MISSION STATEMENT: 
Alt.religion.wicca.moderated is a moderated forum for those interested in the religion of 
Wicca, its many traditions or denominations, and neopagan witchcraft. It offers a more 
structured environment for Wiccans and others interested in these traditions to compare 
ideas than is provided by other, similar groups. 
 
ARTICLE I: ACCEPTED POSTING AND NETIQUETTE    
OFF TOPIC POSTING: Certain types of posts are not appropriate to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated and will not be tolerated. These posts include: 
* Spam - Unsolicited commercial posts (spam) will not be tolerated in 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Posts that offer to sell, rent, buy, advertise or posts that link 
to sites that offer to sell, rent, buy, or advertise goods or services that are not directly 
relevant to pagan interests will not be permitted. Such posts include (but are not limited 
to) ads for sex/pornography sites and multi-level marketing offers. 
Commercial advertisements that are relevant to pagan interests will be permitted as long 
as the subject line begins with the [AD] tag, denoting an advertisement. Modstaff 
reserves the right to reject any advertisements with the proper subject line if they feel that 
the ad is inappropriate for alt.religion.wicca.moderated. 
* Ad Hominem Attacks - Posts made with the express intent of hurting another individual 
or group, or posts that denigrate, demean, ostracize, discriminate against, or attack an 
individual or group will not be tolerated in alt.religion.wicca.moderated. 
Alt.religion.wicca.moderated is a structured environment where users can feel 
comfortable posting questions and concerns; 'flames' of this nature serve no purpose but 
to destroy this environment. 
* Intolerance and Religious Preaching - Alt.religion.wicca.moderated serves individuals 
from many religious paths and traditions, as well as many different lifestyles. Posts that 
preach the superiority of one specific path over others, or show intolerance toward 
specific lifestyles will not be tolerated here. Posts that denigrate, demean, ostracize, 
discriminate against, or attack other religious traditions or lifestyles in an effort to create 
an intolerant atmosphere will likewise not be tolerated. 
* Trolls - Articles which are perceived to have been written solely for the purpose of 
provoking outrage or indignation among the readers of alt.religion.wicca.moderated will 
be rejected: "trolling for flames" is not permitted. 
Alt.religion.wicca.moderated is an ecumenical and diversified news group accepting 
posts from authors of any race, sex, sexual orientation, age, or religious creed so long as 
said posts are relevant to Wicca and follow the rules for posting to the news group. 
PROPER POSTING: As a courtesy to readers, it is important that all posts made to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated follow a basic format compliant with the accepted rules of 
netiquette. 
Each post should include a subject line that is relevant to the post's message. A message 
that is commercial in nature and Pagan oriented should contain the prefix [AD] in the 
subject line; denoting an advertisement. 
Message bodies should be formatted at no more than 80 characters per line to enable all 
users to view each post. Quoted material should be kept to a minimum; only enough 
material should be quoted to ensure that the new material can be properly understood or 
put in the proper perspective. When quoting, it is courteous to leave the original author's 
name attached so that there is no question as to who is being quoted. In addition, when 
quoting an entire string of replies, authors' names should be left in the quote to ensure 
that each line can be properly attributed to its author. 
It is also customary to insert '<snip>' or some other marking to indicate that sections of 
quoted material have been left out. This will show that the original post contains more 
material than is being reposted, and will refer readers to the previous post. 
To prevent confusion, a blank line should be inserted to separate quoted material from 
original material. It is also customary to prefix each quoted line with a special character 
(most commonly, the 'greater than' symbol '>'), this will enable viewers to easily make 
the distinction between quoted and original material. 
Issues of poor grammar or spelling should be resolved privately, by email. 'Flaming' an 
individual for either is actively discouraged on alt.religion.wicca.moderated. 
Excessive use of profanity and vulgarity should be avoided. Alt.religion.wicca.moderated 
is dedicated to providing a user-friendly environment to people of all ages. All posts must 
adhere to the rules as presented in this charter, and should also conform to the guidelines 
of civil debate. 
Signature files are permitted on posts to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. A sig file should be 
no more than 20 lines (ideally four lines or less) and should have 80 characters or less per 
line. In addition to a signature file, a post may contain other identifying lines such as PGP 
keys or Dejanews add-ons. Binary attachments are not permitted on posts made to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Posts with binary attachments will be filtered out by the 
robomoderator. 
Please keep in mind that moderators are authorized to remove not only the individual 
posts, but the posting privileges, of those who post abusively, as outlined below. 
ARTICLE II: MEMBERSHIP   
All new users of alt.religion.wicca.moderated shall be considered guests. Modstaff will 
review posts made by guests before they are submitted to the news group. If a post is off 
topic, or does not follow the guidelines for posting to this news group as outlined in this 
charter, the post will be rejected and shall not appear on alt.religion.wicca.moderated. 
Due to current Usenet limitations, a rejected post that is cross posted will not appear on 
any of the groups posted to.
Users who have demonstrated compliance with the rules for alt.religion.wicca.moderated 
and have shown themselves to be responsible when posting to the news group may 
become members of alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Members' posts are pre approved 
when submitted and are not reviewed by Modstaff. It is expected that posts made by 
members will follow rules of posting to this news group as outlined in this charter. 
Members who fail to comply with these rules when posting may lose their membership 
status.
A guest may become a member on alt.religion.wicca.moderated by continuously posting 
on-topic, and by fulfilling all guidelines for membership outlined in this charter. Modstaff 
is responsible for determining the status of all users of alt.religion.wicca.moderated based 
upon the content of their posts to the group. The minimum requirements for membership 
will initially be set by Modstaff and may be changed with a majority vote by the 
moderating body. Modstaff will post the current minimum requirements to the news 
group on a regular basis. Modstaff may elect to waive the minimum requirements for any 
individual user, but may not predetermine the status of any individual before they attempt 
to post to the group. Modstaff is not required to grant membership to user's who meet the 
minimum requirements. Modstaff may also rescind membership at any time as outlined 
below.
 
ACTIVE VS INACTIVE MEMBERSHIP: An 'active' member is a member who has 
posted to alt.religion.wicca.moderated within three months of the current date. Only 
active members are allowed to cast votes or campaign for Modstaff, as outlined 
elsewhere in the charter. An 'inactive' member is a member who has not made any posts 
to the news group within three months of the current date. Inactive members are not 
eligible to vote nor may they campaign for Modstaff. Inactive members are still 
'members', however, in that posts from inactive members are still pre-approved. To be 
considered an active member again, an inactive member must post to the news group. 
The post is pre-approved, and the status of the member instantly becomes active. Inactive 
members are not permitted to vote or campaign for Modstaff. A ballot received from an 
inactive member does not constitute a 'post' reestablishing membership, and shall be 
considered void and discarded. Participation in any electoral discussion, however, is 
enough to reinstate membership.
A member may be inactive for no more than two years. After two years of inactivity, the 
user is dropped from the pre approved member list. The user shall be considered a guest 
and Modstaff will review any posts made by the dropped member. The user may post 
normally and become an active member once more by meeting the requirements for 
becoming a member, as outlined above.
Guests who become members are automatically considered 'active' members. While 
Modstaff is not required to grant membership to any user, a guest that has met the current 
minimum requirements may directly petition Modstaff for membership by sending an 
inquiry to the moderating contact address. A Modstaff vote will be held for all inquiries 
with a simple majority being required for membership. Each guest who petitions for 
membership will be informed, via email, the results of the vote and their current posting 
status.
All requests to be taken off the membership list and returned to guest status will be 
honored by Modstaff. This decision may be reverted by sending a letter of intent to the 
Modstaff contact address. Any guest may choose to reject membership, and remain a 
guest of alt.religion.wicca.moderated by sending a letter of intent to the Modstaff contact 
address.
IMPROPER POSTING: Posting a message that does not follow the rules of posting as 
outlined in this charter constitutes abuse.
Any member who abuses the privilege of pre approved posting may be taken off the pre 
approved member list, and be considered a guest. Modstaff reserves the right to rescind 
the membership status of any user for improper posting with a majority vote. Alternately, 
Modstaff may choose to post a public warning or send a private email, requesting that a 
current discussion topic be dropped. Not honoring Modstaff requests or not following 
suggested guidelines shall be considered grounds for losing membership status. These 
abusers will remain guests for no less than three months, having each post reviewed by 
Modstaff. At the end of this three month period, an abuser may once again become a 
member with no loss of posting privilege or voting privileges. Users who once again 
abuse posting privileges may be removed from the pre approved member list and may 
remain a guest indefinitely, at Modstaff's discretion.
A guest who continuously attempts to abuse posting privileges may be banned from 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Any member of Modstaff may call for a ban on any guest 
who has attempted to abuse posting privileges. A two thirds majority agreement by 
Modstaff is needed to enact a ban. However, a temporary ban lasting no more than two 
days may be enacted immediately by any member of Modstaff without the two thirds 
majority vote of Modstaff. This will ensure that abusers will not be able to continue their 
abuse while Modstaff is reviewing the situation. If a ban is successfully enacted, the user 
will be placed in the auto bounce list. None of this user's posts will appear on 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated, or on any cross posted groups.
A banned user may petition Modstaff for reinstatement of posting privileges by sending a 
letter to the Modstaff contact address, no less than six months after a ban is enacted. A 
two thirds majority agreement of Modstaff must be reached in order to lift a ban. Once 
lifted, the user is immediately considered a guest and may post normally to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Modstaff may decide to restrict the posting privileges of a 
reinstated user to that of "guest status" indefinitely. Modstaff may reinstate full 
membership privileges to an indefinite guest at any time, or may be petitioned to reinstate 
this status by appealing as outlined below. Should a two year span occur in which no 
posts originate from a banned address, Modstaff will remove the address from the banned 
user list. If subsequent posts are received from a formerly banned address, Modstaff may 
decide to allow these messages to be posted normally, or to reenact the ban.
APPEALING MODSTAFF DECISIONS: Anyone may appeal a decision made by 
Modstaff by emailing the Modstaff address. In the event Modstaff do not grant this 
appealeither by denying it or by not ruling on it within one month, the appellant may 
appeal to the active membership by petition, using the tag [APPEAL], under the same 
rules of petition as for the removal of Modstaff. [10% within a month to second, two 
weeks to discuss, 51% within a month to pass.] If the appellant has no posting privileges, 
Modstaff must post the appeal on the appellant's behalf. If this appeal fails, that decision 
may not be appealed again until six months after the petition failed, at which point the 
process may start again from the beginning. Rejection of email to Modstaff from that 
appellant must expire in six months, to permit this renewed appeal. The appellant must 
then be notified by email of this opportunity to renew the appeal. Mail bombing or other 
abusive email from appellant to Modstaff, after lapse of such a six month period, will 
entitle Modstaff with a 2/3 vote to extend the no-appeal, auto reject period by six months.
Modstaff must post all Modstaff decisions, including the receipts and results of all 
appeals, on the news group, using the [ADMIN] tag, within one week of their occurrence.
ARTICLE III: MODERATION POLICY AND PROCEDURE:    
 
The terms 'Wicca' and 'Paganism' are elusive at best, and there are manydiffering 
meanings to each term. There will be no discrimination of postsdue to differing opinions 
of what these terms actually mean. While posts should be Wiccan in emphasis, the line 
where 'Wicca' ends and 'Pagan' begins is a broad one. Those non-wiccans who post to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated on spiritual and magickal matters are welcomed as long as 
their posts are Wiccan relevant. 
 
Henceforth, a majority is defined as 51% (or higher) of the active members voting in a 
particular way. Only active members may vote. Inactive members must reestablish 
activity before their vote is considered legitimate. Guests are not allowed to vote. 
 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated shall be moderated by an odd number of moderators with 
the assistance of a robomoderator. 
 
The robomoderator will be responsible for weeding out posts that contain binary 
attachments, are heavily cross-posted, repeat posts (floods), and posts from banned users. 
The robomoderator will also be responsible for logging posts that are rejected and the 
reasons for rejection. 
 
CROSS POSTING: Cross-posted messages (messages that are posted to more than one 
news group at the same time) will be accepted on alt.religion.wicca.moderated. However, 
a message that is cross-posted should be on-topic for ALL groups that it is being posted 
too. In addition, any messages that are 'heavily cross posted' will be weeded out by the 
robomoderator and will not appear on any news group that they are posted to. A message 
is heavily cross-posted if it is posted to five or more groups at the same time. Directly 
related news groups are not counted toward this five-group cross-post limit. Modstaff is 
responsible for determining whether a group is directly related to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Any member may propose to have a group listed among the 
directly related groups by sending a letter to the Modstaff contact address. A majority 
vote by Modstaff is required to add the group. If the current list of directly related groups 
changes, Modstaff will post the entire list to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Posts that pass 
through the basic filters of the robomoderator will be distributed to Modstaff for 
approval. Modstaff will ensure that each manually moderated post conforms to the 
charter of alt.religion.wicca.moderated. 
 
 
QUALIFICATIONS FOR MODSTAFF: All Modstaff candidates must be members in 
good standing with the news group. Each candidate must compose a short biography 
containing basic information about experience and qualifications pertaining to both 
Wicca and technical computing skills. 
 
PROCEDURE FOR ELECTING NEW MODERATORS: To officially begin an election 
for moderators on alt.religion.wicca.moderated, Modstaff will post an announcement on 
the news group explaining their intention to elect new moderators and the allotted time 
for candidates to present themselves. All interested active members will then submit a net 
bio to the Modstaff contact address. Modstaff will post these net-bios to the news group 
after the allotted time has expired. 
 
Modstaff will also post a pre formatted 'ballot' to the news group, as well as email a copy 
of this 'ballot' to each member. The ballot will contain instructions on how to properly 
complete the ballot, and where to send it to be tallied. Guests and inactive members are 
not permitted to vote. Only ballots cast by active members of 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated will be accepted as legitimate. Each active member will 
receive one vote per open position on Modstaff. In the event that more than one position 
is open, each voter will select from the list of candidates a number of names up to or 
including the number of open positions, and cast one vote for each candidate selected. 
For instance, if five candidates run for three open positions, each voter may select from 
one to three names from that list, but may not cast more than one vote for any one 
candidate. Ballots will be posted weekly for a one-month period on 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated, and collected throughout the entire voting period. 
 
At the end of one month, Modstaff will tally the ballots, and the results will be posted to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Modstaff will offer the positions available to the candidates 
with the highest number of votes (not necessarily the majority of votes). The first 
available position will be offered to the candidate with the highest number of votes. The 
second available position will be offered to the candidate with the second highest number 
of votes, etc. If the candidate is unable or unwilling to accept the position, it will be 
offered to the candidate with the next highest number of votes. 
 
In the event of a tie between candidates, Modstaff will cast a single vote between tying 
candidates and immediately offer an available position to the candidate with the highest 
number of votes. If a tie still remains (a three-way tie, for instance) Modstaff will cast a 
single vote between the remaining tying candidates, and immediately offer a position to 
the candidate with the highest number of votes. 
 
 
Modstaff will continue to cast single votes and immediately offer any available position 
to the candidate with the highest number of votes, until there are no remaining ties or 
there are no remaining positions to offer, whichever occurs first. A member is considered 
part of Modstaff as soon as a post is made publicly accepting the offered position. 
 
REMOVING A MODERATOR: To begin the process of removing a moderator from 
Modstaff, a member of alt.religion.wicca.moderated must post a petition. The petition 
will be allotted one month to be resolved. If at any time during that month, 10% of the 
active member list 'sign' the petition, then the moderator in question is removed and an 
election is called following normal procedure as outlined above. When publicly showing 
support for a petition, the post should contain a [PETITION] tag in the subject header. If 
not enough active members 'sign' the petition by the end of one month's time, the 
petition is failed and nullified. There may only be one outstanding petition against any 
single moderator at any given time. A new petition may be formed regarding the 
moderator in question only after the previous petition is resolved. A moderator that has 
been removed may recampaign in any election by following the procedures above for 
becoming a candidate. However, if a majority of the active members (51%) sign the 
petition of removal within the allotted time, the moderator in question cannot recampaign 
for any Modstaff position for a period of no less than six months. 
 
An election for a vacancy on Modstaff must begin within three months of the vacancy 
occurrence. Temporary moderators may be appointed by Modstaff to assist with 
moderation during such a vacancy; such appointments are not to exceed six months in 
duration. A moderator who has been recalled within the last six months may not serve as 
a temporary moderator. 
 
 
ARTICLE IV: AMENDING THE CHARTER:    
 
 
IMPORTANCE OF A DYNAMIC CHARTER - For a news group to accommodate 
growth and change among its users, it is essential that its charter be dynamic and flexible. 
Creating a method in which the charter of alt.religion.wicca.moderated can be modified 
for the future will ensure the usefulness and usability of this news group. 
 
It is the responsibility of both Modstaff and the active members of 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated to supervise any modifications made to the charter. Charter 
amendments must follow ALL outlined procedures and must be officially recognized by 
Modstaff. Only Modstaff has the authority to publish an amended charter. Modstaff is 
also responsible for updating any published versions of the charter each time an 
amendment is made. Only the most current charter version may be distributed; although 
older, dated versions may be archived. 
 
 
AMENDING PROCEDURE - To begin the amendment process, a proposal must be both 
posted to alt.religion.wicca.moderated and mailed directly to the Modstaff email account. 
Only proposals posted by active members will be considered legitimate petitions. A 
petition must clearly state which section of the charter is being proposed for amendment 
and how that section is to be amended. The body of the proposal must conform to a 
standard format for alt.religion.wicca.moderated:
To ADD a section to the charter: The body of the proposal must contain both the section 
to be added and the immediately preceding and immediately following paragraphs. All 
paragraphs must be exact quotes of the charter or the exact section to be added. The 
section to be added must be placed between the immediately preceding and immediately 
following paragraphs, with a blank line separating each paragraph. The word "ADD:" 
must appear directly before the section being added. 
 
To REMOVE a section from the charter: The body of the propoal must contain the 
paragraph immediately preceding the section to be removed, the section to be removed, 
and the paragraph immediately following the section to be removed. The section to be 
removed must be directly preceded by the word "REMOVE:". All paragraphs must be 
quoted exactly with no abbreviations or ellipses. 
 
To REPLACE a section of the charter: The body of the proposal must contain the original 
section in exact form and the replacement section. The original must be preceded by the 
word "REPLACE:". The replacement must be separated from the original with a blank 
line and preceded with the word "WITH:" 
 
Only one charter revision may be made in each proposal. It is acceptable to combine two 
or more of the formats above if the proposed change is applicable to more than one 
section of the charter. (For instance, a charter wide spelling change for a particular word 
or group of words) 
 
The original proponent must include a valid contact email address at the bottom of the 
proposal. Any proposal made without this contact address will be considered illegitimate 
 
Each legitimate proposal will be allotted a one month time period in which to be 
resolved. If at any time during that one-month period, 10% of the active members 'sign' 
the proposal, the proposal becomes an active petition. If the allotted time period expires 
and not enough active members have signed the proposal, the proposal is failed and 
discarded. 
 
When a proposal becomes a petition, Modstaff will post an intention of modifying the 
charter to the news group once per week. The petition is allotted 14 days in which 
members of alt.religion.wicca.moderated may suggest both stylistic and content specific 
changes to the petition. These suggestions are to be mailed directly to the original 
proponent of the proposal. The original proponent of the proposal may alter the petition 
in any way or leave it as is. 
 
Once the allotted time for suggestion has expired; the original proponent will post the 
petition (either altered or original, but not both) to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. The 
petition will receive a one month time period in which to be finally resolved. 
51% or more of the active member list must vote "YES" to the petition in order for it to 
become an amendment to the charter. If this 51% quorum is not reached; or less than 
51% of the active member list vote "YES", then the petition is defeated and discarded. A 
defeated petition may be proposed again, following the outlined procedure. At the end of 
the allotted time, Modstaff will announce to alt.religion.wicca.moderated the results of all 
petitions to amend the charter. 
 
Upon receipt of a ballot, Modstaff will respond to the original sender with a message 
including the contents of the ballot. If the reciept is accurate, the ballot will be processed. 
If the member would like to change his or her ballot or the receipt is not accurate, s/he 
may resubmit the ballot with the corrected changes. Resubmitted ballots will not be 
accepted after the alloted time for the vote has expired, and only the last vote recieved 
before the deadline will be counted. 
 
 
Only one petition may be active at any given moment. If a proposal receives enough 
signatures to become a petition while an active petition is being resolved, the proposal 
becomes a petition but is tabled until after the current petition is resolved. Tabled 
petitions are resolved in the order they are created. 
 
There is no limit to the number of proposals that can be made at any given time. 
 
Modstaff is responsible for updating the charter within 2 weeks after a petition is ratified 
by 51% of the active members. The updated charter will be posted to 
alt.religion.wicca.moderated and any other locations that contain an outdated version 
(web pages, ftp sites, etc.).


