "Jews for Jesus," and similar topics belong in alt.messianic or the appropriate talk.religion.* group; don't post them to s.c.j.m. Revisionist teachings (i.e., those teachings that attempt to deny that the holocaust ever happened) are inappropriate for s.c.j.m. They belong in alt.revisionism. For more information on how to cope with those holding revisionist beliefs, the interested reader is referred to [Lip93] (Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory.) in the Antisemitism portion of the reading list. Lastly, try to avoid personal attacks. Don't write "Lashon Hara", derogatory information about people or groups. (If slanderous and false, it's called "Motzei Shem Ra") It is also forbidden to embarrass others in public. (Rare exceptions exist, so read a book such as R' Pliskin's Guard your Tongue for details.) END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Moderator: Harvey.S.Cohen@att.com The group will be automatically moderated by a program. Mr. Cohen will be the caretaker of the program. END MODERATOR INFO. -- Harvey.S.Cohen@att.com From rms39@columbia.edu Wed Apr 5 16:26:26 2000 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Russell Steinthal Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,soc.culture.jewish,soc.culture.israel Subject: RFD: soc.culture.jewish.moderated moderated Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <954977170.7869@isc.org> Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 23:26:11 GMT Lines: 256 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11429 news.groups:353123 soc.culture.jewish:534575 soc.culture.israel:226047 REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) moderated group soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) for the creation of a world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.jewish.moderated. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below. Newgroup line: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Discussion of Jewish culture and religion. (Moderated) RATIONALE: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Soc.culture.jewish has been part of Usenet since the Great Renaming, and has probably been relatively high-volume with a relatively low signal to noise ratio for almost as long. In recent years, however, the combination of the high volume of posts and the large portion of those which are either off-topic, indiscriminately crossposted (one survey showed that 689 of 1445 articles posted over a one week period were crossposted to more than three groups, a phenomenon which often leads to floating flamewars), or anti-Semitic has driven many readers and posters away from the newsgroup. Soc.culture.jewish.moderated is proposed as an alternative to that forum. This proposal was carefully crafted by a committee of soc.culture.jewish readers from across the ideological spectrum with two goals in mind: to cut out the junk which drives people away from soc.culture.jewish and to maintain the free-flowing spirit and broad range of discussion which has characterized soc.culture.jewish since its founding. Finally, while it may seem intuitive to place new religion newsgroups in the soc.religion hierarchy or to moderate soc.culture.jewish in place, the name soc.culture.jewish.moderated was the overwhelming favorite of current soc.culture.jewish readers in a straw poll, and maintains consistency with the existing soc.culture.jewish.* hierarchy (which, of itself, is a historical namespace oddity). CHARTER: soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of all aspects of Judaism, including its history, philosophy, culture, practice, and law. In general, any post which contains substantive Jewish content is appropriate. Note that for certain subjects there may be other newsgroups which are equally or more appropriate (for example, soc.culture.jewish.holocaust or soc.humor.jewish); the decision of which appropriate groups to use is left to the poster. The following, however, are inappropriate for posting in soc.culture.jewish.moderated: * Inappropriately crossposted discussion, i.e. any article crossposted to more than 3 groups, or to any group on the list of banned groups (to be specified by the moderators). Articles approved for posting in news.answers or news.announce.newgroups are exceptions to this rule, and may be posted at the discretion of the moderators. * Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of the Jewish identity of one of its participants or subjects: for example, discussion of American politics is not on-topic solely because one of the politicians being discussed is Jewish, or because one of the posters involved in the discussion is Jewish. Such discussions must have substantive Jewish content to be acceptable, as explained above. (Personal announcements of relevance to the soc.culture.jewish.moderated community and responses to such posts are acceptable for posting, however.) * Political discussion, including Israeli, Middle Eastern, and Arab politics, except as it has substantive Jewish content, as explained above. (Such posts should be sent to appropriate newsgroups such as talk.politics.mideast or soc.culture.israel.) * Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of a relationship to Israel, without other substantive Jewish content. For example, the relationship of religion and state in Israel is acceptable, but discussion of Israeli health care reform is inappropriate. Similarly, discussion of secular Jewish identity in Israel is OK, but discussion of Israeli pop music is inappropriate. (Such posts are best directed to soc.culture.israel). * Offensive or derogatory statements aimed at any individual or group. Criticism of ideas or actions, however, are acceptable provided that they meet the other requirements of the charter and moderation policy. * Posts denying or questioning the existence, scope, or extent of the Holocaust. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussions might be interested in alt.revisionism or soc.history). Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such ideas, however, is acceptable. * Proseltyzing or witnessing for any non-Jewish religion. Responses to such posts are also off-topic. Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such attempts, however, is acceptable. * Discussion of the beliefs or doctrines of Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christianity, Messianic Judaism, or other similar groups which affirm that Jesus was or is the Jewish Messiah. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussion might be interested in soc.religion.christian or alt.messianic.) Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such groups, however, is acceptable. * Binary posts, except for small binaries included in non-binary messages for the purposes of authentication. * Commercial posts for non-Jewish items. Commercial posts for Jewish items will be allowed at the discretion of the moderators. Finally, note that the primary language of the newsgroup is English. If you use words or phrases from other languages, please consider translating them so that everyone can understand them. The moderators may reject any post which is in a language which no member of the moderation panel understands. END CHARTER. MODERATION POLICY: soc.culture.jewish.moderated The moderators are responsible for ensuring that posts to the group conform to the requirements of the charter and may use whatever scripts or procedures they believe are necessary to best achieve that goal, subject to the following restrictions: * Submissions from moderators shall go through the same approval process as used for submissions from non-moderators, and at no point shall a moderator approve his or her own submission. The modearation panel may, however, issue guidelines authorizing moderators to approve their own administrative posts when the interests of the newsgroup demand immediate action. * No person shall be suspended from posting to the newsgroup unless they have previously received at least three warnings, and any such suspension shall last no longer than one month. A second or subsequent suspension of the same poster shall require only one warning and may last up to one year, but shall be approved by at least 2/3 of the moderation panel. * Any decision of a single moderator shall be subject to an appeal to the entire panel, where a majority vote shall control. Any submission which has been approved and posted, however, shall not be cancelled. The moderators shall post the current moderation guidelines to the newsgroup on a regular basis, and shall make them available upon request. Changes to the guidelines shall be announced in the newsgroup and shall require the consent of a simple majority of the moderation panel. New moderators shall be approved by a majority of the current moderators, and may be added whenever the moderators feel it is in the best interest of the newsgroup. Moderators may, of course, resign at any time; they may also be removed for cause by a 2/3 majority of the moderation panel. END MODERATION POLICY. MODERATOR INFO: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Moderator: Eliot Shimoff Moderator: Joel Shurkin Moderator: Russell Steinthal Moderator: Brett Weiss In accord with the moderation policy (above)'s charge to the moderators to use whatever means they deem appropriate to ensure that posts conform to the charter, the moderators have adopted the following *initial* moderation procedures. They are, of course, subject to change by majority vote of the moderators. Proposed Initial Moderation Guidelines for soc.culture.jewish.moderated: * Initial robo-moderation (pre-screening) All submissions will be initially checked by the robo-moderation script, which will take the following actions, in the specified order: 1. Articles which are inappropriately crossposted or are binaries will returned to the submitter with an appropriate explanation. 2. Articles which meet moderator-specified criteria will be forwarded for human moderation (which is described below). 3. Articles submitted by posters on the auto-approval list (see below) will be approved and posted. 4. All other articles will be forwarded for human moderation. * Auto-approval The moderators will maintain a list of posters who, through their submissions to the group, have shown that they will comply with the group's charter and have thus qualified for auto-approval. In general, the moderators will add any poster who has submitted five consecutive approved submissions, but the moderators may, when they believe it is in the best interest of the newsgroup, decline to do so. An auto-approved poster who submits an inappropriate article may be removed from the auto-approval list by a majority vote of the moderation panel. He or she shall immediately be eligible for re-addition to the auto-approval list per the above procedure. The moderators shall inform posters when their auto-approval status is changed. * Human moderation Submissions which are designated for human moderation shall be forwarded to one randomly selected moderator, who shall approve or reject it in accordance with the charter. If the moderator feels it is desirable, he or she may return the submission for reassignment, or may forward it to the entire panel for decision by a majority vote. Any article which is rejected under this provision shall be returned to the submitter with an appropriate rejection message which shall, if possible, include suggestions for how the post could be modified in a way which is likely to increase the chance of approval in the future. 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 newsgruops 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, soc.culture.jewish, soc.culture.jewish.holocaust, soc.culture.jewish.parenting, soc.genealogy.jewish, rec.humor.jewish, soc.culture.israel Proponent: Irene Stern Friedman Proponent: Sheldon Glickler Proponent: Doug Jones Proponent: Moshe Schorr Proponent: Russell Steinthal Proponent: Brett Weiss From rms39@columbia.edu Fri May 12 13:25:28 2000 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Russell Steinthal Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,soc.culture.jewish,soc.culture.israel,soc.genealogy.jewish Subject: 2nd RFD: soc.culture.jewish.moderated moderated Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <958163096.7208@isc.org> Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 20:24:56 GMT Lines: 281 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11478 news.groups:354826 soc.culture.jewish:543874 soc.culture.israel:231811 soc.genealogy.jewish:64724 REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) moderated group soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) for the creation of a world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup soc.culture.jewish.moderated. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time. Procedural details are below. CHANGES from previous RFD: 1. Added rec.food.cuisine.jewish to the RFD distribution. Removed soc.culture.jewish.holocaust, since the combined list would have exceeded the 200 character limit and the s.c.j.holocaust moderators do not appear to have even posted the first RFD. 2. Added Marjorie Peskin as a moderator. 3. Fixed typographical errors, including reference to the non-existent newsgroup soc.humor.jewish. (Changed to rec.humor.jewish). 4. Removed redundant word "scope" (synonymous with "extent") from Holocaust revisionism provision. 5. Slight change to the wording of the commercial post provision to discourage commercial posts. 6. Changed the initial moderation guidelines to make clear that crossposts to other moderated groups will be handled by humans, not the script. Newsgroup line: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Discussion of Jewish culture and religion. (Moderated) RATIONALE: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Soc.culture.jewish has been part of Usenet since the Great Renaming, and has probably been relatively high-volume with a relatively low signal to noise ratio for almost as long. In recent years, however, the combination of the high volume of posts and the large portion of those which are either off-topic, indiscriminately crossposted (one survey showed that 689 of 1445 articles posted over a one week period were crossposted to more than three groups, a phenomenon which often leads to floating flamewars), or anti-Semitic has driven many readers and posters away from the newsgroup. Soc.culture.jewish.moderated is proposed as an alternative to that forum. This proposal was carefully crafted by a committee of soc.culture.jewish readers from across the ideological spectrum with two goals in mind: to cut out the junk which drives people away from soc.culture.jewish and to maintain the free-flowing spirit and broad range of discussion which has characterized soc.culture.jewish since its founding. Finally, while it may seem intuitive to place new religion newsgroups in the soc.religion hierarchy or to moderate soc.culture.jewish in place, the name soc.culture.jewish.moderated was the overwhelming favorite of current soc.culture.jewish readers in a straw poll, and maintains consistency with the existing soc.culture.jewish.* hierarchy (which, of itself, is a historical namespace oddity). CHARTER: soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of all aspects of Judaism, including its history, philosophy, culture, practice, and law. In general, any post which contains substantive Jewish content is appropriate. Note that for certain subjects there may be other newsgroups which are equally or more appropriate (for example, soc.culture.jewish.holocaust or rec.humor.jewish); the decision of which appropriate groups to use is left to the poster. The following, however, are inappropriate for posting in soc.culture.jewish.moderated: * Inappropriately crossposted discussion, i.e. any article crossposted to more than 3 groups, or to any group on the list of banned groups (to be specified by the moderators). Articles approved for posting in news.answers or news.announce.newgroups are exceptions to this rule, and may be posted at the discretion of the moderators. * Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of the Jewish identity of one of its participants or subjects: for example, discussion of American politics is not on-topic solely because one of the politicians being discussed is Jewish, or because one of the posters involved in the discussion is Jewish. Such discussions must have substantive Jewish content to be acceptable, as explained above. (Personal announcements of relevance to the soc.culture.jewish.moderated community and responses to such posts are acceptable for posting, however.) * Political discussion, including Israeli, Middle Eastern, and Arab politics, except as it has substantive Jewish content, as explained above. (Such posts should be sent to appropriate newsgroups such as talk.politics.mideast or soc.culture.israel.) * Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of a relationship to Israel, without other substantive Jewish content. For example, the relationship of religion and state in Israel is acceptable, but discussion of Israeli health care reform is inappropriate. Similarly, discussion of secular Jewish identity in Israel is OK, but discussion of Israeli pop music is inappropriate. (Such posts are best directed to soc.culture.israel). * Offensive or derogatory statements aimed at any individual or group. Criticism of ideas or actions, however, are acceptable provided that they meet the other requirements of the charter and moderation policy. * Posts denying or questioning the existence or extent of the Holocaust. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussions might be interested in alt.revisionism or soc.history). Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such ideas, however, is acceptable. * Proselytizing or witnessing for any non-Jewish religion. Responses to such posts are also off-topic. Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such attempts, however, is acceptable. * Discussion of the beliefs or doctrines of Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christianity, Messianic Judaism, or other similar groups which affirm that Jesus was or is the Jewish Messiah. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussion might be interested in soc.religion.christian or alt.messianic.) Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such groups, however, is acceptable. * Binary posts, except for small binaries included in non-binary messages for the purposes of authentication. * Commercial posts for non-Jewish items. Occasional commercial posts for Jewish items may be permitted at the discretion of the moderators. Finally, note that the primary language of the newsgroup is English. If you use words or phrases from other languages, please consider translating them so that everyone can understand them. The moderators may reject any post which is in a language which no member of the moderation panel understands. END CHARTER. MODERATION POLICY: soc.culture.jewish.moderated The moderators are responsible for ensuring that posts to the group conform to the requirements of the charter and may use whatever scripts or procedures they believe are necessary to best achieve that goal, subject to the following restrictions: * Submissions from moderators shall go through the same approval process as used for submissions from non-moderators, and at no point shall a moderator approve his or her own submission. The moderation panel may, however, issue guidelines authorizing moderators to approve their own administrative posts when the interests of the newsgroup demand immediate action. * No person shall be suspended from posting to the newsgroup unless they have previously received at least three warnings, and any such suspension shall last no longer than one month. A second or subsequent suspension of the same poster shall require only one warning and may last up to one year, but shall be approved by at least 2/3 of the moderation panel. * Any decision of a single moderator shall be subject to an appeal to the entire panel, where a majority vote shall control. Any submission which has been approved and posted, however, shall not be cancelled. The moderators shall post the current moderation guidelines to the newsgroup on a regular basis, and shall make them available upon request. Changes to the guidelines shall be announced in the newsgroup and shall require the consent of a simple majority of the moderation panel. New moderators shall be approved by a majority of the current moderators, and may be added whenever the moderators feel it is in the best interest of the newsgroup. Moderators may, of course, resign at any time; they may also be removed for cause by a 2/3 majority of the moderation panel. END MODERATION POLICY. MODERATOR INFO: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Moderator: Marjorie Peskin Moderator: Eliot Shimoff Moderator: Joel Shurkin Moderator: Russell Steinthal Moderator: Brett Weiss In accord with the moderation policy (above)'s charge to the moderators to use whatever means they deem appropriate to ensure that posts conform to the charter, the moderators have adopted the following *initial* moderation procedures. They are, of course, subject to change by majority vote of the moderators. Proposed Initial Moderation Guidelines for soc.culture.jewish.moderated: * Initial robo-moderation (pre-screening) All submissions will be initially checked by the robo-moderation script, which will take the following actions, in the specified order: 1. Articles which are inappropriately crossposted or are binaries will returned to the submitter with an appropriate explanation. 2. Articles which meet moderator-specified criteria will be forwarded for human moderation (which is described below). Any post which is crossposted to another moderated newsgroup will be forwarded for human moderation. 3. Articles submitted by posters on the auto-approval list (see below) will be approved and posted. 4. All other articles will be forwarded for human moderation. * Auto-approval The moderators will maintain a list of posters who, through their submissions to the group, have shown that they will comply with the group's charter and have thus qualified for auto-approval. In general, the moderators will add any poster who has submitted five consecutive approved submissions, but the moderators may, when they believe it is in the best interest of the newsgroup, decline to do so. An auto-approved poster who submits an inappropriate article may be removed from the auto-approval list by a majority vote of the moderation panel. He or she shall immediately be eligible for re-addition to the auto-approval list per the above procedure. The moderators shall inform posters when their auto-approval status is changed. * Human moderation Submissions which are designated for human moderation shall be forwarded to one randomly selected moderator, who shall approve or reject it in accordance with the charter. If the moderator feels it is desirable, he or she may return the submission for reassignment, or may forward it to the entire panel for decision by a majority vote. Any article which is rejected under this provision shall be returned to the submitter with an appropriate rejection message which shall, if possible, include suggestions for how the post could be modified in a way which is likely to increase the chance of approval in the future. 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, soc.culture.jewish, soc.culture.jewish.parenting, soc.genealogy.jewish, rec.humor.jewish, soc.culture.israel, rec.food.cuisine.jewish Proponent: Irene Stern Friedman Proponent: Sheldon Glickler Proponent: Doug Jones Proponent: Moshe Schorr Proponent: Russell Steinthal Proponent: Brett Weiss From dave@dogwood.com Wed Jun 14 01:15:45 2000 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Dave Cornejo Reply-To: vote@dogwood.com Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,soc.culture.israel,soc.culture.jewish,soc.genealogy.jewish Subject: CFV: soc.culture.jewish.moderated moderated Followup-To: poster Message-ID: <960970118.17777@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Expires: 6 Jul 2000 00:00:00 GMT Archive-Name: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 08:08:39 GMT Lines: 288 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11501 news.groups:356799 soc.culture.israel:236474 soc.culture.jewish:553158 soc.genealogy.jewish:65850 FIRST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) moderated group soc.culture.jewish.moderated Newsgroups line: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Discussion of Jewish culture and religion. (Moderated) Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 5 Jul 2000. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent. Proponent: Irene Stern Friedman Proponent: Sheldon Glickler Proponent: Doug Jones Proponent: Moshe Schorr Proponent: Russell Steinthal Proponent: Brett Weiss Votetaker: Dave Cornejo RATIONALE: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Soc.culture.jewish has been part of Usenet since the Great Renaming, and has probably been relatively high-volume with a relatively low signal to noise ratio for almost as long. In recent years, however, the combination of the high volume of posts and the large portion of those which are either off-topic, indiscriminately crossposted (one survey showed that 689 of 1445 articles posted over a one week period were crossposted to more than three groups, a phenomenon which often leads to floating flamewars), or anti-Semitic has driven many readers and posters away from the newsgroup. Soc.culture.jewish.moderated is proposed as an alternative to that forum. This proposal was carefully crafted by a committee of soc.culture.jewish readers from across the ideological spectrum with two goals in mind: to cut out the junk which drives people away from soc.culture.jewish and to maintain the free-flowing spirit and broad range of discussion which has characterized soc.culture.jewish since its founding. Finally, while it may seem intuitive to place new religion newsgroups in the soc.religion hierarchy or to moderate soc.culture.jewish in place, the name soc.culture.jewish.moderated was the overwhelming favorite of current soc.culture.jewish readers in a straw poll, and maintains consistency with the existing soc.culture.jewish.* hierarchy (which, of itself, is a historical namespace oddity). CHARTER: soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of all aspects of Judaism, including its history, philosophy, culture, practice, and law. In general, any post which contains substantive Jewish content is appropriate. Note that for certain subjects there may be other newsgroups which are equally or more appropriate (for example, soc.culture.jewish.holocaust or rec.humor.jewish); the decision of which appropriate groups to use is left to the poster. The following, however, are inappropriate for posting in soc.culture.jewish.moderated: - Inappropriately crossposted discussion, i.e. any article crossposted to more than 3 groups, or to any group on the list of banned groups (to be specified by the moderators). Articles approved for posting in news.answers or news.announce.newgroups are exceptions to this rule, and may be posted at the discretion of the moderators. - Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of the Jewish identity of one of its participants or subjects: for example, discussion of American politics is not on-topic solely because one of the politicians being discussed is Jewish, or because one of the posters involved in the discussion is Jewish. Such discussions must have substantive Jewish content to be acceptable, as explained above. (Personal announcements of relevance to the soc.culture.jewish.moderated community and responses to such posts are acceptable for posting, however.) - Political discussion, including Israeli, Middle Eastern, and Arab politics, except as it has substantive Jewish content, as explained above. (Such posts should be sent to appropriate newsgroups such as talk.politics.mideast or soc.culture.israel.) - Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of a relationship to Israel, without other substantive Jewish content. For example, the relationship of religion and state in Israel is acceptable, but discussion of Israeli health care reform is inappropriate. Similarly, discussion of secular Jewish identity in Israel is OK, but discussion of Israeli pop music is inappropriate. (Such posts are best directed to soc.culture.israel). - Offensive or derogatory statements aimed at any individual or group. Criticism of ideas or actions, however, are acceptable provided that they meet the other requirements of the charter and moderation policy. - Posts denying or questioning the existence or extent of the Holocaust. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussions might be interested in alt.revisionism or soc.history). Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such ideas, however, is acceptable. - Proselytizing or witnessing for any non-Jewish religion. Responses to such posts are also off-topic. Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such attempts, however, is acceptable. - Discussion of the beliefs or doctrines of Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christianity, Messianic Judaism, or other similar groups which affirm that Jesus was or is the Jewish Messiah. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussion might be interested in soc.religion.christian or alt.messianic.) Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such groups, however, is acceptable. - Binary posts, except for small binaries included in non-binary messages for the purposes of authentication. - Commercial posts for non-Jewish items. Occasional commercial posts for Jewish items may be permitted at the discretion of the moderators. Finally, note that the primary language of the newsgroup is English. If you use words or phrases from other languages, please consider translating them so that everyone can understand them. The moderators may reject any post which is in a language which no member of the moderation panel understands. Moderation Policy: soc.culture.jewish.moderated The moderators are responsible for ensuring that posts to the group conform to the requirements of the charter and may use whatever scripts or procedures they believe are necessary to best achieve that goal, subject to the following restrictions: - Submissions from moderators shall go through the same approval process as used for submissions from non-moderators, and at no point shall a moderator approve his or her own submission. The moderation panel may, however, issue guidelines authorizing moderators to approve their own administrative posts when the interests of the newsgroup demand immediate action. - No person shall be suspended from posting to the newsgroup unless they have previously received at least three warnings, and any such suspension shall last no longer than one month. A second or subsequent suspension of the same poster shall require only one warning and may last up to one year, but shall be approved by at least 2/3 of the moderation panel. - Any decision of a single moderator shall be subject to an appeal to the entire panel, where a majority vote shall control. Any submission which has been approved and posted, however, shall not be cancelled. The moderators shall post the current moderation guidelines to the newsgroup on a regular basis, and shall make them available upon request. Changes to the guidelines shall be announced in the newsgroup and shall require the consent of a simple majority of the moderation panel. New moderators shall be approved by a majority of the current moderators, and may be added whenever the moderators feel it is in the best interest of the newsgroup. Moderators may, of course, resign at any time; they may also be removed for cause by a 2/3 majority of the moderation panel. In accord with the moderation policy (above)'s charge to the moderators to use whatever means they deem appropriate to ensure that posts conform to the charter, the moderators have adopted the following *initial* moderation procedures. They are, of course, subject to change by majority vote of the moderators. Proposed Initial Moderation Guidelines for soc.culture.jewish.moderated: - Initial robo-moderation (pre-screening) All submissions will be initially checked by the robo-moderation script, which will take the following actions, in the specified order: 1. Articles which are inappropriately crossposted or are binaries will returned to the submitter with an appropriate explanation. 2. Articles which meet moderator-specified criteria will be forwarded for human moderation (which is described below). Any post which is crossposted to another moderated newsgroup will be forwarded for human moderation. 3. Articles submitted by posters on the auto-approval list (see below) will be approved and posted. 4. All other articles will be forwarded for human moderation. - Auto-approval The moderators will maintain a list of posters who, through their submissions to the group, have shown that they will comply with the group's charter and have thus qualified for auto-approval. In general, the moderators will add any poster who has submitted five consecutive approved submissions, but the moderators may, when they believe it is in the best interest of the newsgroup, decline to do so. An auto-approved poster who submits an inappropriate article may be removed from the auto-approval list by a majority vote of the moderation panel. He or she shall immediately be eligible for re-addition to the auto-approval list per the above procedure. The moderators shall inform posters when their auto-approval status is changed. - Human moderation Submissions which are designated for human moderation shall be forwarded to one randomly selected moderator, who shall approve or reject it in accordance with the charter. If the moderator feels it is desirable, he or she may return the submission for reassignment, or may forward it to the entire panel for decision by a majority vote. Any article which is rejected under this provision shall be returned to the submitter with an appropriate rejection message which shall, if possible, include suggestions for how the post could be modified in a way which is likely to increase the chance of approval in the future. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Moderator: Marjorie Peskin Moderator: Eliot Shimoff Moderator: Joel Shurkin Moderator: Russell Steinthal Moderator: Brett Weiss Administrative contact address: scjm-request@scjm.nj.org Article submission address: scjm@scjm.nj.org END MODERATOR INFO. HOW TO VOTE: Follow these instructions *exactly*! Votes are counted by computer. You should send E-MAIL (posts to a newsgroup are invalid) to: vote@dogwood.com Please do not assume that just replying to this message will work. Check the address before you mail your vote. Your mail message should contain one and only one of the following vote statements: I vote YES on soc.culture.jewish.moderated I vote NO on soc.culture.jewish.moderated Voter name: If your mail software does not indicate your real name (for example, AOL does not), include _exactly_ the statement above on a _separate_ line and add your name after the colon. Having your name in your signature line is NOT enough! Do NOT join the lines together or remove the words "Voter name"! You may also vote ABSTAIN (which records an empty vote) or CANCEL (which removes any earlier votes). ABSTAIN does not affect the final vote count in any way but is listed, whereas CANCEL is not. IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: Standard Guidelines for voting apply. One vote per person, one account per voter. Votes must be mailed directly from the voter to the votetaker. Anonymous, forwarded or proxy votes are not valid. Votes mailed by WWW/HTML/CGI forms are considered to be anonymous votes. Votes from non-existent email addresses are not valid. Vote counting is automated. Failure to follow these directions may mean that your vote does not get counted. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the votetaker about the problem. It's your responsibility to make sure your vote is registered correctly. Duplicate votes are resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote. Addresses, names and votes of all voters will be published in the final voting results post. The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest of persons who would read a proposed newsgroup. Soliciting votes from disinterested parties defeats this purpose. Please do not distribute this CFV. If you must, direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups. Distributing pre-marked or otherwise edited copies of this CFV is generally considered to be vote fraud. When in doubt, ask the votetaker. -- Voting question & problems: Dave Cornejo Voting address: vote@dogwood.com From dave@dogwood.com Wed Jun 28 22:00:09 2000 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Dave Cornejo Reply-To: vote@dogwood.com Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,soc.culture.israel,soc.culture.jewish,soc.genealogy.jewish Subject: 2nd CFV: soc.culture.jewish.moderated moderated Followup-To: poster Message-ID: <962254050.3230@isc.org> References: <960970118.17777@isc.org> Supersedes: <960970118.17777@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Expires: 6 Jul 2000 00:00:00 GMT Archive-Name: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 04:47:31 GMT Lines: 288 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11513 news.groups:357455 soc.culture.israel:238112 soc.culture.jewish:558172 soc.genealogy.jewish:66513 LAST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2) moderated group soc.culture.jewish.moderated Newsgroups line: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Discussion of Jewish culture and religion. (Moderated) Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 5 Jul 2000. This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent. Proponent: Irene Stern Friedman Proponent: Sheldon Glickler Proponent: Doug Jones Proponent: Moshe Schorr Proponent: Russell Steinthal Proponent: Brett Weiss Votetaker: Dave Cornejo RATIONALE: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Soc.culture.jewish has been part of Usenet since the Great Renaming, and has probably been relatively high-volume with a relatively low signal to noise ratio for almost as long. In recent years, however, the combination of the high volume of posts and the large portion of those which are either off-topic, indiscriminately crossposted (one survey showed that 689 of 1445 articles posted over a one week period were crossposted to more than three groups, a phenomenon which often leads to floating flamewars), or anti-Semitic has driven many readers and posters away from the newsgroup. Soc.culture.jewish.moderated is proposed as an alternative to that forum. This proposal was carefully crafted by a committee of soc.culture.jewish readers from across the ideological spectrum with two goals in mind: to cut out the junk which drives people away from soc.culture.jewish and to maintain the free-flowing spirit and broad range of discussion which has characterized soc.culture.jewish since its founding. Finally, while it may seem intuitive to place new religion newsgroups in the soc.religion hierarchy or to moderate soc.culture.jewish in place, the name soc.culture.jewish.moderated was the overwhelming favorite of current soc.culture.jewish readers in a straw poll, and maintains consistency with the existing soc.culture.jewish.* hierarchy (which, of itself, is a historical namespace oddity). CHARTER: soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of all aspects of Judaism, including its history, philosophy, culture, practice, and law. In general, any post which contains substantive Jewish content is appropriate. Note that for certain subjects there may be other newsgroups which are equally or more appropriate (for example, soc.culture.jewish.holocaust or rec.humor.jewish); the decision of which appropriate groups to use is left to the poster. The following, however, are inappropriate for posting in soc.culture.jewish.moderated: - Inappropriately crossposted discussion, i.e. any article crossposted to more than 3 groups, or to any group on the list of banned groups (to be specified by the moderators). Articles approved for posting in news.answers or news.announce.newgroups are exceptions to this rule, and may be posted at the discretion of the moderators. - Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of the Jewish identity of one of its participants or subjects: for example, discussion of American politics is not on-topic solely because one of the politicians being discussed is Jewish, or because one of the posters involved in the discussion is Jewish. Such discussions must have substantive Jewish content to be acceptable, as explained above. (Personal announcements of relevance to the soc.culture.jewish.moderated community and responses to such posts are acceptable for posting, however.) - Political discussion, including Israeli, Middle Eastern, and Arab politics, except as it has substantive Jewish content, as explained above. (Such posts should be sent to appropriate newsgroups such as talk.politics.mideast or soc.culture.israel.) - Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of a relationship to Israel, without other substantive Jewish content. For example, the relationship of religion and state in Israel is acceptable, but discussion of Israeli health care reform is inappropriate. Similarly, discussion of secular Jewish identity in Israel is OK, but discussion of Israeli pop music is inappropriate. (Such posts are best directed to soc.culture.israel). - Offensive or derogatory statements aimed at any individual or group. Criticism of ideas or actions, however, are acceptable provided that they meet the other requirements of the charter and moderation policy. - Posts denying or questioning the existence or extent of the Holocaust. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussions might be interested in alt.revisionism or soc.history). Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such ideas, however, is acceptable. - Proselytizing or witnessing for any non-Jewish religion. Responses to such posts are also off-topic. Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such attempts, however, is acceptable. - Discussion of the beliefs or doctrines of Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christianity, Messianic Judaism, or other similar groups which affirm that Jesus was or is the Jewish Messiah. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussion might be interested in soc.religion.christian or alt.messianic.) Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such groups, however, is acceptable. - Binary posts, except for small binaries included in non-binary messages for the purposes of authentication. - Commercial posts for non-Jewish items. Occasional commercial posts for Jewish items may be permitted at the discretion of the moderators. Finally, note that the primary language of the newsgroup is English. If you use words or phrases from other languages, please consider translating them so that everyone can understand them. The moderators may reject any post which is in a language which no member of the moderation panel understands. Moderation Policy: soc.culture.jewish.moderated The moderators are responsible for ensuring that posts to the group conform to the requirements of the charter and may use whatever scripts or procedures they believe are necessary to best achieve that goal, subject to the following restrictions: - Submissions from moderators shall go through the same approval process as used for submissions from non-moderators, and at no point shall a moderator approve his or her own submission. The moderation panel may, however, issue guidelines authorizing moderators to approve their own administrative posts when the interests of the newsgroup demand immediate action. - No person shall be suspended from posting to the newsgroup unless they have previously received at least three warnings, and any such suspension shall last no longer than one month. A second or subsequent suspension of the same poster shall require only one warning and may last up to one year, but shall be approved by at least 2/3 of the moderation panel. - Any decision of a single moderator shall be subject to an appeal to the entire panel, where a majority vote shall control. Any submission which has been approved and posted, however, shall not be cancelled. The moderators shall post the current moderation guidelines to the newsgroup on a regular basis, and shall make them available upon request. Changes to the guidelines shall be announced in the newsgroup and shall require the consent of a simple majority of the moderation panel. New moderators shall be approved by a majority of the current moderators, and may be added whenever the moderators feel it is in the best interest of the newsgroup. Moderators may, of course, resign at any time; they may also be removed for cause by a 2/3 majority of the moderation panel. In accord with the moderation policy (above)'s charge to the moderators to use whatever means they deem appropriate to ensure that posts conform to the charter, the moderators have adopted the following *initial* moderation procedures. They are, of course, subject to change by majority vote of the moderators. Proposed Initial Moderation Guidelines for soc.culture.jewish.moderated: - Initial robo-moderation (pre-screening) All submissions will be initially checked by the robo-moderation script, which will take the following actions, in the specified order: 1. Articles which are inappropriately crossposted or are binaries will returned to the submitter with an appropriate explanation. 2. Articles which meet moderator-specified criteria will be forwarded for human moderation (which is described below). Any post which is crossposted to another moderated newsgroup will be forwarded for human moderation. 3. Articles submitted by posters on the auto-approval list (see below) will be approved and posted. 4. All other articles will be forwarded for human moderation. - Auto-approval The moderators will maintain a list of posters who, through their submissions to the group, have shown that they will comply with the group's charter and have thus qualified for auto-approval. In general, the moderators will add any poster who has submitted five consecutive approved submissions, but the moderators may, when they believe it is in the best interest of the newsgroup, decline to do so. An auto-approved poster who submits an inappropriate article may be removed from the auto-approval list by a majority vote of the moderation panel. He or she shall immediately be eligible for re-addition to the auto-approval list per the above procedure. The moderators shall inform posters when their auto-approval status is changed. - Human moderation Submissions which are designated for human moderation shall be forwarded to one randomly selected moderator, who shall approve or reject it in accordance with the charter. If the moderator feels it is desirable, he or she may return the submission for reassignment, or may forward it to the entire panel for decision by a majority vote. Any article which is rejected under this provision shall be returned to the submitter with an appropriate rejection message which shall, if possible, include suggestions for how the post could be modified in a way which is likely to increase the chance of approval in the future. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Moderator: Marjorie Peskin Moderator: Eliot Shimoff Moderator: Joel Shurkin Moderator: Russell Steinthal Moderator: Brett Weiss Administrative contact address: scjm-request@scjm.nj.org Article submission address: scjm@scjm.nj.org END MODERATOR INFO. HOW TO VOTE: Follow these instructions *exactly*! Votes are counted by computer. You should send E-MAIL (posts to a newsgroup are invalid) to: vote@dogwood.com Please do not assume that just replying to this message will work. Check the address before you mail your vote. Your mail message should contain one and only one of the following vote statements: I vote YES on soc.culture.jewish.moderated I vote NO on soc.culture.jewish.moderated Voter name: If your mail software does not indicate your real name (for example, AOL does not), include _exactly_ the statement above on a _separate_ line and add your name after the colon. Having your name in your signature line is NOT enough! Do NOT join the lines together or remove the words "Voter name"! You may also vote ABSTAIN (which records an empty vote) or CANCEL (which removes any earlier votes). ABSTAIN does not affect the final vote count in any way but is listed, whereas CANCEL is not. IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: Standard Guidelines for voting apply. One vote per person, one account per voter. Votes must be mailed directly from the voter to the votetaker. Anonymous, forwarded or proxy votes are not valid. Votes mailed by WWW/HTML/CGI forms are considered to be anonymous votes. Votes from non-existent email addresses are not valid. Vote counting is automated. Failure to follow these directions may mean that your vote does not get counted. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the votetaker about the problem. It's your responsibility to make sure your vote is registered correctly. Duplicate votes are resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote. Addresses, names and votes of all voters will be published in the final voting results post. The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest of persons who would read a proposed newsgroup. Soliciting votes from disinterested parties defeats this purpose. Please do not distribute this CFV. If you must, direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups. Distributing pre-marked or otherwise edited copies of this CFV is generally considered to be vote fraud. When in doubt, ask the votetaker. -- Voting question & problems: Dave Cornejo Voting address: vote@dogwood.com From dave@dogwood.com Sun Jul 9 14:59:49 2000 Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back From: Dave Cornejo Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,soc.culture.israel,soc.culture.jewish,soc.genealogy.jewish Subject: RESULT: soc.culture.jewish.moderated moderated passes 212:34 Followup-To: news.groups Message-ID: <963179876.14916@isc.org> References: <960970118.17777@isc.org> <962254050.3230@isc.org> Supersedes: <962254050.3230@isc.org> Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org Archive-Name: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 21:57:56 GMT Lines: 535 Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11539 news.groups:358359 soc.culture.israel:239151 soc.culture.jewish:561305 soc.genealogy.jewish:66882 RESULT moderated group soc.culture.jewish.moderated passes 212:34 There were 212 YES votes and 34 NO votes, for a total of 246 valid votes. There were 5 abstentions and 7 invalid ballots. For a group to pass, YES votes must be at least 2/3 of all valid (YES and NO) votes. There must also be at least 100 more YES votes than NO votes. A five day discussion period follows this announcement. If no serious allegations of voting irregularities are raised, the moderator of news.announce.newgroups will create the group shortly thereafter. Newsgroups line: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Discussion of Jewish culture and religion. (Moderated) Voting closed at 23:59:59 UTC, 5 Jul 2000. This vote was conducted by a neutral third party. Questions about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent. Proponent: Irene Stern Friedman Proponent: Sheldon Glickler Proponent: Doug Jones Proponent: Moshe Schorr Proponent: Russell Steinthal Proponent: Brett Weiss Votetaker: Dave Cornejo RATIONALE: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Soc.culture.jewish has been part of Usenet since the Great Renaming, and has probably been relatively high-volume with a relatively low signal to noise ratio for almost as long. In recent years, however, the combination of the high volume of posts and the large portion of those which are either off-topic, indiscriminately crossposted (one survey showed that 689 of 1445 articles posted over a one week period were crossposted to more than three groups, a phenomenon which often leads to floating flamewars), or anti-Semitic has driven many readers and posters away from the newsgroup. Soc.culture.jewish.moderated is proposed as an alternative to that forum. This proposal was carefully crafted by a committee of soc.culture.jewish readers from across the ideological spectrum with two goals in mind: to cut out the junk which drives people away from soc.culture.jewish and to maintain the free-flowing spirit and broad range of discussion which has characterized soc.culture.jewish since its founding. Finally, while it may seem intuitive to place new religion newsgroups in the soc.religion hierarchy or to moderate soc.culture.jewish in place, the name soc.culture.jewish.moderated was the overwhelming favorite of current soc.culture.jewish readers in a straw poll, and maintains consistency with the existing soc.culture.jewish.* hierarchy (which, of itself, is a historical namespace oddity). CHARTER: soc.culture.jewish.moderated This is a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of all aspects of Judaism, including its history, philosophy, culture, practice, and law. In general, any post which contains substantive Jewish content is appropriate. Note that for certain subjects there may be other newsgroups which are equally or more appropriate (for example, soc.culture.jewish.holocaust or rec.humor.jewish); the decision of which appropriate groups to use is left to the poster. The following, however, are inappropriate for posting in soc.culture.jewish.moderated: - Inappropriately crossposted discussion, i.e. any article crossposted to more than 3 groups, or to any group on the list of banned groups (to be specified by the moderators). Articles approved for posting in news.answers or news.announce.newgroups are exceptions to this rule, and may be posted at the discretion of the moderators. - Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of the Jewish identity of one of its participants or subjects: for example, discussion of American politics is not on-topic solely because one of the politicians being discussed is Jewish, or because one of the posters involved in the discussion is Jewish. Such discussions must have substantive Jewish content to be acceptable, as explained above. (Personal announcements of relevance to the soc.culture.jewish.moderated community and responses to such posts are acceptable for posting, however.) - Political discussion, including Israeli, Middle Eastern, and Arab politics, except as it has substantive Jewish content, as explained above. (Such posts should be sent to appropriate newsgroups such as talk.politics.mideast or soc.culture.israel.) - Discussion whose connection to Judaism consists solely of a relationship to Israel, without other substantive Jewish content. For example, the relationship of religion and state in Israel is acceptable, but discussion of Israeli health care reform is inappropriate. Similarly, discussion of secular Jewish identity in Israel is OK, but discussion of Israeli pop music is inappropriate. (Such posts are best directed to soc.culture.israel). - Offensive or derogatory statements aimed at any individual or group. Criticism of ideas or actions, however, are acceptable provided that they meet the other requirements of the charter and moderation policy. - Posts denying or questioning the existence or extent of the Holocaust. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussions might be interested in alt.revisionism or soc.history). Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such ideas, however, is acceptable. - Proselytizing or witnessing for any non-Jewish religion. Responses to such posts are also off-topic. Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such attempts, however, is acceptable. - Discussion of the beliefs or doctrines of Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christianity, Messianic Judaism, or other similar groups which affirm that Jesus was or is the Jewish Messiah. Responses to such posts are similarly off-topic. (Those wishing to engage in such discussion might be interested in soc.religion.christian or alt.messianic.) Discussion of how Jews can or ought to respond to such groups, however, is acceptable. - Binary posts, except for small binaries included in non-binary messages for the purposes of authentication. - Commercial posts for non-Jewish items. Occasional commercial posts for Jewish items may be permitted at the discretion of the moderators. Finally, note that the primary language of the newsgroup is English. If you use words or phrases from other languages, please consider translating them so that everyone can understand them. The moderators may reject any post which is in a language which no member of the moderation panel understands. Moderation Policy: soc.culture.jewish.moderated The moderators are responsible for ensuring that posts to the group conform to the requirements of the charter and may use whatever scripts or procedures they believe are necessary to best achieve that goal, subject to the following restrictions: - Submissions from moderators shall go through the same approval process as used for submissions from non-moderators, and at no point shall a moderator approve his or her own submission. The moderation panel may, however, issue guidelines authorizing moderators to approve their own administrative posts when the interests of the newsgroup demand immediate action. - No person shall be suspended from posting to the newsgroup unless they have previously received at least three warnings, and any such suspension shall last no longer than one month. A second or subsequent suspension of the same poster shall require only one warning and may last up to one year, but shall be approved by at least 2/3 of the moderation panel. - Any decision of a single moderator shall be subject to an appeal to the entire panel, where a majority vote shall control. Any submission which has been approved and posted, however, shall not be cancelled. The moderators shall post the current moderation guidelines to the newsgroup on a regular basis, and shall make them available upon request. Changes to the guidelines shall be announced in the newsgroup and shall require the consent of a simple majority of the moderation panel. New moderators shall be approved by a majority of the current moderators, and may be added whenever the moderators feel it is in the best interest of the newsgroup. Moderators may, of course, resign at any time; they may also be removed for cause by a 2/3 majority of the moderation panel. In accord with the moderation policy (above)'s charge to the moderators to use whatever means they deem appropriate to ensure that posts conform to the charter, the moderators have adopted the following *initial* moderation procedures. They are, of course, subject to change by majority vote of the moderators. Proposed Initial Moderation Guidelines for soc.culture.jewish.moderated: - Initial robo-moderation (pre-screening) All submissions will be initially checked by the robo-moderation script, which will take the following actions, in the specified order: 1. Articles which are inappropriately crossposted or are binaries will returned to the submitter with an appropriate explanation. 2. Articles which meet moderator-specified criteria will be forwarded for human moderation (which is described below). Any post which is crossposted to another moderated newsgroup will be forwarded for human moderation. 3. Articles submitted by posters on the auto-approval list (see below) will be approved and posted. 4. All other articles will be forwarded for human moderation. - Auto-approval The moderators will maintain a list of posters who, through their submissions to the group, have shown that they will comply with the group's charter and have thus qualified for auto-approval. In general, the moderators will add any poster who has submitted five consecutive approved submissions, but the moderators may, when they believe it is in the best interest of the newsgroup, decline to do so. An auto-approved poster who submits an inappropriate article may be removed from the auto-approval list by a majority vote of the moderation panel. He or she shall immediately be eligible for re-addition to the auto-approval list per the above procedure. The moderators shall inform posters when their auto-approval status is changed. - Human moderation Submissions which are designated for human moderation shall be forwarded to one randomly selected moderator, who shall approve or reject it in accordance with the charter. If the moderator feels it is desirable, he or she may return the submission for reassignment, or may forward it to the entire panel for decision by a majority vote. Any article which is rejected under this provision shall be returned to the submitter with an appropriate rejection message which shall, if possible, include suggestions for how the post could be modified in a way which is likely to increase the chance of approval in the future. END CHARTER. MODERATOR INFO: soc.culture.jewish.moderated Moderator: Marjorie Peskin Moderator: Eliot Shimoff Moderator: Joel Shurkin Moderator: Russell Steinthal Moderator: Brett Weiss Administrative contact address: scjm-request@scjm.nj.org Article submission address: scjm@scjm.nj.org END MODERATOR INFO. soc.culture.jewish.moderated Final Voter list Voted YES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- toivo#ucs.uwa.edu.au Toivo Pedaste hurwitz#blaze.net.au Benjamin Hurwitz trevort#vianet.on.ca Trevor Tymchuk khaskin#sfu.ca Grigori Khaskin CraigWyllie#sympatico.ca Craig Wyllie dmhacker#sympatico.ca David Hacker murrayk#sympatico.ca Murray Kastner melcom#chem.ubc.ca Mel Comisarow ischaechter#lion.cc Iris Schaechter rwh#akamail.com Russ Herman Bob2200#aol.com Bob Momkoff#aol.com Linda H. Koff MrBob558#aol.com MsMacRN37#aol.com Carole Siegel NinaSalk#aol.com Nina Salkin Ravchaz#aol.com Charles Arian RoseLipman#aol.com Robert Lipman SLSchudson#aol.com oldbear#arctos.com William Lee Roberts Glenfiddich#asan.com Terry Vernon don.chodrow#bigfoot.com Don Chodrow sanzlyn1#bigpond.com Sandra Fielding daniel.rybowski#capco.com Daniel Rybowski rkrig#cchono.com Robert=20 ron.boerger#compaq.com Ron Boerger 72027.3605#compuserve.com Bob Bailin scott#cracklehut.com S. Davenport jzeitlin#cyburban.com Jeff Zeitlin spvolk#dellnet.com Shelley Volk ganeden#dnai.com Craig Winchell mikel#dosbears.com Mike Lipsie bearhair#enteract.com Lora Kirk ksrobin#erenj.com Ken Robinson action19#erols.com Irvin J.=20 greenhou#erols.com Shelley Greenhouse jacobs#erols.com Henry S. Jacobs kareznek#erols.com Karen Reznek mcclenon#erols.com Bob McClenon meirman#erols.com Meir pjayheil#erols.com Patricia Heil pkselwyn#erols.com Philip and Karen Selwyn stkmkt#erols.com Jim Goldberg steve#esrati.com Stephen G. Esrati gkerley#execpc.com Gillam Kerley biow#ezmort.com Christopher Biow david#farrar.com David Farrar Mitch.Berger#gs.com Mitch Berger stan#hashkedim.com Stan Goodman flavia#his.com Susan Cohen aaron.sandler#home.com Aaron Sandler jackiekc#home.com Jackie Cappiello judith011#home.com Judith Gordon wdrtbyrd#home.com   Rochelle = dkrashin#hotmail.com Daniel Krashin kamlet#infinet.com Art Kamlet david.esan#informationview.com dietz#interaccess.com Paul F. Dietz mneme#io.com Joshua Kronengold bsweet#javanet.com William Sweet cellio#jtan.com Monica Cellio fredr5#juno.com Fred Rosenblatt MPoppers#kayescholer.com Michael Poppers auhrbach#lhsl.com cohenme#localnet.com Morton and Esther Cohen dchazin#bighorn.dr.lucent.com David Chazin eleeper#lucent.com Evelyn C. Leeper isfeff#macconnect.com Irene Stern Friedman motti_abramsky#mentorg.com Motti Abramsky azure7sun#mindspring.com Noach bards1#mindspring.com Barbara Buehring smeric#mindspring.com Polar DRosenberg#exchange.ml.com Dale Rosenberg dooies#email.msn.com Arthur Pollack Felner5#msn.com L&RFelner michael_blackmore#msn.com Michael Blackmore rkaiser1#msn.com Robert Kaiser olav#viking.mv.com Olav Nieuwejaar albertfabio#my-deja.com Albert Fabio jordi_sod#my-deja.com Jordi Sod Eadler#ndsisrael.com eadler#ndsisrael.com mef#netaxs.com Michael Fessler jhertzli#ix.netcom.com Joseph Hertzlinger otoe#ix.netcom.com Susan Silberstein raifft#ix.netcom.com Beth Greenfeld bhatch#netcom.com Roberta Hatch hjweiss#netcom.com Harry J. Weiss ljl#netcom.com Larry J Lennhoff dfbaker#panix.com Debra Fran Baker jjbaker#panix.com phil#panix.com Phil Gustafson wbaker#panix.com Wendy Baker sadam#pathcom.com Serge Adam wiesen#personnelselection.com Yehuda Wiesen egilson#pipeline.com Estelle Gilson nbloom#pipeline.com Neil Bloomgarden sheilat#pipeline.com Sheila Tanenbaum droth#pobox.com David Roth dan#podwall.com Daniel Podwall rjuliano#cfl.rr.com Bob Juliano eisens#tampabay.rr.com mommi danij#sprintmail.com Dani Climan chesler#world.std.com David Chesler dwolff#world.std.com David Wolff deb#tink.com Deborah Kapell Stuart.Foss#UNISYS.com Stuart Foss andelman#oh.verio.com Edward Andelman bert#visi.com Bert Hyman jehrlich#visi.com Jonathan Ehrlich drchazan#yahoo.com Davida Chazan jelbaum#yahoo.com Jason H. Elbaum unknownjs#yahoo.com Jeffrey Sarasohn torex#gmx.de Tobias Erle naddy#mips.inka.de Christian Weisgerber andrew#netneurotic.de Andrew J. Brehm viralbus#daimi.au.dk Thomas Martin Widmann fungus#OCF.Berkeley.EDU Hank Fung rs#strangelove.bu.edu Rajwinder Singh agw#cs.columbia.edu Art Werschulz rms39#columbia.edu Russell Steinthal adam#bigbro.biophys.cornell.edu Adam C. Finnefrock gvp1#cornell.edu Grace V. Palazzolo
lmend#crow.admin.ccny.cuny.edu Loren D. Mendelsohn jerosenb#fas.harvard.edu Janet Rosenbaum marnie#MATH.HARVARD.EDU marnie alexis friedman Beth_Katcher#harvard.edu Beth Katcher jshurkin#jhmi.edu Joel Shurkin mwarshaw#alum.mit.edu Meredith Warshaw mpeskin#lynx.dac.neu.edu Marjorie Peskin hrubin#stat.purdue.edu Herman Rubin (hrubin#stat.purdue.edu) kay#elvis.rowan.edu Jennifer Kay goodman#SONOMA.EDU Myrna Goodman audrey18#stanford.edu Audrey Ettinger rick#bcm.tmc.edu Richard H. Miller sabrams#bcm.tmc.edu steve abrams flaps#dgp.toronto.edu Alan J Rosenthal davidsr#touro.edu David S. Rubin storymaiden#bluehen.udel.edu Barbara at Bluehen jones#cs.uiowa.edu Douglas W. Jones eblake#blue.weeg.uiowa.edu Eliot Blake rswartz#students.uiuc.edu a little bird grenbrgr#uiuc.edu David J. Greenberger shimoff#umbc.edu Eliot Shimoff dmacks#sas.upenn.edu Daniel E. Macks ejk4e#unix.mail.virginia.edu Edward James Kilsdonk rufinus#mbe.ece.wisc.edu J Rufinus jaschnei#geology.wisc.edu Jay Schneider porter.clark#msfc.nasa.gov J. Porter Clark argamon#macs.biu.ac.il Shlomo Argamon P85014#VM.BIU.AC.IL Anthony Waller MOSHES#MM.HUJI.AC.IL Moshe Schorr BACKON#vms.huji.ac.il Josh Backon chr04ha#aluf.technion.ac.il E. Amitai Halevi rona#actcom.co.il Rona Michelson warren#actcom.co.il Warren Burstein jerusalem#marksman.co.il Perry Zamek csps#netvision.net.il Joel Blankett toramada#zahav.net.il Shoshana L. Boublil r.ladu#iol.it Raffaele Ladu siskind#silvertip.nrl.navy.mil David Siskind gergely#accesscable.net Peter J Gergely rebtsvi#adelphia.net rebtsvi Eta.Carinae#worldnet.att.net D.C. Shubert gmwade#worldnet.att.net Gina Marie Wade koosh#worldnet.att.net Bernard Kouchel lahaber#attglobal.net Lawrence Haber steve.samson#attglobal.net Steve Samson missa#bcpl.net Missa yaakovk#monet.bestweb.net Yaakov Kayman tmorgen#centralcity.net Ted Morgenthaler nrivkis#concentric.net Naomi Gayle Rivkis bsimons#earthling.net Bill Simons bossepfeffer#earthlink.net Alan Pfeffer cbress#earthlink.net Charles Bress sheldonlg#earthlink.net Sheldon L. Glickler arosen#ee.net Al=20 elkowitz#flashcom.net ABE h.slama#gmx.net Heribert Slama binyomin#gs.net Binyomin Kaplan blacknus#igs.net Donna Dinberg cuthbertson#mediaone.net Adelle D. Stavis, Esq. hlipsky#mediaone.net Harold Lipsky robin#shell.nightowl.net Robin Netherton jws21#ntplx.net Joe Schwartz awouk#nyx.net Arthur Wouk mmontcha#OregonVOS.net Matthew Montchalin faigin#pacificnet.net Daniel P. Faigin erics#radix.net Eric Simon robynk#shore.net Robyn Kozierok scoop#sonic.net Neal Attinson lisa#starways.net Lisa Liel churchh#usa.net Henry Churchyard jlapidus#usa.net Jay S. Lapidus psego#usa.net Phillip Sego sfinberg#usa.net Sharon Finberg m.wasserman#chello.nl Mia Wasserman r.vanette#pink.nl Robert-Jan van Ette colin.rosenthal#astro.uio.no Colin Rosenthal John_David_Galt#acm.org John David Galt rossde#acm.org David E. Ross rsiegler#acm.org Richard Siegler micha#aishdas.org Micha Berger PaulWolf#cuyctyengineers.org Paul S. Wolf dross#dorsai.org David Ross jblumstein#mail.ecfs.org Jeffrey Blumstein sthoenna#efn.org Yitzchak Scott-Thoennes tandersn#gcfn.org Tina Anderson stepheng#indyopera.org Stephen Goldberg kmcvay#nizkor.org Kenneth McVay grabiner#wcnet.org David Grabiner D.S.Levene#durham.ac.uk David Levene rwsh#dircon.co.uk Roger Harris. chriseb#ukshells.co.uk Chris Ebenezer Voted NO ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- yan#storm.ca Yves Bellefeuille Davesta99#aol.com David Leighton IsraelT519#aol.com JoshuaBPerahiah#aol.com JudahBTabbai#aol.com NittaiHaArbelite#aol.com RSimeonbEleazar#aol.com SimeonBShetah#aol.com Zeroisms#aol.com Zero kimdv#best.com Kim DeVaughn stainles#bga.com Dwight Brown bdissen#dissensoftware.com Binyamin Dissen tjmc#enteract.com tjmc abekohen#hotmail.com Abraham (Abe) Kohen celticwiccan#hotmail.com Peter Byron weedfam#hotmail.com maxine in ri coli#mindspring.com Erin Johnson gprrspw#mindspring.com G.P. Ryan fran_keeling#my-deja.com Frances Keeling john1#world.std.com john1#world.std.com (Fred Cherry) Abhay.Natu#wcom.com Abhay Natu whirlingturban#yahoo.com Katherine Robinson Dave#Zawodny.com David D. Zawodny bblackmoor#blackgate.net Brandon Blackmoor ruthien#concentric.net Moshe Siechmach GeveretK#dls.net Mimi Katz ellis#ftel.net Rick Ellis graham.drabble#lineone.net Graham Drabble mike#medved.net Mike Medved cartisan#pacwestracing.net Newton billo#Radix.Net William Oliver john0001#webtv.net john reynolds ian_schier#discont.ru Ian Schier jon#thomson2273.freeserve.co.uk Jon Thomson Abstained ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jdslater#hotmail.com Joe Slater wiz#lart.com Wiz aahz#netcom.com Aahz sackv#uni-duesseldorf.de Victor Sack zen0n#klub.chip.pl Zenobiusz Zimny Invalid ballots ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- david.lloyd-jones#attcanada.ca David=20 ! No vote statement in message TelAvivMistarah#aol.com ! No vote statement in message mbermudez#home.com Martin Bermudez ! No vote statement in message CPetersky#email.msn.com cpetersky#msn.com ! No vote statement in message albert#nethere.com Albert Reingewirtz ! No vote statement in message jmollan#pacifier.com J & D Mollan ! No vote statement in message rhj-board#kamens.brookline.ma.us ! No vote statement in message To restore the email addresses above, pipe the ack list through the following command: sed -e 's/#/@/g' -- Voting question & problems: Dave Cornejo Voting address: vote@dogwood.com