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IMPORTANT: Strathspey policy

Anselm Lingnau

Anselm Lingnau

Sept. 28, 2001, 5:33 p.m. (Message 27583)

Sorry to bore you again with list operation matters, but in the
aftermath of the `censorship' discussion I should like to make the
following changes to the Strathspey list policy:

1. The `ground rules' as listed on http://www.strathspey.org/mailinglist
   shall be augmented by a paragraph reading

    Gross violations of these rules, in particular the first three items,
    may result in posting privileges being withdrawn at the discretion of
    the list maintainer(s).

   The `first three items' in question pertain to non-SCD material,
   dance instructions being posted without the deviser's consent, and
   another rule that I shall add saying something like

    - Please keep your submissions reasonably courteous. Imagine you
      are sitting on a discussion panel in front of 500 people (which
      is essentially true), and pick your language accordingly. Remember
      that you might meet your opposite on the dance floor one day. Also
      remember that anything posted to the list is archived for public
      access, so your mom, spouse, boss, future boss, SCD teacher, ...
      might come across it eventually.

   So far this has not been one of our big problems, and in fact the
   type of good-natured banter that the list is up to every so often
   is part of its appeal (as far as I am concerned). However I would 
   like to reserve the right to deal with people who post intentional
   below-the-waistline insults etc. without getting into a big debate
   on semantics. (I seem to remember kicking somebody off for using
   extremely offensive language -- and I'm not particularly squeamish 
   -- once before, so this is basically a codification of existing
   practice.) I suppose people will be warned once, anyway.

2. The message that is sent out to new subscribers asking them to 
   confirm their subscriptions shall be changed to contain the rules
   (quoted from the web page mentioned above, whose URL will also be
   given), the paragraph mentioned above and a notice that confirming
   the subscription means agreement to abide with the rules. This
   notice will also mention the possibility of reading Strathspey on
   the WWW without subscribing to the actual mailing list.

3. If there are no major objections to this I shall announce the change
   to the Strathspey list subscribers. From that moment on I shall
   stipulate that all posters to the Strathspey list agree with the new
   policy.

It is important to note that, since the rules are all about posting
material to the list, the restriction refers only to `posting
privileges' being withdrawn (which happens to be what the list software
lets me do straightforwardly -- the only way for me to keep people from
subscribing to the list would be by manually approving every single
subscription request, and the way AOL & co. are slinging e-mail
addresses around, people could sneak in anyhow). Everybody in the world
with WWW access can look at the Strathspey discussions in the archive on
the Server, anyway, so a ban on the actual subscription would be a bit
pointless.

I should like to make it clear that I am in no way trying to set myself
up as list dictator (no more than I already am, anyway). The openness of
Strathspey to all sorts of opinions regarding Scottish dancing and music
is its main virtue, and it is exactly this property that I am trying to
preserve, by making it easier to deal with purposefully-obnoxious
rulebreakers who can now be told that they (1) did agree to abide with
the list rules, and (2) were made aware of the consequences of not
playing along. The main purpose of the change is to outline these
consequences, which in the past were decided on ad-hoc (usually the
`offenders' were kicked off anyway, in the two or three cases that we
had in the 8-year history of the Strathspey list).

Good-faith mistakes will be dealt with as they always used to, i.e., I
might send out a private message asking the sender not to do it again,
or I might send out a general reminder to the list at large. The 30-day
WTC ban was my idea of getting the *topic* off the list quickly without
singling out individual posters, and not a decision I arrived at
lightly, much less one that I was personally happy about -- however, the
overwhelming agreement by people who wrote to me afterwards told me that
the decision had been right as far as the readership was concerned. To
repeat, as long as I have any say in this no one will be banned from
posting for sending a message to Strathspey that deals with Scottish
dancing or music, however outlandish its actual content -- it is the
obvious non-SCD material that I'd like to get rid of.

Please let me know (in private e-mail, if you like) what you think of 
this, in particular if you object.

Anselm
-- 
Anselm Lingnau (Frankfurt, Germany)     Strathspey SCD mailing list maintainer
Send mail to  <xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx>  for information about the list
Check out  http://www.strathspey.org  for lots of interesting stuff about SCD!
SMiskoe

SMiskoe

Sept. 28, 2001, 11:54 p.m. (Message 27589, in reply to message 27583)

Good stuff, Anselm.  I agree.
Sylvia Miskoe
Lee Fuell

Lee Fuell

Sept. 29, 2001, 12:06 a.m. (Message 27590, in reply to message 27583)

Anselm,

I concur whoeheartedly.

Lee

Send reply to:  	xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx
To:             	xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:        	IMPORTANT: Strathspey policy
Date sent:      	Fri, 28 Sep 2001 17:33:37 +0200
From:           	Anselm Lingnau <xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx>

> Sorry to bore you again with list operation matters, but in the
> aftermath of the `censorship' discussion I should like to make the
> following changes to the Strathspey list policy:

<snip>
Freeman/Pavey

Freeman/Pavey

Sept. 29, 2001, 2:14 a.m. (Message 27592, in reply to message 27590)

Donald Lee Fuell, Jr. wrote:

> Anselm,
> 
> I concur whoeheartedly.


I concur who heartedly too.  :)

Cole Pavey

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