MISSION STATEMENT:

Alt.religion.wicca.moderated is a moderated forum for those interested in the religion of Wicca, its many traditions or denominations, and neopagan witchcraft. It offers a more structured environment for Wiccans and others interested in these traditions to compare ideas than is provided by other, similar groups.

ARTICLE I: ACCEPTED POSTING AND NETIQUETTE

OFF TOPIC POSTING:

Certain types of posts are not appropriate to alt.religion.wicca.moderated and will not be tolerated. These posts include:

* Spam - Unsolicited commercial posts (spam) will not be tolerated in alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Posts that offer to sell, rent, buy, advertise or posts that link to sites that offer to sell, rent, buy, or advertise goods or services that are not directly relevant to pagan interests will not be permitted. Such posts include (but are not limited to) ads for sex/pornography sites and multi-level marketing offers.

Commercial advertisements that are relevant to pagan interests will be permitted as long as the subject line begins with "[AD]" tag, denoting an advertisement. Modstaff reserves the right to reject any advertisements with the proper subject line if they feel that the ad is inappropriate for alt.religion.wicca.moderated.

* Ad Hominem Attacks - Posts made with the express intent of hurting another individual or group, or posts that denigrate, demean, ostracize, discriminate against, or attack an individual or group will not be tolerated in alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Alt.religion.wicca.moderated is a structured environment where users can feel comfortable posting questions and concerns; 'flames' of this nature serve no purpose but to destroy this environment. Issues of poor grammar or spelling should be resolved privately, by email. 'Flaming' an individual for poor spelling or grammar is not permitted on alt.religion.wicca.moderated.

* Intolerance and Religious Preaching - Alt.religion.wicca.moderated serves individuals from many religious paths and traditions, as well as many different lifestyles. Posts that preach the superiority of one specific path over others, or show intolerance toward specific lifestyles will not be tolerated here. Posts that denigrate, demean, ostracize, discriminate against, or attack other religious traditions or lifestyles in an effort to create an intolerant atmosphere will likewise not be tolerated.

* Trolls - Articles which are perceived to have been written solely for the purpose of provoking outrage or indignation among the regular readers of alt.religion.wicca.moderated will be rejected: "trolling for flames" is not permitted.

Alt.religion.wicca.moderated is an ecumenical and diversified news group accepting posts from authors of any race, sex, sexual orientation, age, or religious creed so long as said posts are relevant to Wicca and follow the rules for posting to the news group.

PROPER POSTING:

As a courtesy to readers, it is important that all posts made to alt.religion.wicca.moderated follow a basic format compliant with the accepted rules of netiquette.

Each post should include a subject line that is relevant to the post's message. A message that is commercial in nature and Pagan oriented should contain the prefix "[AD]" in the subject line; denoting an advertisement.

Message bodies should be formatted at 80 characters per line or less to enable all users to view each post. Quoted material should be kept to a minimum; only enough material should be quoted to ensure that the new material can be properly understood or put in the proper perspective. When quoting, it is courteous to leave the original author's name attached so that there is no question as to who is being quoted. In addition, when quoting an entire string of replies, authors' names should be left in the quote to ensure that each line can be properly identified to its author.

It is also customary to insert '<snip>' or some other marking to indicate that sections of quoted material have been left out. It will also show that the original post contains more material than is being reposted, and will refer readers to the previous post.

To prevent confusion, a blank line should be inserted to separate quoted material from original material. It is also customary to prefix each quoted line with a special character (most commonly, the 'greater than' symbol '>‘), this will enable viewers to easily make the distinction between quoted and original material.

Signature files are permitted on posts to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. A sig file should be no more than 20 lines (ideally four lines or less) and should have 80 characters or less per line. In addition to a signature file, a post may contain other identifying lines such as PGP keys or Dejanews add-ons. Binary attachments are not permitted on posts made to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Posts with binary attachments will be filtered out by the robomoderator.

Excessive use of profanity and vulgarity should be avoided. Alt.religion.wicca.moderated is dedicated to providing a user-friendly environment to people of all ages. All posts must adhere to the rules as presented in this charter, and should also conform to the guidelines of civil debate.

ARTICLE II: MEMBERSHIP

All new users of alt.religion.wicca.moderated are considered guests. Modstaff will review posts made by guests before they are submitted to the newsgroup. If a post is off-topic, or does not follow the rules for posting to this newsgroup as outlined in this charter, the post is rejected and will not appear on alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Due to current usenet limitations, a rejected post that is cross-posted will not appear on any of the groups posted to.

Users, who have shown compliance with the rules for alt.religion.wicca.moderated and are shown to be responsible when posting to the newsgroup, may become members of alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Members' posts are pre-approved when submitted and are not reviewed by Modstaff. It is expected that posts made by members follow all rules of posting to this newsgroup as outlined in this charter. Members that fail to comply with these rules when posting will be penalized.

BECOMING A MEMBER: There are two ways to become a member of alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Any guest that posts three relevant and on-topic posts is placed on the preapproved member list. In order to count toward the three-post total, a post must contain original content, start a new thread directly relevant to Wicca or Paganism, or add a new insight into a current thread. The "I agree" type of post will not be counted toward this total.

Guests may also be placed on the preapproved member list if they have a reputation for posting responsibly on other newsgroups, without needing to post three posts as explained above. These guests are still responsible for posting to this group according to the rules as outlined in this charter.

ACTIVE VS INACTIVE MEMBERSHIP: An 'active' member is a member that has posted to alt.religion.wicca.moderated within three months of the current date. Only active members are allowed to cast votes or campaign for Modstaff (as outlined in following sections of this charter).

An 'inactive' member is a member who has not made any posts to the newsgroup within three months of the current date. Inactive members are not eligible to vote nor may they campaign for Modstaff. Inactive members are still 'members', however, in that they are still pre-approved to post. To become an active member again, an inactive member must post to the newsgroup. The post is preapproved, and the status of the member instantly becomes active. Inactive members are not permitted to vote or campaign for Modstaff. A ballot received from an inactive member does not constitute a 'post' reestablishing membership, and is automatically considered illegitimate.

A member may be inactive for no longer than two years. After two years of inactivity, the user is dropped from the preapproved member list. Modstaff reviews any further posts, and the user is considered a guest. The user may post normally and become an active member once more by following the outlined procedure (either posting three relevant posts, or being added to the member list, by Modstaff, based on reputation).

Guests who become members are automatically considered 'active' members.

PENALTIES: Posting a message that does not follow the rules of posting as outlined in this charter constitutes abuse. Any member who abuses the privilege of preapproved posting may immediately be taken off the pre-approved member list, and will be considered a guest. These abusers will remain guests for no less than three months, having each post reviewed by Modstaff. At the end of this three-month period, an abuser may once again become a member following the procedure as outlined in this charter. If a user once again abuses the preapproved membership, they are removed from the preapproved member list and may remain a guest indefinitely (at Modstaff's discretion).

A guest who continuously attempts to abuse posting privileges may be banned from alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Any member of the Modstaff may call for a ban on any guest who has attempted to abuse posting privileges. A two-thirds majority agreement by Modstaff is needed to enact a ban. However, a temporary ban lasting no more than four days may be enacted immediately by any member of the Modstaff without the two-thirds majority vote of Modstaff. This will ensure that abusers will not be able to continue their abuse while Modstaff is reviewing the situation. If a ban is successfully enacted, the user will be placed in the auto-bounce list. None of this user's posts will appear on alt.religion.wicca.moderated, or on any cross-posted groups.

A banned user may petition Modstaff for reinstatement of posting privileges by sending a letter to the Modstaff contact address, no less than six months after a ban is enacted. A two-thirds majority agreement of Modstaff must be reached in order to lift a ban. Once lifted, the user is immediately considered a guest and may post normally to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Modstaff may decide to restrict the posting privileges of a reinstated user to that of "guest status" indefinitely. Modstaff may reinstate full membership privileges to an indefinite guest at any time, or may be petitioned to reinstate this status.

APPEALING MODSTAFF DECISIONS: Anyone may make an appeal a decision made by Modstaff by emailing the Modstaff address. In the event Modstaff do not grant this appeal -- either by denying it or by not ruling on it within one month, the appellant may appeal to the active membership by petition, using the tag [APPEAL], under the same rules of petition as for the removal of Modstaff. [10% within a month to second, two weeks to discuss, 51% within a month to pass.] If the appellant has no posting privileges, Modstaff must post the appeal on the appellant's behalf. If this appeal fails, that decision may not be appealed again until six months after the petition failed, at which point the process may start again from the beginning.

Automatic rejection of email to Modstaff from that appellant must expire in six months, to permit this renewed appeal. The appellant must then be notified by email of this opportunity to renew the appeal. Mail-bombing or other abusive email from appellant to Modstaff, after lapse of such a six-month period, will entitle Modstaff with a 2/3 vote to extend the no-appeal, auto-reject period by six months.

Modstaff must post all Modstaff decisions, including the receipts and results of all appeals, on the newsgroup, using the [ADMIN] tag, within one week of their occurrence.

Please note: this would apply to any "pre-banning" if it occurs -- for instance, RBB and Carmlo and any other "known troll" could appeal directly to the active membership under this rule, and conceivably overturn the Modstaff decision to ban them. The six-month wait keeps this from being continuously on the newsgroup, but they'd get a hearing, at least once or twice a year, no matter how much *anyone* wants them out.

(Modstaff posting the appeal for them would even circumvent killfiles sets to the appellants’ names, as so many killfiles are set for RBB and Carmlo.)

ARTICLE III: MODERATION POLICY AND PROCEDURE:

The terms 'Wicca' and 'Paganism' are elusive at best, and there are many differing meanings to each term. There will be no discrimination of posts due to differing opinions of what these terms actually mean. While posts should be Wiccan in emphasis, the line where 'Wicca' ends and 'Pagan' starts is a broad one.

NOTE: A majority is defined as 51% (or higher) of the active members voting in a particular way. Only active members may vote. Inactive members must reestablish activity before their vote is considered legitimate. Guests are not allowed to vote.

Both a PERL script robomoderator and a panel containing an odd number of live moderators will moderate alt.religion.wicca.moderated.

The robomoderator will be responsible for weeding out posts that contain binary attachments, are heavily cross-posted, repeat posts (floods), and posts from banned users. The robomoderator will also be responsible for logging posts that are rejected and reasons for rejection.

CROSS POSTING: Cross-posted messages (messages that are posted to more than one news group at the same time) will be accepted on alt.religion.wicca.moderated. However, a message that is cross-posted must be on-topic for ALL groups that it is being posted too. In addition, any messages that are 'heavily cross posted' will be weeded out by the robomoderator and will not appear on any news group that they are posted too. A message is heavily cross-posted if it is posted to five or more groups at the same time. Directly related newsgroups (alt.religion.wicca, for example) are not counted toward this five-group cross-post limit. Modstaff is responsible for determining whether a group is directly related to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Any member may propose to have a group listed among the directly related groups by sending a letter to the moderator email address. A majority vote by Modstaff is required to add the group. If the current list of directly related groups changes, Modstaff will post the entire list to alt.religion.wicca.moderated.

Posts that pass through the basic filters of the robomoderator will be randomly distributed to the live Modstaff for approval. The Modstaff will ensure that each post follows the rules of posting to alt.religion.wicca.moderated, that all advertisements have the proper subject line, and that posts are relevant and on-topic according to this charter.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MODSTAFF: All Modstaff candidates must be members in good standing with the news group. Each candidate must compose a net bio, containing basic information, experience, and qualifications related to both Wicca/Paganism and Computer skills.

PROCEDURE FOR ELECTING NEW MODERATORS: To officially begin an election for Moderators on alt.religion.wicca.moderated, the current Modstaff will post an announcement on the news group explaining their intention to elect new moderators and the allotted time for candidates to present themselves. All interested active members will then submit a net bio to the Modstaff email address. Modstaff will post these net-bios to the news group after the allotted time has expired. Modstaff will also post a pre formatted 'ballot' to the news group; as well as mail a copy of this 'ballot' to each member. The ballot will contain instructions on how to properly complete the ballot, and where to sent it to be tallied.

Guests and inactive members are not permitted to vote. Only ballots written by active members of alt.religion.wicca.moderated will be accepted as legitimate. Each active member will receive one vote per open position on Modstaff. In the event that more than one position is open, each voter shall select from the list of candidates a number of names up to or including the number of open positions, and cast one vote for each candidate selected. For instance, if five candidates run for three open positions, each voter may select up to three (1 or 2 or 3) names from that list, but may not cast more than one vote for any one candidate

Ballots will be posted weekly for a one-month period on alt.religion.wicca.moderated, and collected throughout the entire voting period. At the end of one month, Modstaff will tally the ballots, and the results posted to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. Modstaff will offer the positions available to the candidates with the highest number of votes (not necessarily the majority of votes). The first available position will be offered to the candidate with the highest number of votes, the second available position will be offered to the candidate with the second highest number of votes, etc. If the candidate is unable or unwilling to accept the position, it will be offered to the candidate with the next highest number of votes.

In the event of a tie between candidates, Modstaff will cast a single vote between tying candidates and immediately offer an available position to the candidate with the highest number of votes. If a tie still remains (a three way tie, for instance...) Modstaff will cast a single vote between the remaining tying candidates, and immediately offer a position to the candidate with the highest number of votes. Modstaff will continue to cast single votes and immediately offering positions to the candidates with the highest number of votes, until there are no remaining ties or there are no remaining positions to offer, whichever occurs first.

A member is considered part of Modstaff as soon as a post is made publicly accepting the offered position.

REMOVING A MODERATOR: To begin the process of removing a moderator from Modstaff, a member of alt.religion.wicca.moderated must post a petition. The petition will be allotted one month to be resolved. If at any time during that month, 10% of the active member list 'sign' the petition, then the moderator in question is removed and an election is called following normal procedure as outlined above. If not enough active members 'sign' the petition by the end of one month's time, the petition is failed and nullified. There may only be one outstanding petition against any single moderator at any given time. A new petition may be formed regarding the moderator in question only after the previous petition is resolved.

A moderator that has been removed may re-campaign in any election by following the procedures above for becoming a candidate. However, if a majority of the active members (51%) sign the petition of removal within the allotted time, the moderator in question cannot re-campaign for any Modstaff position for a period of no less than six months.

ARTICLE IV: AMENDING THE CHARTER

IMPORTANCE OF A DYNAMIC CHARTER - For a news group to accommodate growth and change among its users, it is essential that the it’s charter be dynamic and flexible. Creating a method in which the charter of alt.religion.wicca.moderated can be modified for the future will ensure the usefulness and usability of this news group.

It is the responsibility of both Modstaff and the active members of alt.religion.wicca.moderated to supervise any modifications made to the charter. Charter amendments must follow ALL outlined procedures and must be officially recognized by Modstaff. Only Modstaff has the authority to publish an amended charter. Modstaff is also responsible for updating any published versions of the charter each time an amendment is made. Only the most current charter version may be distributed; although older, dated versions may be archived.

AMENDING PROCEDURE - To begin the amendment process, a petition must be both posted to alt.religion.wicca.moderated and mailed directly to the Modstaff email account. Only petitions posted by active members will be considered legitimate petitions. A petition must clearly state which section of the charter is being petitioned for amendment and how that section is to be amended. The body of the petition must conform to a standard format for alt.religion.wicca.moderated:

To ADD a section to the charter: The body of the petition must contain both the section to be added and the immediately preceding and immediately following paragraphs. All paragraphs must be exact quotes of the charter or the exact section to be added. The section to be added must be placed between the immediately preceding and immediately following paragraphs, with a blank line separating each paragraph. The word "ADD:" must appear directly before the section being added.

To REMOVE a section from the charter: The body of the petition must contain the paragraph immediately preceding the section to be removed, the section to be removed, and the paragraph immediately following the section to be removed. The section to be removed must be directly preceded by the word "REMOVE:". All paragraphs must be quoted exactly with no abbreviations or ellipses.

To REPLACE a section of the charter: The body of the charter must contain the original section in exact form and the replacement section. The original must be preceded by the word "REPLACE:". The replacement must be separated from the original with a blank line and preceded with the word "WITH:"

Only one charter revision may be made in each proposal. It is acceptable to combine two or more of the formats above if the proposed change is applicable to more than one section of the charter. (For instance, a charter wide spelling change for a particular word or group of words)

The original proponent must include a valid contact email address at the bottom of the proposal. Any proposal made without this contact address will be considered illegitimate

Each legitimate proposal will be allotted a one month time period in which to be resolved. If at any time during that one-month period, 10% of the active members 'sign' the proposal, the proposal becomes an active petition. If the allotted time period expires and not enough active members have signed the proposal, the proposal is failed and discarded.

When a proposal becomes a petition, Modstaff will post an intention of modifying the charter to the news group once per week. The petition is allotted 14 days in which members of alt.religion.wicca.moderated may suggest both stylistic and content specific changes to the petition. These suggestions are to be mailed directly to the original proponent of the proposal. The original proponent of the proposal may alter the petition in any way or leave it as is.

Once the allotted time for suggestion has expired; the original proponent will post the petition (either altered or original, but not both) to alt.religion.wicca.moderated. The petition will receive a one month time period in which to be finally resolved.

51% or more, of the active member list must vote "YES" to the petition in order for it to become an amendment to the charter. If this 51% quorum is not reached; or less than 51% of the active member list vote "YES"; then the petition is defeated and discarded. A defeated petition may be proposed again, following the outlined procedure. At the end of the allotted time, Modstaff will announce to alt.religion.wicca.moderated the results of all proposals to the charter.

Only one petition may be active at any given moment. If a proposal receives enough signatures to become a petition while an active petition is being resolved, the proposal becomes a petition but is tabled until after the current petition is resolved. Tabled petitions are resolved in the order they are created.

There is no limit to the number of proposals that can be made at any given time.

Modstaff is responsible for updating the charter within 2 weeks after a petition is ratified by 51% of the active members. The updated charter will be posted to alt.religion.wicca.moderated and any other locations that contain an outdated version (web pages, ftp sites, etc.).