Subj : The rules
To   : ALL
From : BOB KLAHN
Date : Sun Nov 23 2014 15:24:00


 Welcome to the DEBATE conference!

 This is a general forum for participants to debate and discuss
 a wide range of political, historical, contemporary, and
 philosophical topics. The Rules of Engagement are as follows:

 1. Forceful discussion or debate is encouraged.

 2. It must be clearly understood that personal attacks (flames),
 remarks deliberately intended to provoke other users ("baiting"
 or "goading"), and foul or abusive language will NOT be
 tolerated.

 3. While general religious topics are allowed, "sermonizing"
 does not belong here.

 4. The posting of articles in their entirety, or in their
 majority, is not allowed.  Paraphrasing of articles is
 encouraged.  The article may be referred to as a URL in support
 of the participant's position, whether pro or con.

 5. Opinions or positions are encouraged.  Bear in mind that you
 may be challenged to provide the factual source that serves as
 the basis for your opinion or position.  If you put it forth,
 it's yours to defend. Should you fail to do so others are
 justified in considering it refuted or abandoned.

 5.a.  Crowing over a "win" is discouraged as being too close to
 goading and is singularly unmannerly.

 6. All moderating should be left to the Moderators. While
 limited inquiries in the echo to moderator rulings will be
 accepted for purposes of clarification, any dispute over
 moderator rulings will be taken to private means; either email
 or netmail.

 6.a. The authority of the Co-moderator is the same as the
 Moderator.

 7. Participants should not be easily annoyed.  Leave that to the
 Moderators.

 8. Cross-posting is allowed.  It should be either complementing
 an existing thread or starting a thread suitable for this echo.
 See #11.  Do not start dragging personal vendettas ("crap")
 from other echoes over here. See #6 & 7.

 9. Don't bite on taglines, whether they are on point are not;
 they are only taglines. Taglines shall not be used as a back
 door to flames. See #2 above.

 10. Libelous postings are prohibited.  A libelous posting is the
 defamatory assertion, as a fact and without an indictment, that
 a person has committed a criminal act.  Or that the person is
 suffering from a loathsome disease. Where public figures are
 concerned, the rule for libel is that applied to the press, the
 assertion must be known to the poster to be false or with
 reckless disregard for the truth.

 Since it is very difficult to determine what the poster knew or
 whether he was guilty of reckless disregard for the truth this
 rule will be interpreted to allow the poster the widest
 latitude. It will be enforced only when there is very strong
 evidence of violation.

 Note that the rule against personal attacks will cover most
 situations between participants.

 11. Please do not over-quote.  Quote enough of the message you
 are responding to so the response makes sense.  Quoting 25 lines
 of text for a two-sentence response is an irritant and fuzzes up
 the message.

 12. Assumption of Honesty rule. Anyone posting in this echo may
 be wrong on almost anything they post. Anything posted by any
 participant will be assumed to be believed by the poster to be
 true. Therfore, anything anyone else feels is wrong will be
 considered as an honest mistake. Accusations of lying will be
 considered personal attacks. You may disagree with the post, but
 not attack the poster.

 Any term such as "made up" or "making it up" or "invented" will
 be treated exactly the same as an accusation of lying. It will
 take an extreme case for the moderator to even consider the
 possibility that an accusation of lying is true.

 Note the following points:

  a. Accusations of lying against public figures, or statements
  made by those not participating in Fido, are not covered by
  this rule. However, the rule about libel may apply.

  b. Humor is assumed to be made up, and is not covered by this
  rule. However, it will not be used for or subject to personal
  attacks. That is covered under the personal attack rule.

 13. Echo protection rule. Behavior that has the effect of
 sabatoging this echo, whether in this echo or others, will lead
 to a ban from this echo. That behavior will be defined as
 encouraging others to break the rules, or using false statements
 to convince others that the rules have been changed.

 Any moderator who makes rules for his echo that limit or forbid
 the participation in his echo of anyone who posts in this echo,
 based on that participation will not be permitted to participate
 in this echo.

 This rule will be adjusted as is seen necessary.

 If something becomes an irritant, we'll add it to the rules.

 MOD Bob Klahn, 1:3603/140, bob.klahn@bex.net

 Rules modified 6/22/09.



BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

....  Bob Klahn - Moderator - Debate Echo...
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