From tale@uunet.uu.net Tue Oct 22 10:35:02 1996 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: tale@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence) Newsgroups: soc.history.african.biafra Subject: cmsg newgroup soc.history.african.biafra moderated Control: newgroup soc.history.african.biafra moderated Approved: newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: <845994604.25715@uunet.uu.net> Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 14:30:04 GMT Lines: 193 X-Info: ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README.html ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README X-PGP-Sig: 2.7 Subject,Control,Message-ID,Date,From,Sender iQCVAgUBMmzabcJdOtO4janBAQEfCAP/RPfyz3LHvW7+juFh9OQIXYE77tVR5TRY 4X1R5Y6JFGS2PoK9syJIr94BKS/+ARxEczVgsaX2jdSORxFDc8VnOs0Pw9k3dPOK 7SY+C+uMPAamB9iXW6OBjlPGP6ffEWSwz3w7lgzjuOtuGF2Dv7gIta9yCxSEuIzV D2PAqkv+tu4= =7ex0 Xref: uunet control.newgroup:17871 soc.history.african.biafra is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation by 156:25 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 17 Oct 1996. Group submission address: biafra@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu Moderator contact address: biafra@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu (Tochi Omenukor, Patience Akpan, Akobuije Chijioke, Alexander Ukoh, Uzoma Onyemaechi, Kasirim Nwuke, Alexander Dan'Iyan) For your newsgroups file: soc.history.african.biafra History of Biafra (Eastern Nigeria). (Moderated) The charter, culled from the vote result announcement: Issues: ------- History of Eastern Nigeria up to May 30, 1967. History of events leading to the declaration of the state of Biafra; the war between Biafra and Nigeria; The Ahiara Declaration; Biafran experiences (food crisis, survival strategies, mistrust between different groups in Biafra, Biafran technologies, poetry, war songs, diseases (kwashiokor, etc)); The roles of the international bodies (UN, OAU, etc); The effects of cold-war and pre-colonial policies on the state of Biafra; The structure and the de-structure of the Aburi Accord; The Biafran national anthem; Biafran women of war (their role in the execution of the war and other activities); Relief aid (its effectiveness, difficulties of food distribution, relief efforts by western and non-western agencies and the political involvements of the relief agencies in the war); The alliance between Biafra and Israel: the big deal between them; Biafran military strategies and technologies, The use of mercenaries by both Biafra and Nigeria, The international media and the "Biafran Babies", TV images and coverage of the Biafran life, The lost children of Biafra (who are they and where are they now?, can they ever be linked and/or returned to their kits and kins in Nigeria?); Rumor mongering and its effects on Biafra; Biafra's internal sociopoli- tical problems and their effects; The effectiveness of OAU in settling internal African problems; The politics of Biafran recognition within and outside Africa; Radio Biafra and war propaganda; the abandoned property issues; the implementation of the 3R's; The unity of Eastern Nigeria, the imperatives; Aftermath effects of the Biafran war on Nigerian unity, progress, and sociopolitical dynamics; The place of Biafra in Nigerian and world history. Topics: ------- Possible specific topics include, but not limited to: The political history of Eastern Nigeria prior to the emergence of Biafra. Could Biafra have survived to this day? Where did the Biafran war of survival go wrong? Did Ojukwu fight for Biafrans or for his personal interests? Is there any way that the Biafran secession could have been avoided? What did the Biafran military scientists invent and not invent? What went wrong with the Nigerian 2nd Division - did anyone leak their plans to Biafra? Did Biafrans destroy the Nigerian 2nd Div. by sheer chance or by some form of advanced warheads developed in secrecy? How and why did Biafran soldiers kill fellow Biafran soldiers? The Biafran "Boys Company", were Ojukwu and his commanders justified in using them for intelligence gathering and other war engagements? Did the Boys Company help the cause of the war? Did the Biafran military scientists try to develop nuclear/biological weapons? To what extent did the Nigerian/Biafran army use chemical weapons in strategic battles? How effective were the Biafran-made weapons of mass destruction (Ogbunigwe and Flying Ogbunigwe) and self-guided surface-to-air missiles? The words and music of the Biafran anthem (who wrote the anthem - Zik or Jean Sibelius (the author of the Finlandia)? What deal did Cameroon and Nigeria make to facilitate Biafra's defeat; What deal did China and Biafra make and why did it fail to materialize? What would Nigeria have been if Biafra had survived? Did Nigerian forces lack confidence in Gowon? Did Awolowo actually betray Biafra? Did Awolowo and Zik work together to see to it that Biafra did not succeed? What role did America, Britain, France, South Africa, Russia, and Egypt play in the Biafran war? Did Cuba ever offer help to Ojukwu and Biafra and what happ- ened? What role did the eastern minorities play in the Biafran struggle? Who actually killed Nzeogwu, Nigerian federal forces or a group of envious Biafrans? Why did Biafrans experiment with the scorched-earth strategies? Did Biafran and Nigerian federal forces swap foods, women, and ammunition? What shall be done to the living Biafran war criminals? Are there any lessons from the Biafran war for the posterity? Where did the Biafran war leave the people of Eastern Nigeria? Is there any way out of it? And many more but they must have something to do with Biafra. Status: ------- The 1st RFD was for an unmoderated soc.history.war.biafra. But due to the opposition and advice received from readers of news.groups and other history newsgroups changes in status and name were made in the 2nd RFD. Our thanks to all involved. It is, therefore, proposed that soc.history.african.biafra shall be a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of Biafran history and affairs. Participation: -------------- Both Nigerian and non-Nigerian prospectives and ideas will be greatly encouraged for the purpose of stimulating lively debate and mutual education. It is expected, however, that due to the international character of newsgroups, the discussions will be uniquely varied in prospective and quite different from any other forum now existing. It is requested, therefore, that this potential for international prospectives on the Biafran history/Biafran war be encouraged by the creation of a newsgroup specifically for that purpose. Gateway: -------- In order to give netters who have no access to USENET newsgroups the opportunity to participate in the discussions, soc.history.africa.biafra will be gated to Igbo--net and any other Nigerian-interest mailing list which desires it, through a moderated bi-directional gateway so that only topics relevant to the charter of soc.history.africa.biafra can be allowed passage. It is the responsibility of the list-owner(s) or manager(s) to ensure that only such articles are allowed passage to the moderators of soc.history.africa.biafra. The moderators of soc.history.africa.biafra reserve the right to shut off any mailing list which repeatedly forwards articles that do not meet the requirements of the group charter or any extinct mailing list. The vote to shut off any erring mailing list is by simple majority of the current moderators. Posts which deal extensively on contemporary Nigerian political commentary of any kind are not acceptable and will be STRONGLY discouraged by the moderators. Moderation Mechanism and Off-topic Posts --------------- ------------------------ We believe that moderation is not equal to censorship and shall never be allowed to degenerate to censorship. However, we also believe that a newsgroup should be free of irrelevancies. The following shall be off-topic in soc.history.africa.biafra: 1) Posts not related to the purposes of soc.history.africa.biafra 2) Posts that exceed 75 characters per line. There is no restriction on the length of an submission. 3) Crossposts shall be allowed if the moderators feel that they have information which will interest readers of the newsgroup. 4) "Me too" posts; posts that contain an unreasonable amount of quoted text. As a general rule, a post will be rejected if less than 1/3 of it is new text. Posts, which in the opinion of the moderators, do not contribute any new discussion to an ongoing thread; intensely repetitive posts. 5) Commercial advertisements or personal advertisements that have nothing to do with biafra; "spam" articles; and robogenerated articles. 6) Obscene plagiarism and academic dishonesty, including the deliberate misattribution of quotations from historical documents and figures. The moderators shall interpret this rule loosely -- newsgroups are not academic journals -- but deliberate misattributions have poisoned the atmosphere in other newsgroups. 7) Posts containing profanity or excessive rudeness; posts that lack appropriate civility. While well-placed heckles are acceptable, flamewars are not. Any post full of personal abuse, slander or libel, or unauthorized reference to private e-mail addresses or mailing lists shall also be rejected. 8) Propagation of national, religious, racial, sexual, or ethnic hostility or animosity -- including posts openly justifying violence (in particular, violence against disabled people, women and children), war crimes, or ethnic cleansing. 9) Binary files, even if they are related to Biafra. Biafran-related binaries should be posted to the appropriate alt.binaries.* group with a pointer in soc.history.africa.biafra indicating where the binary in question may be found. Moderators will neither screen postings for intellectual content nor for accuracy beyond that contained in the charter of soc.history.africa.biafra. Moderators reserve the right to terminate any thread which degener- ates into unacceptable namecalling, rudeness, vulgarity, or which they feel has reached its end or flash point. Such threads shall be terminated by a 2/3 supermajority of the current moderators. Individuals who believe a particular moderator has unfairly rejected a submission can appeal to the entire panel of moderators. The panel will reevaluate the submission and make a majority decision as to whether it will be posted. In the event that the moderation panel is evenly split over whether a submission ought to be posted, the submission shall be posted. Anyone may volunteer to join the moderation panel with the consent of a two-thirds supermajority of the current moderators. Moderators also may be removed by a 2/3 supermajority of the moderation panel. Of course, moderators may resign of their own volition at any time. The moderators may, at any time, develop a robomoderation script to assist in their duties. From tale@uunet.uu.net Tue Oct 29 10:35:03 1996 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: tale@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence) Newsgroups: soc.history.african.biafra Subject: cmsg newgroup soc.history.african.biafra moderated Control: newgroup soc.history.african.biafra moderated Approved: newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: <846603005.11771@uunet.uu.net> Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 15:30:05 GMT Lines: 193 X-Info: ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README.html ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README X-PGP-Sig: 2.7 Subject,Control,Message-ID,Date,From,Sender iQCVAgUBMnYi/cJdOtO4janBAQEFLwQAnWk/3sUSErHFJdU14lfbUFkeYqok6diA 8/9YNHk4CntaSAAP61kWuimA40B1S3iI54l0ID252TWADWrvxkqgd1q+E29VZBFr PakgwIElP+/nJyKqGZN5Ae9y4SzAc+Cag3AiW7nH6rkk3ryBSiUeuZhLRRlDwlXJ OETQUpB8odI= =6/jp Xref: uunet control.newgroup:18078 soc.history.african.biafra is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation by 156:25 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 17 Oct 1996. Group submission address: biafra@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu Moderator contact address: biafra@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu (Tochi Omenukor, Patience Akpan, Akobuije Chijioke, Alexander Ukoh, Uzoma Onyemaechi, Kasirim Nwuke, Alexander Dan'Iyan) For your newsgroups file: soc.history.african.biafra History of Biafra (Eastern Nigeria). (Moderated) The charter, culled from the vote result announcement: Issues: ------- History of Eastern Nigeria up to May 30, 1967. History of events leading to the declaration of the state of Biafra; the war between Biafra and Nigeria; The Ahiara Declaration; Biafran experiences (food crisis, survival strategies, mistrust between different groups in Biafra, Biafran technologies, poetry, war songs, diseases (kwashiokor, etc)); The roles of the international bodies (UN, OAU, etc); The effects of cold-war and pre-colonial policies on the state of Biafra; The structure and the de-structure of the Aburi Accord; The Biafran national anthem; Biafran women of war (their role in the execution of the war and other activities); Relief aid (its effectiveness, difficulties of food distribution, relief efforts by western and non-western agencies and the political involvements of the relief agencies in the war); The alliance between Biafra and Israel: the big deal between them; Biafran military strategies and technologies, The use of mercenaries by both Biafra and Nigeria, The international media and the "Biafran Babies", TV images and coverage of the Biafran life, The lost children of Biafra (who are they and where are they now?, can they ever be linked and/or returned to their kits and kins in Nigeria?); Rumor mongering and its effects on Biafra; Biafra's internal sociopoli- tical problems and their effects; The effectiveness of OAU in settling internal African problems; The politics of Biafran recognition within and outside Africa; Radio Biafra and war propaganda; the abandoned property issues; the implementation of the 3R's; The unity of Eastern Nigeria, the imperatives; Aftermath effects of the Biafran war on Nigerian unity, progress, and sociopolitical dynamics; The place of Biafra in Nigerian and world history. Topics: ------- Possible specific topics include, but not limited to: The political history of Eastern Nigeria prior to the emergence of Biafra. Could Biafra have survived to this day? Where did the Biafran war of survival go wrong? Did Ojukwu fight for Biafrans or for his personal interests? Is there any way that the Biafran secession could have been avoided? What did the Biafran military scientists invent and not invent? What went wrong with the Nigerian 2nd Division - did anyone leak their plans to Biafra? Did Biafrans destroy the Nigerian 2nd Div. by sheer chance or by some form of advanced warheads developed in secrecy? How and why did Biafran soldiers kill fellow Biafran soldiers? The Biafran "Boys Company", were Ojukwu and his commanders justified in using them for intelligence gathering and other war engagements? Did the Boys Company help the cause of the war? Did the Biafran military scientists try to develop nuclear/biological weapons? To what extent did the Nigerian/Biafran army use chemical weapons in strategic battles? How effective were the Biafran-made weapons of mass destruction (Ogbunigwe and Flying Ogbunigwe) and self-guided surface-to-air missiles? The words and music of the Biafran anthem (who wrote the anthem - Zik or Jean Sibelius (the author of the Finlandia)? What deal did Cameroon and Nigeria make to facilitate Biafra's defeat; What deal did China and Biafra make and why did it fail to materialize? What would Nigeria have been if Biafra had survived? Did Nigerian forces lack confidence in Gowon? Did Awolowo actually betray Biafra? Did Awolowo and Zik work together to see to it that Biafra did not succeed? What role did America, Britain, France, South Africa, Russia, and Egypt play in the Biafran war? Did Cuba ever offer help to Ojukwu and Biafra and what happ- ened? What role did the eastern minorities play in the Biafran struggle? Who actually killed Nzeogwu, Nigerian federal forces or a group of envious Biafrans? Why did Biafrans experiment with the scorched-earth strategies? Did Biafran and Nigerian federal forces swap foods, women, and ammunition? What shall be done to the living Biafran war criminals? Are there any lessons from the Biafran war for the posterity? Where did the Biafran war leave the people of Eastern Nigeria? Is there any way out of it? And many more but they must have something to do with Biafra. Status: ------- The 1st RFD was for an unmoderated soc.history.war.biafra. But due to the opposition and advice received from readers of news.groups and other history newsgroups changes in status and name were made in the 2nd RFD. Our thanks to all involved. It is, therefore, proposed that soc.history.african.biafra shall be a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of Biafran history and affairs. Participation: -------------- Both Nigerian and non-Nigerian prospectives and ideas will be greatly encouraged for the purpose of stimulating lively debate and mutual education. It is expected, however, that due to the international character of newsgroups, the discussions will be uniquely varied in prospective and quite different from any other forum now existing. It is requested, therefore, that this potential for international prospectives on the Biafran history/Biafran war be encouraged by the creation of a newsgroup specifically for that purpose. Gateway: -------- In order to give netters who have no access to USENET newsgroups the opportunity to participate in the discussions, soc.history.africa.biafra will be gated to Igbo--net and any other Nigerian-interest mailing list which desires it, through a moderated bi-directional gateway so that only topics relevant to the charter of soc.history.africa.biafra can be allowed passage. It is the responsibility of the list-owner(s) or manager(s) to ensure that only such articles are allowed passage to the moderators of soc.history.africa.biafra. The moderators of soc.history.africa.biafra reserve the right to shut off any mailing list which repeatedly forwards articles that do not meet the requirements of the group charter or any extinct mailing list. The vote to shut off any erring mailing list is by simple majority of the current moderators. Posts which deal extensively on contemporary Nigerian political commentary of any kind are not acceptable and will be STRONGLY discouraged by the moderators. Moderation Mechanism and Off-topic Posts --------------- ------------------------ We believe that moderation is not equal to censorship and shall never be allowed to degenerate to censorship. However, we also believe that a newsgroup should be free of irrelevancies. The following shall be off-topic in soc.history.africa.biafra: 1) Posts not related to the purposes of soc.history.africa.biafra 2) Posts that exceed 75 characters per line. There is no restriction on the length of an submission. 3) Crossposts shall be allowed if the moderators feel that they have information which will interest readers of the newsgroup. 4) "Me too" posts; posts that contain an unreasonable amount of quoted text. As a general rule, a post will be rejected if less than 1/3 of it is new text. Posts, which in the opinion of the moderators, do not contribute any new discussion to an ongoing thread; intensely repetitive posts. 5) Commercial advertisements or personal advertisements that have nothing to do with biafra; "spam" articles; and robogenerated articles. 6) Obscene plagiarism and academic dishonesty, including the deliberate misattribution of quotations from historical documents and figures. The moderators shall interpret this rule loosely -- newsgroups are not academic journals -- but deliberate misattributions have poisoned the atmosphere in other newsgroups. 7) Posts containing profanity or excessive rudeness; posts that lack appropriate civility. While well-placed heckles are acceptable, flamewars are not. Any post full of personal abuse, slander or libel, or unauthorized reference to private e-mail addresses or mailing lists shall also be rejected. 8) Propagation of national, religious, racial, sexual, or ethnic hostility or animosity -- including posts openly justifying violence (in particular, violence against disabled people, women and children), war crimes, or ethnic cleansing. 9) Binary files, even if they are related to Biafra. Biafran-related binaries should be posted to the appropriate alt.binaries.* group with a pointer in soc.history.africa.biafra indicating where the binary in question may be found. Moderators will neither screen postings for intellectual content nor for accuracy beyond that contained in the charter of soc.history.africa.biafra. Moderators reserve the right to terminate any thread which degener- ates into unacceptable namecalling, rudeness, vulgarity, or which they feel has reached its end or flash point. Such threads shall be terminated by a 2/3 supermajority of the current moderators. Individuals who believe a particular moderator has unfairly rejected a submission can appeal to the entire panel of moderators. The panel will reevaluate the submission and make a majority decision as to whether it will be posted. In the event that the moderation panel is evenly split over whether a submission ought to be posted, the submission shall be posted. Anyone may volunteer to join the moderation panel with the consent of a two-thirds supermajority of the current moderators. Moderators also may be removed by a 2/3 supermajority of the moderation panel. Of course, moderators may resign of their own volition at any time. The moderators may, at any time, develop a robomoderation script to assist in their duties. From tale@uunet.uu.net Fri Nov 22 10:35:01 1996 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: tale@uunet.uu.net (David C Lawrence) Newsgroups: soc.history.african.biafra Subject: cmsg newgroup soc.history.african.biafra moderated Control: newgroup soc.history.african.biafra moderated Approved: newgroups-request@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: <848676606.952@uunet.uu.net> Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 15:30:06 GMT Lines: 192 X-Info: ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README.html ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/misc/pgpcontrol/README X-PGP-Sig: 2.7 Subject,Control,Message-ID,Date,From,Sender iQCVAgUBMpXG/8JdOtO4janBAQHOjgQAlxTtwVzayUdlVmSmhmDX6UJQfK9C6gXl xOMlw636N2kjaDUwfeuHKhLn/smtspljAeftwbpHO2G39/UhSDRFKFtDGQ+M1ENS znerUBaE4ljCEzi4WMF4zXGK9QOE4CzLL4I30UMYeQJY0/cFw1619DcNe8dWZKbp AZWdB3ECAkQ= =bJCg Xref: uunet control.newgroup:19294 soc.history.african.biafra is a moderated newsgroup which passed its vote for creation by 156:25 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 17 Oct 1996. Group submission address: biafra@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu Moderator contact address: biafra-mod@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu (Patience Akpan, Akobuije Chijioke, Alexander Dan'Iyan, Tochi Omenukor, Alexander Ukoh) For your newsgroups file: soc.history.african.biafra History of Biafra (Eastern Nigeria). (Moderated) The charter, culled from the vote result announcement: Issues: ------- History of Eastern Nigeria up to May 30, 1967. History of events leading to the declaration of the state of Biafra; the war between Biafra and Nigeria; The Ahiara Declaration; Biafran experiences (food crisis, survival strategies, mistrust between different groups in Biafra, Biafran technologies, poetry, war songs, diseases (kwashiokor, etc)); The roles of the international bodies (UN, OAU, etc); The effects of cold-war and pre-colonial policies on the state of Biafra; The structure and the de-structure of the Aburi Accord; The Biafran national anthem; Biafran women of war (their role in the execution of the war and other activities); Relief aid (its effectiveness, difficulties of food distribution, relief efforts by western and non-western agencies and the political involvements of the relief agencies in the war); The alliance between Biafra and Israel: the big deal between them; Biafran military strategies and technologies, The use of mercenaries by both Biafra and Nigeria, The international media and the "Biafran Babies", TV images and coverage of the Biafran life, The lost children of Biafra (who are they and where are they now?, can they ever be linked and/or returned to their kits and kins in Nigeria?); Rumor mongering and its effects on Biafra; Biafra's internal sociopoli- tical problems and their effects; The effectiveness of OAU in settling internal African problems; The politics of Biafran recognition within and outside Africa; Radio Biafra and war propaganda; the abandoned property issues; the implementation of the 3R's; The unity of Eastern Nigeria, the imperatives; Aftermath effects of the Biafran war on Nigerian unity, progress, and sociopolitical dynamics; The place of Biafra in Nigerian and world history. Topics: ------- Possible specific topics include, but not limited to: The political history of Eastern Nigeria prior to the emergence of Biafra. Could Biafra have survived to this day? Where did the Biafran war of survival go wrong? Did Ojukwu fight for Biafrans or for his personal interests? Is there any way that the Biafran secession could have been avoided? What did the Biafran military scientists invent and not invent? What went wrong with the Nigerian 2nd Division - did anyone leak their plans to Biafra? Did Biafrans destroy the Nigerian 2nd Div. by sheer chance or by some form of advanced warheads developed in secrecy? How and why did Biafran soldiers kill fellow Biafran soldiers? The Biafran "Boys Company", were Ojukwu and his commanders justified in using them for intelligence gathering and other war engagements? Did the Boys Company help the cause of the war? Did the Biafran military scientists try to develop nuclear/biological weapons? To what extent did the Nigerian/Biafran army use chemical weapons in strategic battles? How effective were the Biafran-made weapons of mass destruction (Ogbunigwe and Flying Ogbunigwe) and self-guided surface-to-air missiles? The words and music of the Biafran anthem (who wrote the anthem - Zik or Jean Sibelius (the author of the Finlandia)? What deal did Cameroon and Nigeria make to facilitate Biafra's defeat; What deal did China and Biafra make and why did it fail to materialize? What would Nigeria have been if Biafra had survived? Did Nigerian forces lack confidence in Gowon? Did Awolowo actually betray Biafra? Did Awolowo and Zik work together to see to it that Biafra did not succeed? What role did America, Britain, France, South Africa, Russia, and Egypt play in the Biafran war? Did Cuba ever offer help to Ojukwu and Biafra and what happ- ened? What role did the eastern minorities play in the Biafran struggle? Who actually killed Nzeogwu, Nigerian federal forces or a group of envious Biafrans? Why did Biafrans experiment with the scorched-earth strategies? Did Biafran and Nigerian federal forces swap foods, women, and ammunition? What shall be done to the living Biafran war criminals? Are there any lessons from the Biafran war for the posterity? Where did the Biafran war leave the people of Eastern Nigeria? Is there any way out of it? And many more but they must have something to do with Biafra. Status: ------- The 1st RFD was for an unmoderated soc.history.war.biafra. But due to the opposition and advice received from readers of news.groups and other history newsgroups changes in status and name were made in the 2nd RFD. Our thanks to all involved. It is, therefore, proposed that soc.history.african.biafra shall be a moderated newsgroup for the discussion of Biafran history and affairs. Participation: -------------- Both Nigerian and non-Nigerian prospectives and ideas will be greatly encouraged for the purpose of stimulating lively debate and mutual education. It is expected, however, that due to the international character of newsgroups, the discussions will be uniquely varied in prospective and quite different from any other forum now existing. It is requested, therefore, that this potential for international prospectives on the Biafran history/Biafran war be encouraged by the creation of a newsgroup specifically for that purpose. Gateway: -------- In order to give netters who have no access to USENET newsgroups the opportunity to participate in the discussions, soc.history.africa.biafra will be gated to Igbo--net and any other Nigerian-interest mailing list which desires it, through a moderated bi-directional gateway so that only topics relevant to the charter of soc.history.africa.biafra can be allowed passage. It is the responsibility of the list-owner(s) or manager(s) to ensure that only such articles are allowed passage to the moderators of soc.history.africa.biafra. The moderators of soc.history.africa.biafra reserve the right to shut off any mailing list which repeatedly forwards articles that do not meet the requirements of the group charter or any extinct mailing list. The vote to shut off any erring mailing list is by simple majority of the current moderators. Posts which deal extensively on contemporary Nigerian political commentary of any kind are not acceptable and will be STRONGLY discouraged by the moderators. Moderation Mechanism and Off-topic Posts --------------- ------------------------ We believe that moderation is not equal to censorship and shall never be allowed to degenerate to censorship. However, we also believe that a newsgroup should be free of irrelevancies. The following shall be off-topic in soc.history.africa.biafra: 1) Posts not related to the purposes of soc.history.africa.biafra 2) Posts that exceed 75 characters per line. There is no restriction on the length of an submission. 3) Crossposts shall be allowed if the moderators feel that they have information which will interest readers of the newsgroup. 4) "Me too" posts; posts that contain an unreasonable amount of quoted text. As a general rule, a post will be rejected if less than 1/3 of it is new text. Posts, which in the opinion of the moderators, do not contribute any new discussion to an ongoing thread; intensely repetitive posts. 5) Commercial advertisements or personal advertisements that have nothing to do with biafra; "spam" articles; and robogenerated articles. 6) Obscene plagiarism and academic dishonesty, including the deliberate misattribution of quotations from historical documents and figures. The moderators shall interpret this rule loosely -- newsgroups are not academic journals -- but deliberate misattributions have poisoned the atmosphere in other newsgroups. 7) Posts containing profanity or excessive rudeness; posts that lack appropriate civility. While well-placed heckles are acceptable, flamewars are not. Any post full of personal abuse, slander or libel, or unauthorized reference to private e-mail addresses or mailing lists shall also be rejected. 8) Propagation of national, religious, racial, sexual, or ethnic hostility or animosity -- including posts openly justifying violence (in particular, violence against disabled people, women and children), war crimes, or ethnic cleansing. 9) Binary files, even if they are related to Biafra. Biafran-related binaries should be posted to the appropriate alt.binaries.* group with a pointer in soc.history.africa.biafra indicating where the binary in question may be found. Moderators will neither screen postings for intellectual content nor for accuracy beyond that contained in the charter of soc.history.africa.biafra. Moderators reserve the right to terminate any thread which degener- ates into unacceptable namecalling, rudeness, vulgarity, or which they feel has reached its end or flash point. Such threads shall be terminated by a 2/3 supermajority of the current moderators. Individuals who believe a particular moderator has unfairly rejected a submission can appeal to the entire panel of moderators. The panel will reevaluate the submission and make a majority decision as to whether it will be posted. In the event that the moderation panel is evenly split over whether a submission ought to be posted, the submission shall be posted. Anyone may volunteer to join the moderation panel with the consent of a two-thirds supermajority of the current moderators. Moderators also may be removed by a 2/3 supermajority of the moderation panel. Of course, moderators may resign of their own volition at any time. The moderators may, at any time, develop a robomoderation script to assist in their duties.