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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