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Mailing List Moderation Policy

All ADF mailing lists are moderated. The moderator is the ADF Listmaster, appointed by the ADF Administrator and remaining in that position until the Administrator's term expires or a new Listmaster is appointed. ADF has many lists, so the Listmaster may delegate her/his moderation powers to specific moderators for particular lists. The moderator/listmaster may be reached at ADF-Listmasteradf.org.

Our list moderation policy is listed below, and exists to ensure that respectful communication occurs on our mailing lists. While lively discussions are welcomed and even encouraged, personal insults, profanity, name-calling, threats, and other immature behavior will not be tolerated.

Please also note that the following behaviors have been classified as disruptive and may result in moderator warnings and/or unsubscription:

Posting advertisements for anything not directly related to the List
Unsolicited bulk email (spam) or chain letters
Disrespectful emails (insulting/threatening a person, their beliefs, using profanity)
Encoded binary files (such as pictures or commercial software)
Using 'threat of lawsuit' to support your argument.
Posting other people's personal contact information without permission
Posting copyrighted material without the original author's/publisher's consent

The list moderation policy and the decisions of the list moderator are not up for debate. Violations of the policy, as judged by the moderator, may result in moderator warnings and/or unsubscription, at the moderator's discretion. If you don't like this policy, unsubscribe now. (You may do so by mailing listserv@lists.adf.org with "unsubscribe adf-listname" in the body, no quotes.)

If these warnings seem excessive, please bear in mind that we have been running our mailing lists since 1996 and the current policy is the result of many successive adaptations to the needs of our mailing list subscribers (in fact, the first ADF list moderation policy was created and approved by a list-wide vote). Again, the policy is not up for debate, but hopefully this will provide some perspective for the reason it exists.

MODERATION OF ELECTRONIC FORUMS

General

ADF Guild, Kin, SIG, and Regional electronic forums, and other forums as determined by the ADF Administrator, shall be hosted by ADF.
ADF-hosted forums ("forums") shall be moderated by the ADF Listmaster and her/his delegates.

Behavior - The following categories apply to contributions sent to any ADF-hosted forum:

Poor behavior includes but is not limited to: excessive quoting, off-topic content, and poorly chosen subject lines.
Unacceptable behavior includes but is not limited to: insults, threats, name-calling, harsh sarcasm, personal accusations, defamation of character, and chronic poor behavior.
Excessively disruptive behavior is determined at the moderators' discretion.

Actions - Moderators may:

Screen, and reject, contributions at their discretion.
Suspend participants for unacceptable behavior after three public or private warnings.
Suspend participants for excessively disruptive behavior immediately.

Suspensions

Suspensions apply to one or more ADF-hosted forums at the ADF Listmaster's discretion.
A participant's first suspension period shall be determined by the ADF Listmaster but shall not exceed three months.
A participant's second suspension period shall be determined by the ADF Listmaster.

Appeals

Moderator actions may be appealed to the ADF Administrator.

(Policy established by Mother Grove vote May 1999. Most recent revision approved by Mother Grove vote May 2006.)

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