alt.paranormal.moderated (APM) control message body
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For your newsgroups file:
alt.paranormal.moderated Rational discussion of the paranormal

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Moderator submission address: apm-news@geocities.com
Moderator contact address: apm-request@geocities.com

Moderator: David Lindauer <camille@bluegrass.net>

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comment:

        Alt.Paranormal is over 80% off-topic, from initial estimates 
over a period of about ten days at the beginning of april 1998.  
Within that period, the vast majority of the off-topic posts relate 
to discussions of disatisfaction within the group and with starting 
a new group.  Various names have been proposed.  Said discussions 
have apparently been going on for at least several months both 
in alt.config and in alt.paranormal with no resolution.  

The two main reasons for the new moderated group are:

1) allow for resolution of some disatisfactions with the old group.
2) halt the discussions over a new group and free up some bandwidth.

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Readership justification:

Estimates of initial postings to the new group range from 10 to
30 postings a day at the current rate, depending on how many people start
using it immediately.  However this is expected to rise as more people
find this as forum for discussion without flame wars.

For these reasons I think a new group is warranted and viable.

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Charter:

1) alt.paranormal.moderated is to be devoted to the rational discussion 
of the paranormal.  As such nearly anything science can't explain is
on-topic.

2) alt.paranormal.moderated is specifically for people who do not wish
to be asked to prove their position about the paranormal, and for people
who do not wish to be harassed about their position about the paranormal.

3) alt.paranormal.moderated

        is not for religious debates.
                A discussion of the paranormal aspects of christ's powers
                is on topic, a discussion of christ's mission in the world
                is not.
        is not for predictions about the future of mankind.  Earthquake
                windows and other such are best left to other groups.
                However, discussion of predictive mechanisms is on-topic.
        is not for any type of flame wars.  Specifically there will be no
                name calling.  Threads which basically say 'prove it',
                'I don't believe that', ' or everyone knows (you are wrong)'
                are specifically prohibited.  Along with anything that is
                judged to be along the same lines.
        is not for marketing.  Advertisement will be allowed, however,
                it will be limited to once every two to three weeks per
                person/company.

4) alt.paranormal.moderated

        is for rational discussion.
                As such some skepticism will be allowed, however, it must
                conform to the above rules.  In addition, since the
                paranormal is already skeptical of science, skeptics of the
                paranormal will be expected to align themselves with science
                and argue scientific fact.  Skeptics who cannot live with
                this rule do not belong in this group and there are other
                places for them.
        allows cross-posting
                Providing that no more than five groups exist in the
                newsgroups line.  At a later date certain groups may
                be banned from a cross-post list if too many problems
                occur.
        will tolerate conspiracy theories unless a lot of effort is put
                into divorcing them from the paranormal

5) Nothing posted to alp.paranormal.moderated is guaranteed true.  The
moderation process is solely to prevent flame wars and otherwise keep
things on-topic.
        


This message posted by David Lindauer, camille@bluegrass.net
