MN-POLITICS - Minnesota Politics Forum Description and Participation Guidelines


Purpose
=======

MN-POLITICS is an Internet electronic-mail list sponsored by Minnesota 
E-Democracy for the sharing of information on and discussion of Minnesota 
politics and public policy. Members of this forum are encouraged to 
contribute campaign and election information, announcements from 
Minnesota-focused political and civic organizations, public policy and 
legislative information, and presentations on issues of public interest.

The list encourages discussion from diverse political perspectives that 
is respectful in nature.  This forum is more about the presentation of 
ideas and information than being right with one's ideology.  E-mail-based 
forums are special in nature.  They offer a significant opportunity for 
broad participation, but require members to appreciate the limits and 
strengths of text-only e-mail communication.  

Minnesota E-Democracy seeks to build a forum that is informative, useful, 
and participatory.  It is stressed that other forms of electronic 
communication, like Newsgroups and WWW-based conferencing, offer 
alternative forums for free-wheeling debate.

All postings to MN-POLITICS are archived from: 
     http://www.e-democracy.org/mn-politics

While authors of list messages implictly agree to share their intellectual 
property through the list and its archive, the writers retain all the 
copyright privileges in their messages. 

Rules and Guidelines for MN-POLITICS
====================================

MN-POLITICS is an unmoderated "on-line civic space" where members have 
the rights and responsibilities associated with open discussion and 
highly public exchange.  The limitations of e-mail-based forums require 
the following rules and guidelines to ensure that the success of the 
forum.  The goal of MN-POLITICS is to bring as many people into this 
civic space as possible and balance that with efforts to ensure that most 
members find value in the information exchange.

Rules
=====

1.      No more than two postings per member within 24 hours.

2.      No forwarding private messages to the list without permission 
        of the author.

3.      No insults, threats, and inflamed speech for the sake of personal 
        argument are allowed. 

4.      One-on-one arguements, disagreements, and disputes of a personal 
        nature must be taken off list.

Guidelines
==========

1.      Postings must be within the scope of the list's purpose. (i.e. 
        Minnesota politics.  There are thousands of other Internet forums that 
        cover other topics .)

2.      Because this is an unmoderated list, the responsiblity to define what 
        is within MN-POLITICS' scope lies with the person posting the message.  

3.      Messages to the list must include the name and e-mail address as 
        all or part of the author's signature.

4.      Complaints about a list member's behavior should be directed to 
        the list member or the list owner (masouder@alex.stkate.edu).  
        These complaints should not be posted to the list.

Removal From List
=================

1.      A subscriber may be removed by the list owner for breaking a list 
        rule after one warning.   The list owner may may remove a subscriber 
        for violating the list's guidelines upon consulting the Minnesota 
        E-Democracy Steering Committee. 

2.      The list owner is not responsible for monitoring every posting and 
        will only review whether a subscriber has broken the rules upon 
        receiving a complaint.  The WWW archive contains all the posting and 
        information needed to review whether the rules have been broken.

3.      Members who feel that an individual is posting items that fall 
        outside of MN-POLITICS' purpose should send a note directly to 
        the person stating their concerns.  This will help new members 
        understand the culture of the list and e-mail in general.

4.      If an individual on a regular basis posts messages that fall outside 
        of MN-POLITICS' purpose, a determination on removal will be taken 
        up upon request by the steering committee.  

5.      The steering committee reserves the right to remove any subscriber 
        upon careful consideration for the preservation of the list as a 
        Minnesota E-Democracy initiative.

6.      Any member removed from the list for the above reasons may not return
        for one year.  They may read the postings from the WWW archive, but 
        not post to the list.

7.      The technical maintainence may cause a subscriber to be 
        temporarily removed by the list owner.  In these cases, the 
        member may rejoin the list at anytime.

Adopted 2/12/96, revised 6/4/96

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