Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tl00256)

Fellow theosophical writers:

As fuel for further possible discussion on what are reasonable
guidelines for participation in theosophical mailing lists, 
I've included a copy of the guidelines for the ARCANA mailing
list. (The guidelines are reposted with permission from the
listowners of that list.) 

Any useful ideas or comments would be appreciated. Statements
like "I always do what I believe is best," though, don't really
say anything, and are ways of avoiding discussing any of the
issues involved. The same is true of statements, I think, like
"Anyone should write anything anytime they like; there should
be no limits or standards whatosever!" 

What is right or wrong, and why?

-- Eldon

----

>Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 18:07:27 -0400
>From: "L-Soft list server at Brown University (1.8b)"              <LISTSERV@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
>Subject: Usage guidelines for ARCANA
>
>Welcome to ARCANA!
>
>PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE CAREFULLY! It contains important information
>about ARCANA's rules and the expected behavior of subscribers. These
>rules are designed to maintain the usefulness and enjoyment of ARCANA.
>The Listowners will enforce these rules and will unsubscribe continued
>offenders.
>
>First and foremost, ARCANA is a forum for the serious and academic dis-
>cussion of the occult by students, scholars, practictioners and inter-
>ested parties. It is not intended to be a forum for the New Age, psychic
>and paranormal phenomena, metaphysics, UFOs, neo-paganism, Wicca or other
>religions, as such. While it is recognized that the discussions on ARCANA
>will meander at times, plese keep your posts as on-topic as possible.
>
>With that in mind, there are only two specific rules which restrict the
>content of on-topic posts:
>
>1) No ad hominem attacks on other listmembers.
>
>2) No attacks on any religion or esoteric belief system.
>
>The reason for these rules is simple: we do not want ARCANA to become a
>battleground for fights about the two things most people are most likely
>to feel obligated to fight over: their selves and their beliefs. While we
>recognize that there may be legitimate grounds for some fights, we insist
>that any such arguments be debated in private e-mail.
>
>Out of respect for the privacy of all subscribers, ARCANA is a closed
>list. The list's archives are available only to other subscribers. You
>MAY NOT forward anything posted to the list to non-subscribers without
>the express permission of the author(s) of the postings, including quoted
>material.
>
>Copyright laws should be obeyed and respected as written. This includes
>the fair use of copyrighted material from other publications. While the
>legal copyright of articles posted to other mailing lists and newsgroups
>is still unclear, it is polite to seek the author's permission before
>reposting their article to ARCANA.
>
>To facilitate communication between as many people as possible, the
>official language of the list is English; we request that translations
>of all posts and quoted texts written in other languages be provided.
>
>As not all mail readers will display the sender's address, please sign
>all your posts with your name and e-mail address. For example:
>
>         Caryn McLeod
>         mcleod@azathoth.miskatonic.edu
>
>Elaborate signature files are neither necessary or welcomed. Please limit
>the length of your signature file to four lines or less.
>
>Messages are best kept short, about one subject and given a clear subject
>header. If you change the subject of a discussion, please change the
>subject header as well! Long messages are certainly valid, but please
>indicate their lengthy nature in the subject header. The longest post
>that LISTSERV will allow is 250 lines long. Anything larger will be
>rejected by LISTSERV and returned. Long articles are best posted to the
>list in smaller pieces. Alternatively, you could mention the long file in
>a short note to the list and email the long file to interested parties or
>make the file available on a World Wide Web site.
>
>Please refrain from excessively quoting messages in your replies. You
>should retain enough of the message you are replying to to establish the
>context of your reply, but not so much that there is significantly more
>quoted text than new text. Quoting entire messages is particularly
>frowned upon.
>
>Please refrain from "me-too" posts or "one-liners". Such posts are better
>directed to the person you are replying to rather than the entire list.
>
>Please understand that these rules are meant to improve the quality of
>the discussion on this mailing list. We do not feel that they are either
>onerous or unreasonable. We hope you enjoy ARCANA and find it useful.
>
>The ARCANA Listowners
>06/96
>