🚀 go-pugleaf

I am a member of a private mailing list that consists of about 60 people,
primarily from Canada and the United States.  The nature of this list is
mainly social - many people have met each other over the net and some have
been brought in by virtue of being friends with list members. 

This list was originally set up to provide an alternative to an open,
unmoderated USENET newsgroup which, while still in use, is deemed too open
to allow some types of rather personal discussion. 

At issue is the membership of one person.  This person has been an
associate of the group for quite a long time.  However, a few members of
this list feel uncomfortable with having the person at issue subscribing
to the list because of past behaviour.  I am not at liberty to provide
further details other than to say this includes allegations of actions
both online and in person. 

The situation was brought to the the attention of the group while in the
process of changing servers and listowners.  The past listowner did not
subscribe the person in question because they were never asked. The
current listowner is very strongly in opposition to letting this person
join. 

I have publicly stated to the list that I have no position on the matter. 
Rather, I am curious as to the legal issue that this situation might bring
up. I am inclined to agree that the listowner has the final say on who is
granted admission, as they are donating time and resources to maintain the
list.  However, there are a few dissenters in our membership, and I am
very concerned as to how this should be handled. 

Questions:

1) What would be a fair process to decide if the person in question 
should be granted admission?  Should a majority or consensus be reached 
among the membership, or should the listowner be the decision maker in 
this case? 

2) What are the legal implications of denying this person membership, or 
for overruling the objections of the dissenting members?  Someone has 
brought up the analogy of denying membership to a private 'country club', 
as this has been the subject of past legal action in the courts.  For the 
record, this person in question is located in the United States.

3) As a side issue, should this 'private' list afford a reasonable 
expectation of privacy?  My position on this is that it should not, as 
list mail is easily forwarded.  (There is an agreement by list members 
that this is forbidden.)  I also stated that I don't consider the 
Internet to be secure in the first place, so therefore one should not 
expect privacy.  Others take the opposite opinion, stating because we 
accepted membership, and are bound by trust, agreement, and nettiquette 
this should not affect the privacy aspect of the list.

I would greatly appreciate both possible solutions and discussion on 
this issue.  As I am not a regular of these newsgroups, please be sure to 
cc: any posts to the list to duke@interlog.com.

Thanks...

-Tim
-- 
Tim Meehan - Toronto       +1 (416) 449-2369        |     My ont.general
duke@interlog.com - http://www.interlog.com/~duke   |  includes Bob Allisat.