From suzieflame@suzieflame.com Mon Sep 16 21:30:02 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: Suzieflame <suzieflame@suzieflame.com>
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine
Subject: RFD: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated
Followup-To: news.groups
Message-ID: <1032211511.20027@isc.org>
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 21:25:11 UTC
Lines: 443
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11818 news.groups:410792 rec.skiing.alpine:223677

                     REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
             moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

This is the formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of
a world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine.moderated.
This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time.
Procedural details are below.

Newsgroup line(s):
rec.skiing.alpine.moderated   Discussion of alpine ("downhill") skiing. (Moderated)

This is a moderated group for the discussion of equipment, techniques,
and non-prejudicial issues relating to Alpine ("downhill") skiing.

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine ("downhill") skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many
years.  The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets at
least one hundred messages a day, with the volume doubling during the season.
Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a
significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters
to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine
skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and
many former posters to the group have left because of these well-known
conditions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups
of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not
wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to
enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a
lower volume, less combative and more focussed group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all
topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating
to the sport and recreation of alpine ("downhill") skiing can be discussed
without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcomed
and a FAQ will be made available.

CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Note: This Charter is intended to be read in conjunction with the
Moderation Policy which is appended.

(a)  Rationale

     The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is
     to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It
     differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
     (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention
     of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing ths sport
     currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
     commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants,
     and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there.

     The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as
     little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining
     adherence to the Charter and Policy.

(b)  On- and off-charter postings

     This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
     alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races,
     results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips, snow conditions,
     weather, clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety and upcoming events.

     It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup
     charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't
     acceptable.  However, postings which have no connection at all
     to alpine skiing are unlikely to qualify.  The final arbiter of
     this will be the moderators, working within the guidelines of
     the Policy as appended.

     Any submission which is relevant, civil and not in violation of
     the moderation policy will be accepted for posting.

(c)  Moderation Policy

     This is appended to the Charter and is divided into three
     sections:

     1.  Restrictions on Articles
     2.  Moderators' Role
     3.  General Administration

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Article submission address: RSAM@tbc.com
Administrative contact address: RSAM-admin@tbc.com

Moderator: tbc
Moderator: tbc
Moderator: tbc
Moderator: tbc

END MODERATOR INFO.

MODERATION POLICY:

Appendix: Moderation Policy for RSAM

1.  Restrictions on Articles
    1.1  Acceptable topics
    1.2  On-charter threads
    1.3  Unacceptable posts
    1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

2.  Moderators' Role
    2.1  Posts not modified
    2.2  Rejected posts
    2.3  Basis for rejection
    2.4  Undeliverable email
    2.5  Moderators' opinions
    2.6  Off-charter posts
    2.7  Removal of auto-approve status
    2.8  No retromoderation
    2.9  Administrative mailing list

3.  General Administration
    3.1  New moderators
    3.2  Removal of moderators
    3.3  Revisions to this policy
    3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
    3.5  Disclaimer
    3.6  Approval of posts
    3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out
in its Charter, namely that

     "The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is
     to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It
     differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
     (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention
     of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing ths sport
     currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
     commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants,
     and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
     there."


1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

     Races
     Technique
     Equipment
     Ski areas
     News stories
     Rules
     Safety

This list is not definitive.

1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible
to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above.
It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-
charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to take
the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as possible.  If
required, a moderator will post a reminder to the thread in question.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post
are not acceptable.


1.3  Unacceptable posts

     1.4.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing
     and do not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate
     group for that discussion.

     1.4.2  Binaries will not be accepted.  Posts which contain a URL
     for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable.

     1.4.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML,
     will not be accepted.  The moderators will send a short note to
     the poster explaining how s/he can set the newsreader to post in
     plain text.

     1.4.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product
     will not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that
     contains a business name, address, phone number or URL, or
     reference to a product or service, is considered acceptable
     provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising
     the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below
     face value in a non-commercial way are also permitted.

     1.4.5  Crossposts are not accepted for technical reasons.  The
     sole exceptions Usenet
     Administrative crossposts, such as those from
     news.announce.newsgroups.

     1.4.6  Posts containing racial abuse, offensive, prejudicial, false
     or malicious statements about people associated with the sport, or other
     posters, are not acceptable.

     1.4.7  All posts must have a return address which is valid
     (eg: username@domain.com) or decipherable (eg:
     username@domain.nospam.com).  If email addresses are 'spam-
     proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from being
     retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the
     moderator which alterations to make.

     1.4.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted
     material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission
     from the copyright holder.  It is acceptable to post URLs
     pointing to skiing articles on the web with a brief summary of the
     content. Authors of copyrighted material must be credited.

     The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
     for any material posted in violation of a copyright.

     1.4.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come
     from someone other than the actual poster - will not be
     accepted.  Forgers may be subject to further action.

     1.4.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not
     acceptable. Notifications of new content are welcome, but
     repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit
     the poster's site will not be accepted.


1.5  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage
in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another
poster.  Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the
normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account involved in its
administration or propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be
prevented from posting for a limited period, and/or be subject to
further action.


2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected.  The
moderators will NEVER modify content.


2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will return a rejected post to the originating
email address with an explanation for the rejection.  If applicable,
he or she will include suggestions on how to make the post
acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is
acceptable, it will be forwarded to another  moderator for a second
opinion.  If the first two moderators to review an article agree, it
will be accepted or rejected accordingly.  If the first two
moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be
forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.


2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or
position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its
author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be
a posts content.


2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures
or undeliverable email.


2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' opinions will be expressed only within their own
posts, not within their moderation activities.  All posts made by
moderators as part of their moderation activities will have the word
"[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line.


2.6   Off-charter posts

As recognised in Section 1.2, discussions can and do veer off-
charter.  Moderators will have the right to email participants in
such discussions privately to remind them of the group's charter and
ask them to comply.  If they do not do so, further action may be
taken at the discretion of the moderators.


2.7  Removal of auto-approve status

All decisions concerning the removal of a poster's auto-approve
status require a two-thirds majority of moderators to be enforced.


2.8  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on
any article that has been approved in accordance with this policy.


2.9  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other
matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled
through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and all
participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be posted
to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all
users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss
administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by sending a
message to:

        listserv@yahoogroups.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe RSAM-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks
in place, as all commands are processed automatically and there is no
human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse,
the offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or
permanent banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning
shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds moderators that abuse is
taking place, and continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters
interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their
interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only
by the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators.


3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or
moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be
removed by a two-thirds majority vote of the other moderators.


3.3  Revisions to this policy

     3.3.1  Any discussion of revision of this moderation policy must
     include "[MODPOL]" at the beginning of the subject line.

     3.3.2  After discussion in the newsgroup, the moderators will
     accept or reject the change based on their judgment as to the
     group's collective opinion.

     3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the
     moderators.

     3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification
     votes to the group within 24 hours of the decision.


3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with
a message welcoming new posters and the URL for the newsgroup FAQ.
The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders
of some of the requirements of the Moderation Policy.  Posters will
be expected to comply with these guidelines.


3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth
or legality of any of the posts. Posters must assume full
responsibility for the content of their own posts.


3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its
content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of
a post does not imply that the content is disagreed with by the
moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul of one or more
of the moderation guidelines that make up this charter.


3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web
witin the Google archive.

END MODERATION POLICY.


PROCEDURE:

This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes.  In this
phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed
newsgroups should be raised and resolved.  The discussion period will
continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD
for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which
a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a neutral vote taker if the
discussion warrants it.  Please do not attempt to vote until this
happens.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation
guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and
"How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal".  Please refer to
these documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have
any questions about the process.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, rec.skiing.alpine.

Following acceptance of this RFD by the moderator of
news.announce.newgroups, a pointer will be posted to:

rec.skiing.annouce
rec.skiing.backcountry
rec.skiing.nordic

Lead Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame@hotmail.com>

Proponent: tbc
Proponent: tbc
Proponent: tbc
Proponent: tbc

From suzieflame@suzieflame.com Mon Oct  7 23:00:23 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: Suzieflame <suzieflame@suzieflame.com>
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine,aus.snow,rec.skiing.backcountry
Subject: 2nd RFD: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated
Followup-To: news.groups
Message-ID: <1034031079.21485@isc.org>
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 22:51:19 UTC
Lines: 482
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11825 news.groups:415358 rec.skiing.alpine:228332 rec.skiing.backcountry:29651

                     REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
             moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

This is the formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of
the world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine.moderated.
This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time.

Procedural details are below.

Newsgroup line(s):

rec.skiing.alpine.moderated   Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated)

CHANGES from previous RFD:

-       Editorial changes as suggested
-       Moderator list added as per discussion on news.groups
-       Moderation Policy now integral part of Charter
-       On- and off-topic posts given more explicit wording
-       Moderators given more freedom to self-determine on- and off-topic
-       Section on robo- and hand-moderation policies

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many
years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new
messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season.
Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a
significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters
to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine
skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and
many former posters to the group have left because of these well known
conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing  a
new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the  culture
surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups
of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not
wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to
enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a
lower volume, less combative and more focussed group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics
related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport
and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without
distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome.

The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via
the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup.

CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

(a)  Rationale

The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a
forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English
language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is
moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing
the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings
completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there.

The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as
possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and
Moderation Policy.

(b)  On- and off-charter postings

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing.
This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques,
equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather,
clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community
related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot
is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to
achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also
welcome to contribute.

It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give
an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which
have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine
skiing are unlikely to qualify.  A list of definitely off-topic posts would
include (but not be limited to) those containing a  discussion of the race,
creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal
characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or
off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and
purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy).

The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will
be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation
Policy..


(c)  Moderation Policy

1.  Restrictions on Articles

    1.1  Acceptable topics
    1.2  On-charter threads
    1.3  Unacceptable posts
    1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

2.  Moderators' Role

    2.1  Posts not modified
    2.2  Rejected posts
    2.3  Basis for rejection
    2.4  Undeliverable email
    2.5  Moderators' opinions
    2.6  Off-charter posts
    2.7  Removal of auto-approve status
    2.8  No retromoderation
    2.9  Administrative mailing list
    2.10        Robo Moderation

3.  General Administration

    3.1  New moderators
    3.2  Removal of moderators
    3.3  Revisions to this policy
    3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
    3.5  Disclaimer
    3.6  Approval of posts
    3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy
    3.8  Changes to this Charter


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out
elsewhere in this Charter, namely that


"The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is
to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It
differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention
of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport
that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants,
and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there."


1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

- Races
- Results
- Techniques
- Equipment
- Ski areas, locations for skiing
- Tips
- Clothing
- Advice
- Trips
- News or other stories related to skiing
- Rules
- Safety information
- Questions regarding weather and snow conditions
- Recreational or other events connected to skiing
- Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion)

This list is not exhaustive or definitive.


1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the
requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1.

It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if
this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more
appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a
reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not
acceptable.


1.3  Unacceptable posts

1.3.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention
alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion.
For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use
primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as
appropriate eg., telemark.

1.3.2  Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and
similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL
for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable.

1.3.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be
accepted.  The moderators will send a short note to the poster explaining how
s/he can set the newsreader to post in plain text.

1.3.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be
accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name,
address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is
considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts
advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face
value in a non-commercial way are also permitted.

1.3.5  Crossposts are accepted, but the decision to propagate a cross posted
message to rec.skiing.alpine.moderated lies solely with the moderation team

1.3.6  Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive
statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the
spirit of this  charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently
accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed
to be used with postings, but the poster should ensure that the context is
valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this
moderation policy.

1.3.7  All posts must have a return address which is valid (eg:
username@domain.com) or decipherable <eg:username@domain.nospam.com>.  If email
addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from
being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator
which alterations to make.

1.3.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not
be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder.  It is
acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a
brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material must be credited.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material
posted in violation of a copyright.

1.3.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other
than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third
party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material
posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster.

1.3.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable
except as part  of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new
content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation
to visit the poster's site will not be accepted.

1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in
threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster.
Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of
the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or
propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for
a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action.

2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will
NEVER modify  content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles.

2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email
address with a short explanation for the rejection.  If applicable, he or she
will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will
be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion.  If the first two
moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected
accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the
article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.

2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an
issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The
sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject
matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy.

2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or
undeliverable email.

2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only
within their own posts t the newsgroup, and not within their moderation
activities.  All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation
activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting,
email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that
express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be
couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this
moderation policy.

2.6   Off-charter posts

As recognised in earlier, discussions can and do veer off-charter.  Moderators
will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to
remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do
so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of
the moderators.

2.7  Removal of auto-approve status

All decisions concerning the removal of a poster's auto-approve status require
a two-thirds majority eg., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced.

2.8  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article
that has been approved in accordance with this policy.

2.9  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related
to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate
administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages
from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM
are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of
the group. It may be joined by sending a message to:

        listserv@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe RSAM-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as
all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the
offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent
banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the
agreement of at least two-thirds moderators that abuse is taking place, and
continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

2.10 Robo Moderation

In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using
available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation
management system. The system will provide the following functions as a
minimum:-

- Ability to support a team of moderators
- Ability to determine if a user is new or established
- Ability to ban a user permanently or temporarily
- Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases
- Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation
- Ability to support WWW access.

It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames must be
hand-moderated for their first three posts, and thereafter they will be
switched to automatic moderation. Automatically moderated posts will be
subjected to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of
violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional
steps to mitigate the abuse, including temporary or permanent banning.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters interested in
joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators.
Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of
the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9.

3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation
activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds
majority vote eg., 6 of 9, of the other moderators.

3.3  Revisions to this policy

3.3.1   Any discussion of revision of this moderation policy  within the
newsgroup must include "[MODPOL]" at the beginning of the subject line .

3.3.2  After discussion in the newsgroup, the moderators will accept or reject
the change based on their judgment as to the group's collective opinion.

3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9
moderators.

3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group
within 48 hours of the decision.

3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message
welcoming new posters.

The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some
of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy.  Posters will be
expected to comply with these guidelines.

3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality
of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of
their own posts.

3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by
the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not
imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team,
but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up
this charter.

3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web within the
faqs.org structure, and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the
newsgroup.

3.8 Changes to this Charter

This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority
eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least
six weeks.

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Article submission address:

        RSAM@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com

Administrative contact address:

        RSAM-admin@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com

Moderator: Andrew James
Moderator: Mike Speegle
Moderator: Eric Holeman
Moderator: Nomen Klature
Moderator: Aaron Daniel
Moderator: Lal Truckee
Moderator: Kurt Knisely
Moderator: Let Mikey Ski It!
Moderator: Mary Malmros

END MODERATOR INFO.

PROCEDURE:

This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes.  In this phase of the
process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups should be raised
and resolved.  The discussion period will continue for a minimum of 21 days
(starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to
news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a
neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it.  Please do not attempt to
vote until this happens.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation guidelines
outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to Format and
Submit a New Group Proposal".  Please refer to these documents (available in
news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the process.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, rec.skiing.alpine, aus.snow
rec.skiing.backcountry

Following acceptance of this RFD by the moderator of news.announce.newgroups, a
pointer will be posted to:

rec.skiing.nordic
alt.usenet.kooks
blarp.com web board
epicski.com web board
skilovers.com web board

Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame at hotmail.com>

From Suzieflame@suzieflame.com Wed Oct 30 03:00:02 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: Suzieflame <Suzieflame@suzieflame.com>
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine,aus.snow,rec.skiing.backcountry
Subject: 3rd RFD: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated
Followup-To: news.groups
Message-ID: <1035945985.8780@isc.org>
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 02:46:25 UTC
Lines: 561
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11831 news.groups:419225 rec.skiing.alpine:231861 rec.skiing.backcountry:29792

                     REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
             moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

This is the formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation
of the world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup
rec.skiing.alpine.moderated. This is not a Call for Votes (CFV);
you cannot vote at this time.

Procedural details are below.

Newsgroup line(s):
rec.skiing.alpine.moderated   Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated)

CHANGES from previous RFD:

- Editorial changes as suggested
- Moderator list updated as per discussion on news.groups
- Moderator "Nomen Klature" withdrawn
- Moderation addresses added
- Crossposting issue updated
- Return address munging issue updated
- Auto-approval/banning process more flexible/clarified
- Linewrap hopefully fixed?

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet
discussion for many years. The existing newsgroup
rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new messages a day,
with the volume more than doubling during the season. Much of
this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a
significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at
other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not
directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous situation
has led to real world legal action and many former posters to the
group have left because of these well known conditions. The
proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a
new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing
and the  culture surrounding skiing may do so without
interruptions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct
groups of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and
who do not wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by
attempting to enforce the charter more stringently; and those who
would prefer a lower volume, less combative and more focussed
group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all
topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues
relating to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing
can be discussed without distractions. Questions and answers
about the sport will be welcome.

The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available
both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup.

CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

(a)  Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists)

The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs
from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there.


(b)  Posting Guidelines

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races,
results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips,
maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news
items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related
chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski
boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses
downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and
other ski variants are also welcome to contribute.

It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup
charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't
acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to
alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are
unlikely to qualify.  A list of definitely off-topic posts would
include (but not be limited to) those containing a  discussion of
the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or
other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the
discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test"
articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely
binary posting (see Moderation Policy).

The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the
newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines
(not rules) of the Moderation Policy.


(c)  Moderation Policy

1.  Restrictions on Articles

    1.1  Acceptable topics
    1.2  On-charter threads
    1.3  Unacceptable posts
    1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

2.  Moderators' Role

    2.1  Posts not modified
    2.2  Rejected posts
    2.3  Basis for rejection
    2.4  Undeliverable email
    2.5  Moderators' opinions
    2.6  Off-charter posts
    2.7  No retromoderation
    2.8  Administrative mailing list
    2.9  Robo-moderation
    2.10 Auto approval
    2.11 Removal of auto-approve status

3.  General Administration

    3.1  New moderators
    3.2  Removal of moderators
    3.3  Revisions to this policy
    3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
    3.5  Disclaimer
    3.6  Approval of posts
    3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy
    3.8  Changes to this Charter


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid
out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that

"The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It differs
from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there."

The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as
little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining
adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy.

1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

- Races
- Results
- Techniques
- Equipment
- Ski areas, locations for skiing
- Tips
- Clothing
- Advice
- Trips
- News or other stories related to skiing
- Rules
- Safety information
- Questions regarding weather and snow conditions
- Recreational or other events connected to skiing
- Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's
  discretion)

This list is not exhaustive or definitive.


1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as
possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as
described above in Section 1.1.

It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift
off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to
take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as
possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the
thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter
post are not acceptable.


1.3  Unacceptable posts

1.3.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do
not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate
group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of
information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a
downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as
appropriate eg., telemark.

1.3.2  Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles
containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are
allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web
page are acceptable.

1.3.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will
not be accepted.  The moderator will send a short note to the
poster explaining why the post was rejected.

1.3.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will
not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a
business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a
product or service is considered acceptable provided the
signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of
charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in
a non-commercial way are also permitted.

1.3.5  Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion
of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative
reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand
moderation.

1.3.6  Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally
abusive statements or any other content believed by the
moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not
welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use
as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be
used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by
a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context
is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall
foul of this moderation policy.

1.3.7  Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:-

       username@domain.com

or decipherable e.g.:-

       username@domain.nospam.com

If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered
to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it
must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make,
otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to
a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable.
Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate
from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many
posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings
or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them.

1.3.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted
material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission
from the copyright holder.  It is acceptable to post URLs
pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief
summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that
is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted in violation of a copyright.

1.3.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from
someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or
domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers
may be subject to further action.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted that falsely purports to represent
someone other than the actual poster.

1.3.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not
acceptable except as part  of the .signature message mentioned
above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated
posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the
poster's site will not be accepted.

1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly
engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or
another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere
with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account
involved in its administration or propagation, other than
reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited
or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action.

1.5 Banning

All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of
a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g.,
6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced.

2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The
moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the
addition of comments to articles.

2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the
originating email address with a short explanation for the
rejection.  If applicable, he or she will include suggestions
on how to make the post acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is
acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a
second opinion.  If the first two moderators to review an article
agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first
two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be
forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.

2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or
position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of
its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a
post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup
and the guidelines of this moderation policy.

2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures
or undeliverable email.

2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be
expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not
within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators
as part of their moderation activities will have the word
"[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing
list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express
the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should
be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit
of this moderation policy.

2.6   Off-charter posts

Discussions can and do veer off-charter.  Moderators will have the
right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind
them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not
do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the
discretion of the moderators.

2.7  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on
any article that has been approved in accordance with this
policy.

2.8  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other
matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled
through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and
all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be
posted to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all
users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to
discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by
sending a message to:

        rsam-admin at DESPAMxmission.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe rsam-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam
blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and
there is no human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for
abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as
temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process
for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place,
and continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

2.9 Robo-moderation

In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA
robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to
provide the moderation and moderation management system. The
system will provide the following functions as a minimum:

- Ability to support a team of moderators
- Ability to determine if a user is new or established
- Ability to automatically reject posts
- Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases
- Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation
- Ability to support WWW access.

2.10 Auto approval

It will be the principle of the group that all new
users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time
that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter
they may be switched to automatic approval without notice.

Automatically approved posts will still be subject to
scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of
violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take
additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit.

2.11  Removal of auto-approve status

A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the
moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status
to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately
notify the other moderators of the action taken.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters
interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their
interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by
the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators
eg., 6 of 9.

3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts
or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be
removed by a simepl majority vote of all modertors not under
threat of removal eg., in the case of 9 moderators a majority would be
5 of the remaining 8 not under review. Only one moderator may be
voted on for removal at a time.

3.3  Revisions to this policy

3.3.1  Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will
initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL]
at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should
indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite
feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing
list.

3.3.2  After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the
moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration
to the opinions of the groups's participants.

3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators.

3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification votes
to the group within 48 hours of the decision.

3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together
with a message welcoming new posters.

The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and
reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and
Moderation Policy.  Posters will be expected to comply with these
guidelines.

3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy,
truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full
responsibility for the content of their own posts.

3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of
its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the
rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed
with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul
of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this
charter.

3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the
Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org)
and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup.

3.8 Changes to this Charter

This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a
2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the
moderation pool for at least six weeks.

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Article submission address:

        rsam at DESPAMxmission.com

Administrative contact address:

        rsam-admin at DESPAMxmission.com

Moderator: Andrew James (ajames54 at DESPAMhotmail.com)
Moderator: Mike Speegle (mikespeegle at DESPAMnetscape.net)
Moderator: Eric Holeman (eholem1 at DESPAMicarus.cc.uic.edu)
Moderator: Bdubya (bdubya at DESPAMinteraccess.com)
Moderator: Lal Truckee (lal_truckee at DESPAMyahoo.com)
Moderator: Kurt Knisely (pcpinhead at nospam.please) (Xmission?)
Moderator: Let Mikey Ski It! (msaemisch at DESPAMyahoo.com)
Moderator: Mary Malmros (malmros at DESPAMnautilus.shore.net)
Moderator: Bruno Melli (bruno at DESPAMfc.hp.com)

Technical: Klaus Biggers (klaus at DESPAMxmission.com)

END MODERATOR INFO.

PROCEDURE:

This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes.  In this
phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed
newsgroups should be raised and resolved.  The discussion period
will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the
first RFD for this proposal is posted to
news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may
be posted by a neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it.
Please do not attempt to vote until this happens.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup
creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet
Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal".
Please refer to these documents (available in
news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the
process.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, rec.skiing.alpine,
aus.snow, rec.skiing.backcountry

Following acceptance of this RFD by the moderator of
news.announce.newgroups, a pointer will be posted to:

rec.skiing.nordic
blarp.com web board
epicski.com web board
skilovers.com web board
powdermag.com web board

Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame at DESPAMhotmail.com>

From dave@technopagan.org Sat Nov  9 01:00:02 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: "David E. Smith" <dave@technopagan.org>
Reply-To: rsamvote@technopagan.org
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry
Subject: CFV: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated
Followup-To: poster
Message-ID: <1036803231.86039@isc.org>
Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Expires: 1 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2002 00:53:51 UTC
Lines: 591
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11832 news.groups:420475 rec.skiing.alpine:233358 rec.skiing.backcountry:29853

                     FIRST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2)
             moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Newsgroups line:
rec.skiing.alpine.moderated	Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated)

Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002.

This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party.  Questions
about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent.

Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame@hotmail.com>
Votetaker: David E. Smith <dave@technopagan.org>

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion
for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets
several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling
during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high
quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal
abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion
on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous
situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters
to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The
proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new
moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the
culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups
of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not
wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to
enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a
lower volume, less combative and more focussed group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all
topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating
to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be
discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport
will be welcome.

The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available
both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup.


CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

(a)  Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists)

The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs
from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there.

(b)  Posting Guidelines

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races,
results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips,
maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news
items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related
chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski
boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses
downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and
other ski variants are also welcome to contribute.

It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup
charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't
acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to
alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are
unlikely to qualify.  A list of definitely off-topic posts would
include (but not be limited to) those containing a  discussion of
the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or
other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the
discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test"
articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely
binary posting (see Moderation Policy).

The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the
newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines
(not rules) of the Moderation Policy.

(c)  Moderation Policy

   1.  Restrictions on Articles

       1.1  Acceptable topics
       1.2  On-charter threads
       1.3  Unacceptable posts
       1.4  Unacceptable behaviour
       1.5  Banning

   2.  Moderators' Role

       2.1  Posts not modified
       2.2  Rejected posts
       2.3  Basis for rejection
       2.4  Undeliverable email
       2.5  Moderators' opinions
       2.6  Off-charter posts
       2.7  No retromoderation
       2.8  Administrative mailing list
       2.9  Robo-moderation
       2.10 Auto approval
       2.11 Removal of auto-approve status

   3.  General Administration

       3.1  New moderators
       3.2  Removal of moderators
       3.3  Revisions to this policy
       3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
       3.5  Disclaimer
       3.6  Approval of posts
       3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy
       3.8  Changes to this Charter


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid
out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that

"The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It differs
from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there."

The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as
little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining
adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy.

1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

- Races
- Results
- Techniques
- Equipment
- Ski areas, locations for skiing
- Tips
- Clothing
- Advice
- Trips
- News or other stories related to skiing
- Rules
- Safety information
- Questions regarding weather and snow conditions
- Recreational or other events connected to skiing
- Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's
  discretion)

This list is not exhaustive or definitive.

1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as
possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as
described above in Section 1.1.

It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift
off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to
take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as
possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the
thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter
post are not acceptable.

1.3  Unacceptable posts

1.3.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do
not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate
group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of
information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a
downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as
appropriate eg., telemark.

1.3.2  Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles
containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are
allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web
page are acceptable.

1.3.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will
not be accepted.  The moderator will send a short note to the
poster explaining why the post was rejected.

1.3.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will
not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a
business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a
product or service is considered acceptable provided the
signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of
charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in
a non-commercial way are also permitted.

1.3.5  Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion
of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative
reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand
moderation.

1.3.6  Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally
abusive statements or any other content believed by the
moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not
welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use
as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be
used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by
a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context
is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall
foul of this moderation policy.

1.3.7  Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:-

       username@domain.com

or decipherable e.g.:-

       username@domain.nospam.com

If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered
to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it
must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make,
otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to
a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable.
Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate
from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many
posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings
or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them.

1.3.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted
material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission
from the copyright holder.  It is acceptable to post URLs
pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief
summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that
is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted in violation of a copyright.

1.3.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from
someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or
domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers
may be subject to further action.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted that falsely purports to represent
someone other than the actual poster.

1.3.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not
acceptable except as part  of the .signature message mentioned
above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated
posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the
poster's site will not be accepted.

1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly
engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or
another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere
with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account
involved in its administration or propagation, other than
reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited
or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action.

1.5 Banning

All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of
a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g.,
6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced.

2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The
moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the
addition of comments to articles.

2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the
originating email address with a short explanation for the
rejection.  If applicable, he or she will include suggestions
on how to make the post acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is
acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a
second opinion.  If the first two moderators to review an article
agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first
two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be
forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.

2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or
position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of
its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a
post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup
and the guidelines of this moderation policy.

2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures
or undeliverable email.

2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be
expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not
within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators
as part of their moderation activities will have the word
"[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing
list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express
the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should
be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit
of this moderation policy.

2.6   Off-charter posts

Discussions can and do veer off-charter.  Moderators will have the
right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind
them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not
do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the
discretion of the moderators.

2.7  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on
any article that has been approved in accordance with this
policy.

2.8  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other
matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled
through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and
all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be
posted to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all
users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to
discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by
sending a message to:

        rsam-admin@xmission.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe rsam-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam
blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and
there is no human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for
abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as
temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process
for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place,
and continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

2.9 Robo-moderation

In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA
robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to
provide the moderation and moderation management system. The
system will provide the following functions as a minimum:

- Ability to support a team of moderators
- Ability to determine if a user is new or established
- Ability to automatically reject posts
- Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases
- Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation
- Ability to support WWW access.

2.10 Auto approval

It will be the principle of the group that all new
users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time
that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter
they may be switched to automatic approval without notice.

Automatically approved posts will still be subject to
scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of
violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take
additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit.

2.11  Removal of auto-approve status

A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the
moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status
to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately
notify the other moderators of the action taken.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters
interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their
interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by
the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators
eg., 6 of 9.

3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts
or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be
removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in
the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of
those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time.

3.3  Revisions to this policy

3.3.1  Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will
initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL]
at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should
indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite
feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing
list.

3.3.2  After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the
moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration
to the opinions of the groups's participants.

3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators.

3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification votes
to the group within 48 hours of the decision.

3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together
with a message welcoming new posters.

The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and
reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and
Moderation Policy.  Posters will be expected to comply with these
guidelines.

3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy,
truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full
responsibility for the content of their own posts.

3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of
its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the
rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed
with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul
of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this
charter.

3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the
Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org)
and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup.

3.8 Changes to this Charter

This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a
2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the
moderation pool for at least six weeks.

END CHARTER.


MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Moderator: "Andrew James" <ajames54@hotmail.com>
Moderator: "Mike Speegle" <mikespeegle@netscape.net>
Moderator: "Eric Holeman" <eholem1@icarus.cc.uic.edu>
Moderator: "Nomen Klature" <bob.rsa@3pin.net>
Moderator: "Bdubya" <bdubya@interaccess.com>
Moderator: "Lal Truckee" <lal_truckee@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" <kurt@xmission.com>
Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" <msaemisch@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Mary Malmros" <malmros@nautilus.shore.net>
Moderator: "Bruno Melli" <bruno@fc.hp.com>
Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com
Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com

END MODERATOR INFO.


IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: READ THIS BEFORE VOTING

The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest in
reading the proposed newsgroup, and soliciting votes from uninterested
parties defeats this purpose.  Do *not* distribute this CFV;  instead,
direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups.
Distributing specific voting instructions or pre-marked copies of
this CFV is considered vote fraud.

This is a public vote:  All email addresses, names and votes will be
listed in the final RESULT post.  The name used may be either a real
name or an established Usenet handle.

At most one vote is allowed per person or per account.  Duplicate
votes will be resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote.

Voters must mail their ballots directly to the votetaker.  Anonymous,
forwarded, or proxy votes are not valid, nor are votes mailed from
WWW/HTML/CGI forms (which should not exist).  Votes from nonexistent
accounts or with munged, spam-blocked, or undeliverable addresses are
invalid and will NOT be counted.

Please direct any questions to the votetaker at <dave@technopagan.org>

HOW TO VOTE:

Extract the ballot from the CFV by deleting everything before and after
the "BEGINNING OF BALLOT" and "END OF BALLOT" lines.  Don't worry about
the spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your
reply inserts.  Please, DO NOT send the entire CFV back to me!

Fill in the ballot as shown below.  Please provide your real name
(or established Usenet handle) and indicate your desired vote in the
appropriate locations inside the ballot.

Examples of how to properly indicate your vote:

  [ YES     ]  example.yes.vote
  [ NO      ]  example.no.vote
  [ ABSTAIN ]  example.abstention
  [ CANCEL  ]  example.cancellation

DO NOT modify, alter or delete any information in this ballot!
If you do, the voting software will probably reject your ballot.

When finished, MAIL the vote to <rsamvote@technopagan.org>
Just "replying" to this message should work, but check the "To:" line.
Votes mailed to any other email address, including that of the votetaker,
will NOT be counted.

If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three
days contact the votetaker about the problem.  You are responsible
for reading your ack and making sure your vote is registered correctly.

If these instructions are unclear, please consult the Introduction to
Usenet Voting or the Usenet Voting FAQ at
http://www.stanford.edu/~neilc/uvv.

======== BEGINNING OF BALLOT: Delete everything before this line =======
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| 1ST CALL FOR VOTES: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
| Official Usenet Voting Ballot <RSAM-42-1> (Do not remove this line!)
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Please provide your real name, or your vote may be rejected. Established
| Usenet handles are also acceptable.  Place ONLY your name (ie. do NOT
| include your e-mail address or any other information; ONLY your name)
| after the colon on the following line:

Voter name:

| Insert YES, NO, ABSTAIN, or CANCEL inside the brackets for each
| newsgroup listed below (do not delete the newsgroup name):

 Your Vote   Newsgroup
 ---------   -----------------------------------------------------------
[         ]  rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

======== END OF BALLOT: Delete everything after this line ==============

DISTRIBUTION:

Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following
group:

rec.skiing.nordic

This CFV was created with uvpq 1.0 (Feb 26 2001).
PQ datestamp: 980322

From newgroups-request@isc.org Wed Nov 20 08:30:02 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: n.a.n moderation team <newgroups-request@isc.org>
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,rec.skiing.alpine
Subject: DECISION: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Followup-To: news.groups
Message-ID: <1037780717.58894@isc.org>
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 08:25:17 UTC
Lines: 42
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11843 news.groups:422797 rec.skiing.alpine:235159

	the news.announce.newgroups moderation team has decided the
	following:

	the 2nd CFV will be posted without any changes from the 1st CFV.
	voting will continue as usual.

	here's why:

	the change between the last RFD and the CFV (the reinsertion by
	mistake of the moderator known as "Nomen Klature") is not viewed
	as the sort of major change due to which we would cancel and
	restart the vote as a matter of course.  a number of factors went
	into that decision, including the original PQ (which did not
	contain NK's name but had to be resubmitted for other reasons),
	the size of the moderation panel, NK having been thoroughly
	discussed, the opinion of the members of rec.skiing.alpine about
	that particular person, the rules that the moderation panel is
	intending to follow regarding adding and removing moderators, the
	general consensus among the people who will use the group that
	those rules seem reasonable, and the lack of controversy over that
	particular moderator among the members of r.s.a -- if any of these
	factors were different, the decision might also be different.

	while we were contemplating for some time whether to change the
	2nd CFV to correct the error, we have in the end decided against
	it.  the mistake seems to have a very minor effect in this case,
	and we don't see it as sufficient to change long-term practice of
	having the 1st and 2nd CFV be the same.

	and we didn't like the sort of actions a change of ballot could
	reasonably call for (individual notification of prior voters with
	invitation to revote), which would possibly be just as confusing
	to people who did not follow the discussion as restarting the
	vote.  we don't believe this is in the interest of either the
	voters or the process.

	we are in the process of instituting measures to make it harder
	for mistakes like this one to slip through in the future.
-- 
	-piranha	<piranha@gooroos.com>
	 team member	usenet group advice <group-advice@isc.org>
			news.announce.newgroups moderation

From dave@technopagan.org Wed Nov 20 11:00:02 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: David E. Smith <dave@technopagan.org>
Reply-To: rsamvote@technopagan.org
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry
Subject: 2nd CFV: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated
Followup-To: poster
Message-ID: <1037789373.59579@isc.org>
Supersedes: <1036803231.86039@isc.org>
Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Expires: 1 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 10:49:34 UTC
Lines: 601
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11844 news.groups:422803 rec.skiing.alpine:235163 rec.skiing.backcountry:29970

                      LAST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2)
             moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Newsgroups line:
rec.skiing.alpine.moderated	Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated)

Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002.

This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party.  Questions
about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent.

Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame@hotmail.com>
Votetaker: David E. Smith <dave@technopagan.org>

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion
for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets
several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling
during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high
quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal
abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion
on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous
situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters
to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The
proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new
moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the
culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups
of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not
wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to
enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a
lower volume, less combative and more focussed group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all
topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating
to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be
discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport
will be welcome.

The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available
both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup.


CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

(a)  Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists)

The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs
from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there.

(b)  Posting Guidelines

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races,
results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips,
maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news
items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related
chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski
boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses
downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and
other ski variants are also welcome to contribute.

It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup
charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't
acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to
alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are
unlikely to qualify.  A list of definitely off-topic posts would
include (but not be limited to) those containing a  discussion of
the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or
other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the
discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test"
articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely
binary posting (see Moderation Policy).

The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the
newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines
(not rules) of the Moderation Policy.

(c)  Moderation Policy

   1.  Restrictions on Articles

       1.1  Acceptable topics
       1.2  On-charter threads
       1.3  Unacceptable posts
       1.4  Unacceptable behaviour
       1.5  Banning

   2.  Moderators' Role

       2.1  Posts not modified
       2.2  Rejected posts
       2.3  Basis for rejection
       2.4  Undeliverable email
       2.5  Moderators' opinions
       2.6  Off-charter posts
       2.7  No retromoderation
       2.8  Administrative mailing list
       2.9  Robo-moderation
       2.10 Auto approval
       2.11 Removal of auto-approve status

   3.  General Administration

       3.1  New moderators
       3.2  Removal of moderators
       3.3  Revisions to this policy
       3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
       3.5  Disclaimer
       3.6  Approval of posts
       3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy
       3.8  Changes to this Charter


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid
out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that

"The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It differs
from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there."

The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as
little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining
adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy.

1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

- Races
- Results
- Techniques
- Equipment
- Ski areas, locations for skiing
- Tips
- Clothing
- Advice
- Trips
- News or other stories related to skiing
- Rules
- Safety information
- Questions regarding weather and snow conditions
- Recreational or other events connected to skiing
- Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's
  discretion)

This list is not exhaustive or definitive.

1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as
possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as
described above in Section 1.1.

It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift
off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to
take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as
possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the
thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter
post are not acceptable.

1.3  Unacceptable posts

1.3.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do
not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate
group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of
information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a
downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as
appropriate eg., telemark.

1.3.2  Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles
containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are
allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web
page are acceptable.

1.3.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will
not be accepted.  The moderator will send a short note to the
poster explaining why the post was rejected.

1.3.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will
not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a
business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a
product or service is considered acceptable provided the
signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of
charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in
a non-commercial way are also permitted.

1.3.5  Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion
of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative
reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand
moderation.

1.3.6  Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally
abusive statements or any other content believed by the
moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not
welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use
as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be
used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by
a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context
is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall
foul of this moderation policy.

1.3.7  Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:-

       username@domain.com

or decipherable e.g.:-

       username@domain.nospam.com

If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered
to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it
must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make,
otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to
a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable.
Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate
from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many
posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings
or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them.

1.3.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted
material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission
from the copyright holder.  It is acceptable to post URLs
pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief
summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that
is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted in violation of a copyright.

1.3.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from
someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or
domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers
may be subject to further action.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted that falsely purports to represent
someone other than the actual poster.

1.3.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not
acceptable except as part  of the .signature message mentioned
above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated
posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the
poster's site will not be accepted.

1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly
engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or
another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere
with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account
involved in its administration or propagation, other than
reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited
or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action.

1.5 Banning

All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of
a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g.,
6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced.

2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The
moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the
addition of comments to articles.

2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the
originating email address with a short explanation for the
rejection.  If applicable, he or she will include suggestions
on how to make the post acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is
acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a
second opinion.  If the first two moderators to review an article
agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first
two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be
forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.

2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or
position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of
its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a
post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup
and the guidelines of this moderation policy.

2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures
or undeliverable email.

2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be
expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not
within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators
as part of their moderation activities will have the word
"[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing
list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express
the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should
be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit
of this moderation policy.

2.6   Off-charter posts

Discussions can and do veer off-charter.  Moderators will have the
right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind
them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not
do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the
discretion of the moderators.

2.7  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on
any article that has been approved in accordance with this
policy.

2.8  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other
matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled
through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and
all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be
posted to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all
users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to
discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by
sending a message to:

        rsam-admin@xmission.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe rsam-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam
blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and
there is no human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for
abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as
temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process
for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place,
and continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

2.9 Robo-moderation

In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA
robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to
provide the moderation and moderation management system. The
system will provide the following functions as a minimum:

- Ability to support a team of moderators
- Ability to determine if a user is new or established
- Ability to automatically reject posts
- Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases
- Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation
- Ability to support WWW access.

2.10 Auto approval

It will be the principle of the group that all new
users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time
that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter
they may be switched to automatic approval without notice.

Automatically approved posts will still be subject to
scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of
violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take
additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit.

2.11  Removal of auto-approve status

A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the
moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status
to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately
notify the other moderators of the action taken.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters
interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their
interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by
the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators
eg., 6 of 9.

3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts
or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be
removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in
the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of
those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time.

3.3  Revisions to this policy

3.3.1  Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will
initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL]
at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should
indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite
feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing
list.

3.3.2  After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the
moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration
to the opinions of the groups's participants.

3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators.

3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification votes
to the group within 48 hours of the decision.

3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together
with a message welcoming new posters.

The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and
reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and
Moderation Policy.  Posters will be expected to comply with these
guidelines.

3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy,
truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full
responsibility for the content of their own posts.

3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of
its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the
rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed
with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul
of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this
charter.

3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the
Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org)
and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup.

3.8 Changes to this Charter

This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a
2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the
moderation pool for at least six weeks.

END CHARTER.


MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Moderator: "Andrew James" <ajames54@hotmail.com>
Moderator: "Mike Speegle" <mikespeegle@netscape.net>
Moderator: "Eric Holeman" <eholem1@icarus.cc.uic.edu>
Moderator: "Nomen Klature" <bob.rsa@3pin.net>
Moderator: "Bdubya" <bdubya@interaccess.com>
Moderator: "Lal Truckee" <lal_truckee@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" <kurt@xmission.com>
Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" <msaemisch@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Mary Malmros" <malmros@nautilus.shore.net>
Moderator: "Bruno Melli" <bruno@fc.hp.com>
Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com
Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com

END MODERATOR INFO.


IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: READ THIS BEFORE VOTING

The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest in
reading the proposed newsgroup, and soliciting votes from uninterested
parties defeats this purpose.  Do *not* distribute this CFV;  instead,
direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups.
Distributing specific voting instructions or pre-marked copies of
this CFV is considered vote fraud.

This is a public vote:  All email addresses, names and votes will be
listed in the final RESULT post.  The name used may be either a real
name or an established Usenet handle.

At most one vote is allowed per person or per account.  Duplicate
votes will be resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote.

Voters must mail their ballots directly to the votetaker.  Anonymous,
forwarded, or proxy votes are not valid, nor are votes mailed from
WWW/HTML/CGI forms (which should not exist).  Votes from nonexistent
accounts or with munged, spam-blocked, or undeliverable addresses are
invalid and will NOT be counted.

Please direct any questions to the votetaker at <dave@technopagan.org>

HOW TO VOTE:

Extract the ballot from the CFV by deleting everything before and after
the "BEGINNING OF BALLOT" and "END OF BALLOT" lines.  Don't worry about
the spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your
reply inserts.  Please, DO NOT send the entire CFV back to me!

Fill in the ballot as shown below.  Please provide your real name
(or established Usenet handle) and indicate your desired vote in the
appropriate locations inside the ballot.

Examples of how to properly indicate your vote:

  [ YES     ]  example.yes.vote
  [ NO      ]  example.no.vote
  [ ABSTAIN ]  example.abstention
  [ CANCEL  ]  example.cancellation

DO NOT modify, alter or delete any information in this ballot!
If you do, the voting software will probably reject your ballot.

When finished, MAIL the vote to <rsamvote@technopagan.org>
Just "replying" to this message should work, but check the "To:" line.
Votes mailed to any other email address, including that of the votetaker,
will NOT be counted.

If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three
days contact the votetaker about the problem.  You are responsible
for reading your ack and making sure your vote is registered correctly.

If these instructions are unclear, please consult the Introduction to
Usenet Voting or the Usenet Voting FAQ at
http://www.stanford.edu/~neilc/uvv.

======== BEGINNING OF BALLOT: Delete everything before this line =======
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| 1ST CALL FOR VOTES: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
| Official Usenet Voting Ballot <RSAM-42-1> (Do not remove this line!)
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Please provide your real name, or your vote may be rejected. Established
| Usenet handles are also acceptable.  Place ONLY your name (ie. do NOT
| include your e-mail address or any other information; ONLY your name)
| after the colon on the following line:

Voter name:

| Insert YES, NO, ABSTAIN, or CANCEL inside the brackets for each
| newsgroup listed below (do not delete the newsgroup name):

 Your Vote   Newsgroup
 ---------   -----------------------------------------------------------
[         ]  rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

======== END OF BALLOT: Delete everything after this line ==============

DISTRIBUTION:

Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following
group:

rec.skiing.nordic

This CFV was created with uvpq 1.0 (Feb 26 2001).
PQ datestamp: 980322


Votes in error -- Please vote again, or contact the votetaker
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
adam@tipperlinne.com (Adam Edwards)
   ! Ack bounced
pete@boxman.uottawa.ca (Pete Hickey)
   ! Ack Bounced
tingrinfan@earthlink.net (Sam Seiber)
   ! No vote statement in message

From dave@technopagan.org Wed Nov 20 22:30:02 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: David E. Smith <dave@technopagan.org>
Reply-To: rsamvote@technopagan.org
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry
Subject: 2nd CFV: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated moderated
Followup-To: poster
Message-ID: <1037831307.65999@isc.org>
Supersedes: <1037789373.59579@isc.org>
Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Expires: 1 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 22:28:27 UTC
Lines: 601
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11845 news.groups:422852 rec.skiing.alpine:235241 rec.skiing.backcountry:29989

                      LAST CALL FOR VOTES (of 2)
             moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Newsgroups line:
rec.skiing.alpine.moderated	Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated)

Votes must be received by 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002.

This vote is being conducted by a neutral third party.  Questions
about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent.

Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame@hotmail.com>
Votetaker: David E. Smith <dave@technopagan.org>

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion
for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets
several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling
during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high
quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal
abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion
on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous
situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters
to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The
proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new
moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the
culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups
of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not
wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to
enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a
lower volume, less combative and more focussed group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all
topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating
to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be
discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport
will be welcome.

The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available
both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup.


CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

(a)  Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists)

The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs
from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there.

(b)  Posting Guidelines

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races,
results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips,
maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news
items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related
chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski
boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses
downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and
other ski variants are also welcome to contribute.

It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup
charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't
acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to
alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are
unlikely to qualify.  A list of definitely off-topic posts would
include (but not be limited to) those containing a  discussion of
the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or
other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the
discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test"
articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely
binary posting (see Moderation Policy).

The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the
newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines
(not rules) of the Moderation Policy.

(c)  Moderation Policy

   1.  Restrictions on Articles

       1.1  Acceptable topics
       1.2  On-charter threads
       1.3  Unacceptable posts
       1.4  Unacceptable behaviour
       1.5  Banning

   2.  Moderators' Role

       2.1  Posts not modified
       2.2  Rejected posts
       2.3  Basis for rejection
       2.4  Undeliverable email
       2.5  Moderators' opinions
       2.6  Off-charter posts
       2.7  No retromoderation
       2.8  Administrative mailing list
       2.9  Robo-moderation
       2.10 Auto approval
       2.11 Removal of auto-approve status

   3.  General Administration

       3.1  New moderators
       3.2  Removal of moderators
       3.3  Revisions to this policy
       3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
       3.5  Disclaimer
       3.6  Approval of posts
       3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy
       3.8  Changes to this Charter


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid
out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that

"The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It differs
from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there."

The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as
little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining
adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy.

1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

- Races
- Results
- Techniques
- Equipment
- Ski areas, locations for skiing
- Tips
- Clothing
- Advice
- Trips
- News or other stories related to skiing
- Rules
- Safety information
- Questions regarding weather and snow conditions
- Recreational or other events connected to skiing
- Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's
  discretion)

This list is not exhaustive or definitive.

1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as
possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as
described above in Section 1.1.

It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift
off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to
take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as
possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the
thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter
post are not acceptable.

1.3  Unacceptable posts

1.3.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do
not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate
group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of
information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a
downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as
appropriate eg., telemark.

1.3.2  Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles
containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are
allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web
page are acceptable.

1.3.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will
not be accepted.  The moderator will send a short note to the
poster explaining why the post was rejected.

1.3.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will
not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a
business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a
product or service is considered acceptable provided the
signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of
charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in
a non-commercial way are also permitted.

1.3.5  Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion
of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative
reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand
moderation.

1.3.6  Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally
abusive statements or any other content believed by the
moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not
welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use
as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be
used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by
a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context
is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall
foul of this moderation policy.

1.3.7  Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:-

       username@domain.com

or decipherable e.g.:-

       username@domain.nospam.com

If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered
to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it
must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make,
otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to
a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable.
Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate
from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many
posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings
or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them.

1.3.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted
material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission
from the copyright holder.  It is acceptable to post URLs
pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief
summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that
is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted in violation of a copyright.

1.3.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from
someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or
domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers
may be subject to further action.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted that falsely purports to represent
someone other than the actual poster.

1.3.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not
acceptable except as part  of the .signature message mentioned
above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated
posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the
poster's site will not be accepted.

1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly
engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or
another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere
with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account
involved in its administration or propagation, other than
reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited
or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action.

1.5 Banning

All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of
a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g.,
6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced.

2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The
moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the
addition of comments to articles.

2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the
originating email address with a short explanation for the
rejection.  If applicable, he or she will include suggestions
on how to make the post acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is
acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a
second opinion.  If the first two moderators to review an article
agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first
two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be
forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.

2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or
position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of
its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a
post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup
and the guidelines of this moderation policy.

2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures
or undeliverable email.

2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be
expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not
within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators
as part of their moderation activities will have the word
"[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing
list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express
the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should
be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit
of this moderation policy.

2.6   Off-charter posts

Discussions can and do veer off-charter.  Moderators will have the
right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind
them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not
do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the
discretion of the moderators.

2.7  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on
any article that has been approved in accordance with this
policy.

2.8  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other
matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled
through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and
all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be
posted to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all
users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to
discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by
sending a message to:

        rsam-admin@xmission.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe rsam-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam
blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and
there is no human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for
abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as
temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process
for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place,
and continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

2.9 Robo-moderation

In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA
robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to
provide the moderation and moderation management system. The
system will provide the following functions as a minimum:

- Ability to support a team of moderators
- Ability to determine if a user is new or established
- Ability to automatically reject posts
- Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases
- Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation
- Ability to support WWW access.

2.10 Auto approval

It will be the principle of the group that all new
users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time
that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter
they may be switched to automatic approval without notice.

Automatically approved posts will still be subject to
scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of
violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take
additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit.

2.11  Removal of auto-approve status

A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the
moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status
to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately
notify the other moderators of the action taken.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters
interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their
interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by
the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators
eg., 6 of 9.

3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts
or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be
removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in
the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of
those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time.

3.3  Revisions to this policy

3.3.1  Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will
initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL]
at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should
indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite
feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing
list.

3.3.2  After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the
moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration
to the opinions of the groups's participants.

3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators.

3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification votes
to the group within 48 hours of the decision.

3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together
with a message welcoming new posters.

The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and
reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and
Moderation Policy.  Posters will be expected to comply with these
guidelines.

3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy,
truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full
responsibility for the content of their own posts.

3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of
its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the
rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed
with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul
of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this
charter.

3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the
Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org)
and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup.

3.8 Changes to this Charter

This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a
2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the
moderation pool for at least six weeks.

END CHARTER.


MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Moderator: "Andrew James" <ajames54@hotmail.com>
Moderator: "Mike Speegle" <mikespeegle@netscape.net>
Moderator: "Eric Holeman" <eholem1@icarus.cc.uic.edu>
Moderator: "Nomen Klature" <bob.rsa@3pin.net>
Moderator: "Bdubya" <bdubya@interaccess.com>
Moderator: "Lal Truckee" <lal_truckee@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" <kurt@xmission.com>
Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" <msaemisch@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Mary Malmros" <malmros@nautilus.shore.net>
Moderator: "Bruno Melli" <bruno@fc.hp.com>
Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com
Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com

END MODERATOR INFO.


IMPORTANT VOTING PROCEDURE NOTES: READ THIS BEFORE VOTING

The purpose of a Usenet vote is to determine the genuine interest in
reading the proposed newsgroup, and soliciting votes from uninterested
parties defeats this purpose.  Do *not* distribute this CFV;  instead,
direct people to the official CFV as posted to news.announce.newgroups.
Distributing specific voting instructions or pre-marked copies of
this CFV is considered vote fraud.

This is a public vote:  All email addresses, names and votes will be
listed in the final RESULT post.  The name used may be either a real
name or an established Usenet handle.

At most one vote is allowed per person or per account.  Duplicate
votes will be resolved in favor of the most recent valid vote.

Voters must mail their ballots directly to the votetaker.  Anonymous,
forwarded, or proxy votes are not valid, nor are votes mailed from
WWW/HTML/CGI forms (which should not exist).  Votes from nonexistent
accounts or with munged, spam-blocked, or undeliverable addresses are
invalid and will NOT be counted.

Please direct any questions to the votetaker at <dave@technopagan.org>

HOW TO VOTE:

Extract the ballot from the CFV by deleting everything before and after
the "BEGINNING OF BALLOT" and "END OF BALLOT" lines.  Don't worry about
the spacing of the columns or any quote characters (">") that your
reply inserts.  Please, DO NOT send the entire CFV back to me!

Fill in the ballot as shown below.  Please provide your real name
(or established Usenet handle) and indicate your desired vote in the
appropriate locations inside the ballot.

Examples of how to properly indicate your vote:

  [ YES     ]  example.yes.vote
  [ NO      ]  example.no.vote
  [ ABSTAIN ]  example.abstention
  [ CANCEL  ]  example.cancellation

DO NOT modify, alter or delete any information in this ballot!
If you do, the voting software will probably reject your ballot.

When finished, MAIL the vote to <rsamvote@technopagan.org>
Just "replying" to this message should work, but check the "To:" line.
Votes mailed to any other email address, including that of the votetaker,
will NOT be counted.

If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three
days contact the votetaker about the problem.  You are responsible
for reading your ack and making sure your vote is registered correctly.

If these instructions are unclear, please consult the Introduction to
Usenet Voting or the Usenet Voting FAQ at
http://www.stanford.edu/~neilc/uvv.

======== BEGINNING OF BALLOT: Delete everything before this line =======
.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2ND CALL FOR VOTES: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
| Official Usenet Voting Ballot <RSAM-42-2> (Do not remove this line!)
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Please provide your real name, or your vote may be rejected. Established
| Usenet handles are also acceptable.  Place ONLY your name (ie. do NOT
| include your e-mail address or any other information; ONLY your name)
| after the colon on the following line:

Voter name:

| Insert YES, NO, ABSTAIN, or CANCEL inside the brackets for each
| newsgroup listed below (do not delete the newsgroup name):

 Your Vote   Newsgroup
 ---------   -----------------------------------------------------------
[         ]  rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

======== END OF BALLOT: Delete everything after this line ==============

DISTRIBUTION:

Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following
group:

rec.skiing.nordic

This CFV was created with uvpq 1.0 (Feb 26 2001).
PQ datestamp: 980322


Votes in error -- Please vote again, or contact the votetaker
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
adam@tipperlinne.com (Adam Edwards)
   ! Ack bounced
pete@boxman.uottawa.ca (Pete Hickey)
   ! Ack Bounced
tingrinfan@earthlink.net (Sam Seiber)
   ! No vote statement in message

From dave@technopagan.org Sun Dec  1 15:15:03 2002
Path: news.isc.org!bounce-back
From: "David E. Smith" <dave@technopagan.org>
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,aus.snow,rec.skiing.alpine,rec.skiing.backcountry
Subject: RESULT: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated passes 293:21
Followup-To: news.groups
Message-ID: <1038754832.68022@isc.org>
Supersedes: <1037831307.65999@isc.org>
Organization: Usenet Volunteer Votetakers
Approved: newgroups-request@isc.org
Archive-Name: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated
Date: Sun, 01 Dec 2002 15:00:33 UTC
Lines: 876
Xref: news.isc.org news.announce.newgroups:11850 news.groups:423566 rec.skiing.alpine:236518 rec.skiing.backcountry:30107

                                RESULT
      moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated passes 293:21

There were 293 YES votes and 21 NO votes, for a total of 314 valid votes.
There were 16 abstains and 2 invalid ballots.

For group passage, YES votes must be at least 2/3 of all valid (YES and
NO) votes.  There also must be at least 100 more YES votes than NO votes.

There is a five day discussion period after these results are posted.  If
no serious allegations of voting irregularities are raised, the moderator
of news.announce.newgroups will create the group shortly thereafter.


Newsgroups line:
rec.skiing.alpine.moderated	Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated)

Voting closed at 23:59:59 UTC, 30 Nov 2002.

This vote was conducted by a neutral third party.  Questions
about the proposed group should be directed to the proponent.

Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame@hotmail.com>
Votetaker: David E. Smith <dave@technopagan.org>

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion
for many years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets
several dozen new messages a day, with the volume more than doubling
during the season. Much of this traffic is relevant and of high
quality, but there is also a significant amount of dispute, personal
abuse, attacks aimed at other posters to the newsgroup, and discussion
on topics not directly related to alpine skiing. This semi-infamous
situation has led to real world legal action and many former posters
to the group have left because of these well known conditions. The
proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing a new
moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the
culture surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups
of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not
wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to
enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a
lower volume, less combative and more focussed group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all
topics related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating
to the sport and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be
discussed without distractions. Questions and answers about the sport
will be welcome.

The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available
both via the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup.


CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

(a)  Raison d'Etre (The Reason this Group Exists)

The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs
from the existing English language newsgroup for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there.

(b)  Posting Guidelines

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing. This can be assumed to cover topics such as races,
results, techniques, equipment, locations, trips, tips,
maintenance, snow conditions, weather, clothing, advice, news
items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community related
chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski
boot is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses
downslopes to achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and
other ski variants are also welcome to contribute.

It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup
charter to give an exhaustive list of what is and isn't
acceptable. However, postings which have no connection at all to
alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine skiing are
unlikely to qualify.  A list of definitely off-topic posts would
include (but not be limited to) those containing a  discussion of
the race, creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or
other intensely personal characteristics of other posters, the
discussion of whether a subject is on- or off-topic, "test"
articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and purely
binary posting (see Moderation Policy).

The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the
newsgroup will be the moderators, working within the guidelines
(not rules) of the Moderation Policy.

(c)  Moderation Policy

   1.  Restrictions on Articles

       1.1  Acceptable topics
       1.2  On-charter threads
       1.3  Unacceptable posts
       1.4  Unacceptable behaviour
       1.5  Banning

   2.  Moderators' Role

       2.1  Posts not modified
       2.2  Rejected posts
       2.3  Basis for rejection
       2.4  Undeliverable email
       2.5  Moderators' opinions
       2.6  Off-charter posts
       2.7  No retromoderation
       2.8  Administrative mailing list
       2.9  Robo-moderation
       2.10 Auto approval
       2.11 Removal of auto-approve status

   3.  General Administration

       3.1  New moderators
       3.2  Removal of moderators
       3.3  Revisions to this policy
       3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
       3.5  Disclaimer
       3.6  Approval of posts
       3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy
       3.8  Changes to this Charter


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid
out elsewhere in this Charter, namely that

"The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to
provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It differs
from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention of
this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport that
are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and
postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there."

The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as
little as possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining
adherence to the Charter and Moderation Policy.

1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

- Races
- Results
- Techniques
- Equipment
- Ski areas, locations for skiing
- Tips
- Clothing
- Advice
- Trips
- News or other stories related to skiing
- Rules
- Safety information
- Questions regarding weather and snow conditions
- Recreational or other events connected to skiing
- Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's
  discretion)

This list is not exhaustive or definitive.

1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as
possible to the requirement that articles are on-charter, as
described above in Section 1.1.

It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift
off-charter; if this occurs, the participants will be expected to
take the discussion to a more appropriate forum as soon as
possible. If required, a moderator will post a reminder to the
thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter
post are not acceptable.

1.3  Unacceptable posts

1.3.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do
not mention alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate
group for that discussion. For the sake of the free flow of
information, any ski method that makes use primarily of a
downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as
appropriate eg., telemark.

1.3.2  Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles
containing PGP and similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are
allowed. Posts which contain a URL for a binary placed on a web
page are acceptable.

1.3.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will
not be accepted.  The moderator will send a short note to the
poster explaining why the post was rejected.

1.3.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will
not be accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a
business name, address, phone number or URL, or reference to a
product or service is considered acceptable provided the
signature is otherwise compliant. Posts advising the group of
charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face value in
a non-commercial way are also permitted.

1.3.5  Crossposts are accepted at the sole discretion
of the moderation team, and usually only for administrative
reasons. Crossposted articles will always be subject to hand
moderation.

1.3.6  Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally
abusive statements or any other content believed by the
moderators to be abusive of the spirit of this charter are not
welcome or acceptable. All words currently accepted in common use
as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed to be
used with postings, as are words that are still to be defined by
a dictionary, but the poster should ensure that the context
is valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall
foul of this moderation policy.

1.3.7  Posts should have a return address which is valid e.g.:-

       username@domain.com

or decipherable e.g.:-

       username@domain.nospam.com

If email addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered
to prevent them from being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it
must be obvious to the moderator which alterations to make,
otherwise it may be impossible to return a rejected post to
a poster with coments explaining why the posts was unacceptable.
Posts which do not include a valid return address, or that emanate
from anaymous remailer that use a common address to shiled many
posters run the risk of receiving no feedback on rejected postings
or notice of other adminstrative decisions concerning them.

1.3.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted
material will not be accepted unless the poster has permission
from the copyright holder.  It is acceptable to post URLs
pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a brief
summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material that
is used under 'fair use' terms must be credited.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted in violation of a copyright.

1.3.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from
someone other than the actual poster, making use of the email or
domain entity of the third party - will not be accepted. Forgers
may be subject to further action.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible
for any material posted that falsely purports to represent
someone other than the actual poster.

1.3.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not
acceptable except as part  of the .signature message mentioned
above. Notifications of new content are welcome, but repeated
posts which contain nothing but an invitation to visit the
poster's site will not be accepted.

1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly
engage in threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or
another poster. Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere
with the normal operation of the newsgroup or with any account
involved in its administration or propagation, other than
reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for a limited
or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action.

1.5 Banning

All decisions concerning the temporary or permanent removal of
a poster's ability to post require a two-thirds majority e.g.,
6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced.

2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The
moderators will NEVER modify content. This ban includes the
addition of comments to articles.

2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the
originating email address with a short explanation for the
rejection.  If applicable, he or she will include suggestions
on how to make the post acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is
acceptable, it will be forwarded to another moderator for a
second opinion.  If the first two moderators to review an article
agree, it will be accepted or rejected accordingly. If the first
two moderators to review an article disagree, the article will be
forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.

2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or
position on an issue, nor will any post be rejected because of
its author's personality. The sole basis for rejection will be a
post's content in relation to the subject matter of the newsgroup
and the guidelines of this moderation policy.

2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures
or undeliverable email.

2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be
expressed only within their own posts to the newsgroup, and not
within their moderation activities. All posts made by moderators
as part of their moderation activities will have the word
"[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting, email or mailing
list activities carried out in the role of moderator that express
the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should
be couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit
of this moderation policy.

2.6   Off-charter posts

Discussions can and do veer off-charter.  Moderators will have the
right to email participants in such discussions privately to remind
them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not
do so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the
discretion of the moderators.

2.7  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on
any article that has been approved in accordance with this
policy.

2.8  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other
matters related to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled
through a separate administrative mailing list open to any and
all participants in RSAM. Messages from this list will not be
posted to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all
users of RSAM are welcome to join it. The list is solely to
discuss administrative issues of the group. It may be joined by
sending a message to:

        rsam-admin@xmission.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe rsam-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam
blocks in place, as all commands are processed automatically and
there is no human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for
abuse, the offending abuser may face additional action such as
temporary or permanent banning from the mailing list. The process
for this banning shall be the agreement of at least two-thirds
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators, that abuse is taking place,
and continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

2.9 Robo-moderation

In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA
robo-moderated) using available and widely used software to
provide the moderation and moderation management system. The
system will provide the following functions as a minimum:

- Ability to support a team of moderators
- Ability to determine if a user is new or established
- Ability to automatically reject posts
- Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases
- Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation
- Ability to support WWW access.

2.10 Auto approval

It will be the principle of the group that all new
users/usernames will be hand-moderated for a period of time
that is left to the discretion of the moderators, and thereafter
they may be switched to automatic approval without notice.

Automatically approved posts will still be subject to
scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of
violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take
additional steps to mitigate the abuse as they see fit.

2.11  Removal of auto-approve status

A moderator may remove a poster's auto-approve status if, in the
moderators opinion, the poster is using auto-approved status
to post in violation of charter. The moderator will immediately
notify the other moderators of the action taken.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters
interested in joining the team are encouraged to express their
interest to the moderators. Moderators shall be appointed only by
the approval of at least two-thirds of the existing moderators
eg., 6 of 9.

3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts
or moderation activities, or who act outside this policy, may be
removed by a two-thirds majority vote of all moderators eg., in
the case of 9 moderators a two-thirds majority would be 6 of
those 9. Only one moderator may be voted on at a time.

3.3  Revisions to this policy

3.3.1  Before changing this moderation policy, the moderators will
initiate a discussion of possible changes in a posting with [MODPOL]
at the beginning of the subject line. The announcement should
indicate the key issues relevant to the proposed change, and invite
feedback via e-mail or participation in the Administrative mailing
list.

3.3.2  After discussion on the Administrative mailing list, the
moderators will accept or reject the change giving due consideration
to the opinions of the groups's participants.

3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the
moderators eg., 6 of 9 moderators.

3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification votes
to the group within 48 hours of the decision.

3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together
with a message welcoming new posters.

The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and
reminders of some of the requirements of the Charter and
Moderation Policy.  Posters will be expected to comply with these
guidelines.

3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy,
truth or legality of any of the posts. Posters assume full
responsibility for the content of their own posts.

3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of
its content by the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the
rejection of a post does not imply that the content is disagreed
with by the moderator or moderation team, but that it falls foul
of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up this
charter.

3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the
Web, within the news.answers archive (which may include faqs.org)
and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the newsgroup.

3.8 Changes to this Charter

This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a
2/3 majority eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the
moderation pool for at least six weeks.

END CHARTER.


MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Moderator: "Andrew James" <ajames54@hotmail.com>
Moderator: "Mike Speegle" <mikespeegle@netscape.net>
Moderator: "Eric Holeman" <eholem1@icarus.cc.uic.edu>
Moderator: "Nomen Klature" <bob.rsa@3pin.net>
Moderator: "Bdubya" <bdubya@interaccess.com>
Moderator: "Lal Truckee" <lal_truckee@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Kurt Knisely" <kurt@xmission.com>
Moderator: "Let Mikey Ski It!" <msaemisch@yahoo.com>
Moderator: "Mary Malmros" <malmros@nautilus.shore.net>
Moderator: "Bruno Melli" <bruno@fc.hp.com>
Administrative contact address: rsam-admin@xmission.com
Article submission address: rsam@xmission.com

END MODERATOR INFO.


DISTRIBUTION:

Pointers directing readers to this CFV will be posted in the following
group:

rec.skiing.nordic


rec.skiing.alpine.moderated Final Vote Ack

Voted Yes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a.dingo~mebay.biz                                                 John Schmidt
a.j.heney~btinternet.com                                            Alex Heney
abricker~texas.net                                              Austin Bricker
adaniel~triad.rr.com                                              Aaron Daniel
adrenochrome~3pin.net                                             Adrenochrome
adrianhammon~yahoo.co.uk                                         Adrian Hammon
ajames54~hotmail.com                                              Andrew James
alangbaker~telus.net                                                Alan Baker
allenlybarger~qwest.net                                         Allen Lybarger
an492~freenet.carleton.ca                                             Ottawaws
andrew-johnston~btconnect.com                                  Andrew Johnston
andrew~bdel.com                                                  Andrew McLean
andy~amc-comm.demon.co.uk                                        Andy Willcock
anne246~hotmail.com                                                Anne Strohm
apr_temp~yahoo.com                                                    Andrew R
arizona~ispwest.com                                                Paul Parisi
Armin.Hasenkox~teckcominco.com                                  Armin Hasenkox
astro~skiutah.com                                                     AstroPax
a_kerrison~yahoo.com                                                       ant
bashley~myrealbox.com                                             The Real Bev
bassuk~u.washington.edu                                           James Bassuk
bbense~SLAC.Stanford.EDU                                       Booker C. Bense
BDeMaat~aol.com                                                     Bob DeMaat
bdubya~interaccess.com                                                  bdubya
ben.ferg~xtra.co.nz                                              Ben Ferguson
ben.hodson~turningleaf.co.uk                                        Ben Hodson
biffoday~yahoo.com                                                Erik Leonard
billg~bacchae.f9.co.uk                                            Bill Godfrey
billwilkinson~prodigy.net                                       Bill Wilkinson
Bob.Peters~wcom.com                                                 Bob Peters
bobirene~attbi.com                                                        pigo
bouvin~daimi.au.dk                                           Niels Olof Bouvin
brentf~pacbell.net                                             Brent Fairbanks
briansnat~att.net                                            Brian Sniatkowski
brozen~torah.org                                                       Flanker
bruce~pobox.com                                                 Bruce Crawford
bruno~peakpeak.com                                                 Bruno Melli
BssnRX~aol.com                                                    James Kirker
bstrohm~juno.com                                                  Betty Strohm
bteddy~gtcom.net                                                        bteddy
bursaria~pacific.net.au                                        Susannah Franey
cfchoi~lycos.com                                                    Chris Choi
ch2~uswest.net                                                           Clark
chester~black-diamond.com                                      Chester Bullock
chief-curmudgeon~subdimension.com                          Rinaldi J. Montessi
chris.anderson~codeway.com                                      Chris Anderson
chris~txbarnes.com                                                Chris Barnes
chriseb~ukshells.co.uk                                          Chris Ebenezer
chuckh~softhome.net                                                      Chuck
cinetrix~telus.net                                                     R.Landy
coffee_boy101~hotmail.com                                          Mr. Splodge
couch_carcass~yahoo.com                                           Joe Marshall
cowpunk~attbi.com                                                      CowPunk
cparker6~houston.rr.com                                         Charley Parker
crash2000~sympatico.ca                                                   Punch
culken~netscape.net                                                   ken word
cwilkes~webone.com.au                                             Craig Wilkes
c_ish~mindspring.com                                   Christopher Ish aka CBI
dan~angband.org                                            Runs With Scissors
daniel.okine~hp.com                                               Daniel Okine
dans~drydog.com                                                   Dan Anderson
dave~digitrain.com                                                  David Huet
davebath~excite.com                                              David E. Bath
davemay~attbi.com                                                    David May
daveytaylor~lycos.com                                             Davey Taylor
david.nirenberg~att.net                                        David Nirenberg
david.off~voila.fr                                                   David Off
david~kimble.co.uk                                                   David Off
davidandkylecrist~yahoo.com                                        David Crist
davidharris99~rogers.com                                          David Harris
davidmc37865~hotmail.com                                       David McConnell
dc~panix.com                                                 David W. Crawford
dcvetkovic~gmx.net                                            Dragan Cvetkovic
ddean~calpoly.edu                                                    DantheMan
dewdew~bendcable.com                                                DDDavidson
dfrost~maths.tcd.ie                                               Dermot Frost
dhackney~optusnet.com.au                                         Denis Hackney
dimennaw~fidnet.com                                         William L. DiMenna
djhski~usa.net                                                 Dave in Spokane
djohnson+1~spamblocked.com                                       David Johnson
dkh~xmission.com                                                   David Hayes
Dmckeon~swcp.com                                                  Denis McKeon
DMiller851~aol.com                                                  Dan Miller
dnielsen~seanet.com                                               Drew Nielsen
dnimon~idirect.com                                                 David Nimon
donohd00~rcn.com                                                      Dr David
dougvance~telus.net                                                 Doug Vance
dwight.reed~verizon.net                                            Dwight Reed
dwolff~panix.com                                                   David Wolff
ecw1216~ix.netcom.com                                              Ted Waldron
Ed~Bertsch.org                                                      ed bertsch
editor~FirstTracksOnline.com                                        Marc Guido
Editor~windsurf.ca                                                    ottawaws
eholem1~uic.edu                                                   Eric Holeman
elpirata~bigpond.com                                          Clive Stansfield
endless~skistreak.com                                            Endlessseason
Ernieman~charter.net                                                  Ernieman
eskwired~panix.com                                                    EskWIRED
ESWPeace~aol.com                                                   Esther Webb
ev~cs.columbia.edu                                              Eviatar Yemini
everett92107~attbi.com                                             Don Everett
eyre~math.utah.edu                                                  David Eyre
fcnpereira~mac.com                                            Fernando Pereira
FeedMeFeeedMe~aol.com                                            FeedMeFeeedMe
fhinden~orange.net                                              Frances Hinden
Fredd~volcanomail.com                                                    Fredd
freehold~theworld.com                              freehold~shell.theworld.com
fsziegler~excite.com                                              Fred Ziegler
fun.no~all.at                                                    Ari Asikainen
fwbrown~bellsouth.net                                              Wayne Brown
gary~ouraycountyhomes.com                                           J. G. Dunn
gdm~theworld.com                                               Gregory Mughati
ggw+rsam~wolves.durham.nc.us                                  Gregory Woodbury
gincognito~canada.com                                               Gincognito
gja~meowing.net                                                    greg andruk
gmueller~theworld.com                                   gmueller~world.std.com
gordharr~island.net                                                     Gordon
gordy100~attbi.com                                                    str8line
gravity~charter.net                                      Mark Bryant (Gravity)
gregas~cliffhanger.com                                             Greg Sadowy
gregh34~hotmail.com                                                Greg Hilton
gregor.ronald~canterbury.ac.nz                                   Gregor Ronald
groszko~uiuc.edu                                                        Victor
guertin~middlebury.edu                                           David Guertin
hannigan~world.std.com                                         Martin Hannigan
hogarth~eircom.net                                                     Hogarth
Hoodfam~aol.com                                                      Drew Hood
ichiloe~hotmail.com                                                     Chiloe
icmk05~operamail.com                                                  Ian King
imer~mulakaj.com                                                  Imer Mulakaj
informant_xyz~yahoo.com                                              informant
irwin~stat.ohio-state.edu                                           Mark Irwin
j-furlonger~adfa.edu.au                                         John Furlonger
j.decourcey~erols.com                                          James DeCourcey
jabrooks~mindspring.com                                             Jim Brooks
jackwan1~iwon.com                                                     Jack Wan
jayster726~yahoo.com                                                    jaysan
jbenson~foxinternet.net                                             Jan Benson
jbyrnes~frii.com                                                   John Byrnes
jc1771~hotmail.com                                                    J Curtin
jdg~diogenes.sacramento.ca.us                                  John David Galt
jerry.abramson~oracle.com                                       Jerry Abramson
je_cs~telus.net                                                  CHARLES SCOTT
jimotto~duke.edu                                                      Jim Otto
jjbradley~erols.com                                               John Bradley
jlowder~aconex.com                                                Jason Lowder
John~iskijay.com                                                 John Grainger
Johnston.Scot~dorseylaw.com                                   Scot J. Johnston
jparker~rrmh.rrps.k12.nm.us                                         Jan Parker
jrredho~swcp.com                                                John Red-Horse
jstrohm~ev1.net                                                     Jim Strohm
jtnskis~crestedbutte.net                                            Jack Nixon
Julian.Mattay~csiro.au                                           Julian Mattay
jvandijk~proscenium.ca                                         Jordan van Dijk
jvwalker51~earthlink.net                                        Vincent Walker
kam~piste.demon.co.uk                                                   Kam Ho
katew~enteract.com                                              Kate the Short
kentastn~swbell.net                                                      KentB
keri~drawpaintcreate.com                                       Keri L. Tishner
kjn~planet.nl                                                Jeroen van Kessel
knotnook~traverse.com                                          Kneale Brownson
kowallek~iglou.com                                             Dennis Kowallek
l.a.ram~ix.netcom.com                                               Lou Ramsay
lal_truckee~yahoo.com                                              lal_truckee
lattier~fuse.net                                              David L. Lattier
lmcgrath~uwsa.edu                                                 Lisa McGrath
lordboots~yahoo.com                                                      boots
lowell.skoog~alpenglow.org                                        Lowell Skoog
lundy~umich.edu                                                  Michael Lundy
mahatmakanejeeves~swissinfo.org                              Mahatmakanejeeves
mail~sebastian-brocks.de                                      Sebastian Brocks
malmros~shore.net                                                 Mary Malmros
marie_holmes75~yahoo.com                                          Marie Holmes
markfelber~earthlink.net                                                  mark
matt_allen_g~hotmail.com                        Matthew Gay aka AntiSoCalSkier
maverick~nym.alias.net                                                Maverick
mcs~hpesmcs.fc.hp.com                                              Mike Sedmak
mcw~telesynthesis.com                                          Michael C. Watz
mdstatman~hotmail.com                                                 Jim Maar
megan.matthews~optusnet.com.au                                    Robert Croll
meltzr~earthlink.net                                             Howie Meltzer
merril3~yahoo.com                                             Richard Merrill
mikael.segercrantz~pp.inet.fi                               Mikael Segercrantz
miken~sauna.com                                                  Mike Naughton
mikespeegle~netscape.net                                          Mike Speegle
mistypnd~vermontel.net                                           RICHARD WALSH
morrison427~yahoo.com                                             Jim Morrison
morton~ida.org                                                  Richard Morton
mrcrab~charter.net                                                 Randy Smith
n.fisher4~verizon.net                                              Nate Fisher
naddy~mips.inka.de                                        Christian Weisgerber
nasafox~aol.com                                                        NASAFOX
nate~midmaine.com                                                       Nadine
neil~neil.swingler.name                                          Neil Swingler
news~clydesoles.com                                                Clyde Soles
nick_prior~hotmail.com                                              Nick Prior
Olaf~easynews.com                                             Olaf Timandahaff
p.mcmillan~uq.edu.au                                             QuietAsAMouse
pakirk~attbi.com                                             Peter Kirkpatrick
pan~syix.com                                                               Pan
patrickj~interchange.ubc.ca                                   Patrick Johnston
paul.s.wolf~alum.wpi.edu                                          Paul S. Wolf
paulh~wrevel.com                                                  Paul Harwood
pete~newmud.comm.uottawa.ca                                        pete hickey
peter_hood~ausi.com                                                 Peter Hood
phil~panix.com                                                  Phil Gustafson
physicsman000~yahoo.com                                               Tom Mann
plenz~lenny.sfrn.dnai.com                                         Patrick Lenz
qa3171~email.mot.com                                               Jayson Tran
r.driedger~sympatico.ca                                          Ross Driedger
randyw~fw-nh.na.teleatlas.com                                   Randy Witlicki
rb~hpesrb.fc.hp.com                                           Richard Blumberg
redalert~myway.com                                                    redalert
Richard.Cook~Colorado.EDU                                         Richard Cook
richardross~mac.com                                               Richard Ross
rick~bcm.tmc.edu                                              Richard H Miller
rickk~shaw.ca                                                     Rick Knowlan
rjs~fdy2.demon.co.uk                                          Robert Swindells
rjuliano~cfl.rr.com                                             Robert Juliano
rlcarr~animato.arlington.ma.us                                   Rich Carreiro
rlee~swcp.com                                                          Bob Lee
rlove3~rochester.rr.com                                           Rebecca Love
rob~uberlogik.com                                                     Rob Ward
robert~chezmarshall.freeserve.co.uk                            Robert Marshall
robin~robingray.co.uk                                               Robin Gray
roger~rgtilbury.demon.co.uk                                      Roger Tilbury
ron_olsen~qwest.net                                                  Ron Olsen
RozNor67~cox.net                                                          Peri
rphenry~cox.net                                                  Richard Henry
russell~thehovel.net                                          Russell Kerrison
saemisch~mac.com                                                 Mike Saemisch
sbfaulds~ihug.co.nz                                              Stuart Brodie
sentience_soma~yahoo.com                                            Allison D.
SHERIT1~aol.com                                                          Sheri
shuffman~ichips.intel.com                                          Sam Huffman
siegman~stanford.edu                                        Anthony E. Siegman
SkiNut~telus.net                                                        SkiNut
Skirecr2~aol.com                                              Janet W. Collins
slaby~magma.ca                                                      John Slaby
smasia~hotmail.com                                                  Seth Masia
smlucas~flashmail.com                                             Steven Lucas
sn0wv1xen~yahoo.com                                                  SnowVixen
sniadoch~frontiernet.net                                     Henry J. Sniadoch
snoig~hotmail.com                                            snoig~hotmail.com
snoskier1~yahoo.com                                             Mark A Denhart
spooge~petitmorte.net                                                   Spooge
squid~panix.com                                                       Yeoh Yiu
sr~ruhs.co.uk                                                     Stephen Reid
stallard~bbn.com                                                 Dave Stallard
stig_othedump~hotmail.com                         Stig_othedump (David Aitken)
strohm~airmail.net                                              John R. Strohm
stuartmc~northweb.com                                       Stuart A. McCreary
Sue~mashtub.demon.co.uk                                              Sue White
svengolly~myrealbox.com                                             Sven Golly
svseckinger~worldnet.att.net                                   steve seckinger
tam-rantzau~mail-online.dk                                            Tamarisk
taz~theworld.com                                              taz~theworld.com
ted_harper~yahoo.com                                                Ted Harper
tempdog~erols.com                                            A [Temporary] Dog
the.robertsons~gte.net                                          Matt Robertson
thecskier~aol.com                                     TCS (The Colorado Skier)
thomas.w.taylor~att.net                                           Tommy Taylor
thor~anta.net                                                    Thor Kottelin
tina~tripacerdriver.com                                             Tina Marie
tingrinfan~earthlink.net                                            Sam Seiber
tingrinfan~worldlink.net                                         Samuel Seiber
tmoero~yahoo.com                                                           tm
Toddar~aol.com                                                           ToddD
tom~xor.cc                                                         Tom Geldner
tpurcell~pgcps.org                                            Patricia Purcell
trent~trentland.com                                                      trent
trunky2~hotmail.com                                                 Jim Wilson
tryanc~theworld.com                                                Ryan Cleary
ts~UWasa.Fi                                                         Timo Salmi
TxSkier~aol.com                                                    Dan Simpson
uglymoney~yahoo.com                                                  uglymoney
usenet~nosila.net                                                Mark C. Brown
ussengineer~yahoo.com                                          Brian Schwadron
vaidas~ameritech.net                                           Vaidas Simaitis
vern93~comcast.net                                               Vern93 "Dave'
walt~boatnerd.com                                                         Walt
wamftrox~zeta.org.au                                                   Michael
wdittman~yahoo.com                                             William Dittman
webbj~erols.com                                                      John Webb
weghe~xs4all.nl                                             Harry van de Weghe
werner~ccwf.cc.utexas.edu                                               Werner
west~ghunter.mv.com                                                      Guido
wild_bill426~yahoo.com                                    Billy Carlton Sawyer
wiz~verinet.com                                                            Wiz
wwfiv~attbi.com                                           William W. Farley IV
w_lang~bellsouth.net                                               Warren Lang
xpozur~attbi.com                                                Steve Lapierre
xtrxtc~hotmail.com                                                 Justin Cram

Voted No
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bill~scconsult.com                                                   Bill Cole
cat~idiom.com                                                              cat
denebeim~deepthot.org                                          Jay Denebeim,,,
Ekkehard~Uthke.de                                               Ekkehard Uthke
ellis~spinics.net                                                   Rick Ellis
fungus~OCF.Berkeley.EDU                                             Henry Fung
graham.drabble~lineone.net                                      Graham Drabble
harder~ifa.au.dk                                                 Jesper Harder
heather299~aol.com                                                     Heather
hkt69~earthlink.net                                        Henrietta K. Thomas
kmorgan~spamcop.net                                               Kathy Morgan
michael.dahms~fh-flensburg.de                                    Michael Dahms
miliff~qnet.com                                              Mary Shafer Iliff
mmontcha~OregonVOS.net                                      Matthew Montchalin
psmyth~gmx.net                                                     Peter Smyth
scottabe~hotmail.com                                             Scott Abraham
stainles~bga.com                                                  Dwight Brown
suzieflame~hotmail.com                                              Suzieflame
thorn55~hotmail.com                                                      Thorn
Usdlaw2l~aol.com                                                    Jack Hanna
zofran~deepthot.org                                            Cheryl L Martin

Abstained
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
216-5888~mcimail.com                                           Arthur L. Rubin
franck.t~netcourrier.com                                              Franck T
h.stilmack~jach.hawaii.edu                                      Henry Stilmack
jamesrheckman~yahoo.com                                            Jim Heckman
joe~sfbooks.com                                                  Joe Bernstein
joele~pop4.net                                                    Joel Ehrlich
lsimonetta~newsguy.com                                        Leo G. Simonetta
max~alcyone.com                                               Erik Max Francis
mmrosa~bigpond.net.au                                              Michal Rosa
moleski~canisius.edu                                     Martin X. Moleski, SJ
mwfrisco~hotmail.com                                                  mwfrisco
p.texier~genindre.org                                           Patrick Texier
rra~stanford.edu                                                  Russ Allbery
tjmc~enteract.com                                                         tjmc
van.ette~inter.nl.net                                      Robert-Jan van Ette
yan~storm.ca                                                 Yves Bellefeuille


Votes in error
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
adam~tipperlinne.com                                              Adam Edwards
   ! Ack bounced
txchris~devidalNOSPAM.tv                                         Chris Devidal
   ! Ack bounced


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