Operational policies for the
Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition listserv, referred to in these policies
as the “Peace List.”.
Statement of
Need for Communication Medium
In the modern “peace” and “antiwar” movements, comprising group efforts
to stop ongoing wars and avoid future ones as a means of resolving
grievances between peoples and nations, rapid electronic communications
such as electronic mailing lists have become a critical component of
collaboration and information exchange. For a busy grassroots antiwar
and peace organization like NWOPC, it is indispensible to group
communication. Hence NWOPC’s “Peace List.”
Policies
The following policies will be electronically distributed to each new
subscriber prior to the allowance of permission to post any messages to
the Peace List.
1. Illegal
purposes.
- Any use of the Peace List for illegal purposes
will result in
disabling/exclusion of the user(s) access to the list/exclusion from
the list following consultation among the listserv moderators. The
Peace List may not be used anything to do with illegal drugs, gambling,
pornography, prostitution, child pornography, robbery, spreading
computer viruses, cracking into private computer forums, software
infringement, trafficking in credit card codes, or other crimes.
Anticipated civil disobedience plans must be conducted off-list.
2. Privacy
policy
- Monitoring of any participation or attempted
participation in
the Peace List by any governmental authority for any purpose whatsoever
is strictly forbidden and will result in immediate exclusion and
possible referral for prosecution or civil lawsuit.
3. The
responsibilities of the list owner
- Advising individuals who will be
pre-subscribed to the list of the list's purpose and how to unsubscribe
themselves.
- Responding to subscribers' requests for
removal from the list.
- Assisting subscribers with subscribing or
unsubscribing to the list.
- Correcting subscriptions that are made
incorrectly or in error.
- Creating and maintaining current and relevant
files such as the
subscribers, aliases, news, peers, ignored, info, or welcome files.
- Responding to errors related to the list such
as delivery and remove errors.
4. List
membership a privilege, not a right
- Membership on the NWOPC list is not a right of
the individual.
The owners and moderators of the Peace List have the right and are
responsible for unsubscribing list members who abuse a list by sending
off-topic mail to the list, misuse or abuse the resource or are abusive
of other list members. The list owner and moderators are responsible
for determining what constitutes off-topic or abusive mailings and for
determining whether a mailing is abusive. Where the moderators disagree
and there is a tie vote as towhether an abuse of list membership, the
dispute will be forwarded to the NWOPC Board for final resolution by
2/3 majority vote, which vote shall be final and unappealable.
5.
Transmission of attachments
- The Peace List allows posting of attachments.
However, the use
of URL postings to refer other list members to documents and items
located elsewhere on the Internet is encouraged. The Peace List owner
and moderators reserve the right to limit posted attachments to 300K.
6. List
courtesy and conduct
- The messages you post to the Peace List must
be appropriate for
the purposes of this list. That means that they must pertain, directly
or indirectly, to the topics of war and its causation; to criticisms of
the conduct or use of war; to discussion or inquiry into resolution or
to alternative means of conflict resolution besides war; to activities
of the NWOPC or other individuals or organizations in opposition to
war; to news and opinions (pro and con) concerning American
involvements in war and armed aggression; to the political dimensions
of U.S. involvement, directly or indirectly, in war and armed
aggression; to political efforts and movements relative to the
formulation and implementation of U.S. war policies and foreign affairs
intertwined with war policies of the U.S. or other countries; etc.
Please do not
engage in discussions on
whether a topic is appropriate or inappropriate for this list. Such
discussions take up valuable space on the listserv, and distract
subscribers away from more meaningful discussions. If inappropriate
postings or violations of the listserv are noticed, subscribers should
not inform the entire group, but should bring this information to the
attention of the listserv moderators.
All those who
post to the list must
reveal their names in the heading of the item posted. Posting
persons
who ignore this rule will be warned one time by the moderators, and
then barred from further postings.
Please feel
free to express yourself, but do not do anything to injure or harm
other individuals.
Subscribers
are expected to exercise both common sense and courtesy in the messages
they transmit over the listserv.
Please do not
use the listserv to
defame or disparage a member of NWOPC. However, a true statement, or a
statement of good-faith belief that a posted message is racist,
anti-Islamic, fascistic, anti-semitic, etc. is not defamation if there
is a factual basis for the statement.
- Defamatory, harassing, sexist, racist,
obscene, and other
offensive communications are not acceptable forms of communication over
the Peace List, and could lead to legal liability for those engaging in
such improper communications. In particular, if you dislike someone
else's ideas, you can attack the ideas, but not the person. Please do
not challenge or attack the opinions or information presented by others
by "flaming". If you have a differing opinion, please express yourself
in a professional manner. Please maintain a civil tone on this listserv
at all times. Any harassment or transmission of personal attacks or
otherwise personally offensive messages, or “flaming” by a
subscriber/member, in the sole determination of the owner and
moderators of the Peace List will subject the subscriber/member to one
(1) offlist warning from the moderators. The continuation of such
behavior may, in the sole discretion of the owner and moderators of the
Peace List, be cause for complete exclusion of the subscriber from the
Peace List.
- Special note concerning posting of factually
false items, urban
legends or material from suspect sources: if someone has posted a
message which you believe is clearly untrue (because of being an “urban
legend” email circulated without any footnote or citation as to
origin), you must first contact the poster offlist, pointing out the
mistake, citing the proof you have that it is not true, and giving the
poster 24 hours to retract the posting before notifying the entire
list. This does not apply to postings with which you simply disagree,
but only to those which you believe in good faith contain serious
errors or lies. If you have any questions about how to proceed, please
contact the moderators listed below:
- Do not alter the content, or source of a
message that has originated from another person’s computer with the
intent to deceive.
- Do not use the Peace List for conducting any
private business or
commercial activity without the expressed or written permission of the
moderators Commercial activities include, but are not limited to,
promotional announcements, product-related press releases, ingredient
information, advertising. Should such messages appear on the listserv,
NWOPC will not be held liable either directly or indirectly for damages
that result from the use of this information.
- If you have any affiliation with the Federal
Bureau of
Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense
Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, or any police
agency of any government, you must disclose this affiliation upon
applying to become a member of the Peace List. The list owner,
moderators and Board of NWOPC will determine in their sole discretion
whether you may become a list subscriber/member.
- You may post the availability of domestic
animals for free adoption.
- Do not send or propagate messages that contain
computer worms,
viruses, or components that threaten to interfere with or compromise
the integrity of our computer systems, networks or websites. Respect
the security of the Peace List. Do not try to gain access to listserv
areas private to the owner or moderators, or to other subscribers.
- Please use descriptive headings for all
messages that you post to the listserv.
- When asking questions please request that
individuals reply
directly to you. After all the replies have been gathered, you may post
a summary to the list. When replying to messages, do not reply to the
entire list if a reply is directed at a single individual. Replying to
the individual may be more appropriate. Replies of a personal nature
should not be intentionally sent to the group.
- The listserv may not be used to violate any
rules of membership in NWOPC or its bylaws, rules and regulations or
standards.
- NWOPC reserves the right to modify or change
these policies, with
or without notice, as it determines from time-to-time, in the best
interests of NWOPC and the Peace List owner and moderators.
7.
Limitation of liability & indemnity
- The great danger for us, and for all operators
of online
listservs, is that we might be held accountable for the wrongful
actions of our subscribers. We did not start this listserv to take
responsibility for others' actions, and we cannot afford to operate it
if we must take that responsibility. Accordingly, all subscribers must
accept responsibility for their own acts, and to accept that an act by
another subscriber that damages them must not be blamed on us, but on
the other subscriber. Therefore, as a condition of participation in the
listserv, participants must agree as follows: You agree that
NWOPC and
its members, the NWOPC list owner and moderators will not be
responsible to you for any damages or losses you may incur in
connection with our listserv or any of the data or other materials
transmitted through or residing on our listserv, even if NWOPC has been
advised of the possibility of such damage or loss. In addition, you
agree to defend and indemnify NWOPC, its officers, directors, members
and agents harmless from and against any and all claims, costs and
expenses relating to any acts or omissions by you or materials or
information transmitted by you in connection with the Peace List which
lead wholly or partially to claims against NWOPC, its officers,
directors, members or agents or the Peace List, brought by other users
or third parties.
8. Choice of
Law
- The Peace List can be reached by subscribers
from all fifty
states, and from around the world. Each of these places has a different
set of laws. Since we cannot keep track of all these laws and their
requirements, by joining the Peace List, you agree that the law of Ohio
and the United States of America, will apply to all matters relating to
these policies and to the Peace List. In addition, you agree and
consent that if there is ever any legal action against NWOPC, the Peace
List, its owner or moderators, the state and federal courts of Lucas
County, Ohio, U.S.A. will have exclusive jurisdiction and be the
exclusive venue for any such legal actions.
9. Entire
understanding
- This agreement is the entire understanding
between you and
NWOPC, the Peace List, its owner and moderators regarding your
relationship to our listserv. If either you or we fail to notify the
other of any violations of this agreement, this will not mean that you
or we cannot notify the other of future violations of any part of this
agreement.
10. User
acknowledgment and acceptance
- I have read and understand the listserv rules
and agree to
accept these policies and to use the listserv only in compliance with
them. I further admit and stipulate that I have signified my agreement
to be bound by these policies by my use of the Peace List for the
sending or receipt of any postings to it.
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