🚀 go-pugleaf

                     REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
             moderated group rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

This is the formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of
the world-wide moderated Usenet newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine.moderated.
This is not a Call for Votes (CFV); you cannot vote at this time.

Procedural details are below.

Newsgroup line(s):

rec.skiing.alpine.moderated   Alpine (downhill) skiing. (Moderated)

CHANGES from previous RFD:

-       Editorial changes as suggested
-       Moderator list added as per discussion on news.groups
-       Moderation Policy now integral part of Charter
-       On- and off-topic posts given more explicit wording
-       Moderators given more freedom to self-determine on- and off-topic
-       Section on robo- and hand-moderation policies

RATIONALE: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Alpine (downhill) skiing has been the subject of Usenet discussion for many
years. The existing newsgroup rec.skiing.alpine (RSA) gets several dozen new
messages a day, with the volume more than doubling during the season.
Much of this traffic is relevant and of high quality, but there is also a
significant amount of dispute, personal abuse, attacks aimed at other posters
to the newsgroup, and discussion on topics not directly related to alpine
skiing. This semi-infamous situation has led to real world legal action and
many former posters to the group have left because of these well known
conditions. The proposal seeks to move the situation forward by implementing  a
new moderated newsgroup where those who wish talk about skiing and the  culture
surrounding skiing may do so without interruptions.

The situation has been discussed extensively in RSA, and the
discussions have shown that there are now two quite distinct groups
of subscribers: those who value the present culture, and who do not
wish to jeopardize the sense of community in RSA by attempting to
enforce the charter more stringently; and those who would prefer a
lower volume, less combative and more focussed group.

Rec.skiing.alpine.moderated is intended to be a forum where all topics
related to equipment, techniques, locations and issues relating to the sport
and recreation of alpine (downhill) skiing can be discussed without
distractions. Questions and answers about the sport will be welcome.

The group's charter and moderation policy will be made available both via
the Web and through regular posting to the newsgroup.

CHARTER: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

(a)  Rationale

The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is to provide a
forum for the discussion of alpine skiing. It differs from the existing English
language newsgroups for alpine skiing (rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is
moderated: the intention of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing
the sport that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants, and postings
completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found there.

The guiding principle for all moderators will be to interfere as little as
possible with the discussions, whilst maintaining adherence to the Charter and
Moderation Policy.

(b)  On- and off-charter postings

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about alpine skiing.
This can be assumed to cover topics such as races, results, techniques,
equipment, locations, trips, tips, maintenance, snow conditions, weather,
clothing, advice, news items, rules, safety, upcoming events, and ski community
related chit-chat. The type of binding used to connect the ski to the ski boot
is not deemed as important as the fact that the skier uses downslopes to
achieve velocity; hence people who use telemark and other ski variants are also
welcome to contribute.

It would be inappropriate and indeed impossible for a newsgroup charter to give
an exhaustive list of what is and isn't acceptable. However, postings which
have no connection at all to alpine skiing or the culture surrounding alpine
skiing are unlikely to qualify.  A list of definitely off-topic posts would
include (but not be limited to) those containing a  discussion of the race,
creed, colour, criminal record, sexual orientation or other intensely personal
characteristics of other posters, the discussion of whether a subject is on- or
off-topic, "test" articles, chain letters, purely commercial postings, and
purely binary posting (see Moderation Policy).

The final arbiter of what is and what is not off-topic for the newsgroup will
be the moderators, working within the guidelines (not rules) of the Moderation
Policy..


(c)  Moderation Policy

1.  Restrictions on Articles

    1.1  Acceptable topics
    1.2  On-charter threads
    1.3  Unacceptable posts
    1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

2.  Moderators' Role

    2.1  Posts not modified
    2.2  Rejected posts
    2.3  Basis for rejection
    2.4  Undeliverable email
    2.5  Moderators' opinions
    2.6  Off-charter posts
    2.7  Removal of auto-approve status
    2.8  No retromoderation
    2.9  Administrative mailing list
    2.10        Robo Moderation

3.  General Administration

    3.1  New moderators
    3.2  Removal of moderators
    3.3  Revisions to this policy
    3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup FAQ
    3.5  Disclaimer
    3.6  Approval of posts
    3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy
    3.8  Changes to this Charter


1.  Restrictions on Articles

The Moderation Policy for RSAM is guided by the statement laid out
elsewhere in this Charter, namely that


"The goal of rec.skiing.alpine.moderated (hereafter RSAM) is
to provide a forum for the discussion of alpine skiing.  It
differs from the existing English language newsgroups for alpine skiing
(rec.skiing.alpine) in that it is moderated: the intention
of this is to retain the opportunities for discussing the sport
that are currently found in other groups while preventing the spam,
commercial posts, abuse directed towards other participants,
and postings completely unrelated to skiing which can also be found
there."


1.1  Acceptable topics

This group exists to provide opportunities for discussion about
alpine skiing.  Any article about alpine skiing which does not
contravene the guidelines set out here will be posted.

Potential topics might include the following:

- Races
- Results
- Techniques
- Equipment
- Ski areas, locations for skiing
- Tips
- Clothing
- Advice
- Trips
- News or other stories related to skiing
- Rules
- Safety information
- Questions regarding weather and snow conditions
- Recreational or other events connected to skiing
- Ski- or community-related chit-chat (at the moderator's discretion)

This list is not exhaustive or definitive.


1.2  On-charter threads

Posters to this newsgroup are expected to conform as much as possible to the
requirement that articles are on-charter, as described above in Section 1.1.

It is acknowledged that threads will sometimes tend to drift off-charter; if
this occurs, the participants will be expected to take the discussion to a more
appropriate forum as soon as possible. If required, a moderator will post a
reminder to the thread in question, or in extreme cases may terminate a thread.
Articles which attempt to begin a new thread with an off-charter post are not
acceptable.


1.3  Unacceptable posts

1.3.1  Posts which are solely about other types of skiing and do not mention
alpine skiing should be directed to the appropriate group for that discussion.
For the sake of the free flow of information, any ski method that makes use
primarily of a downslope to provide velocity to the skier will be considered as
appropriate eg., telemark.

1.3.2  Binary postings will not be accepted. Text articles containing PGP and
similar small binaries (upto 2KB max) are allowed. Posts which contain a URL
for a binary placed on a web page are acceptable.

1.3.3  Posts in formats other than plain text, such as HTML, will not be
accepted.  The moderators will send a short note to the poster explaining how
s/he can set the newsreader to post in plain text.

1.3.4  Posts which advertise a commercial service or product will not be
accepted. However, the use of a signature that contains a business name,
address, phone number or URL, or reference to a product or service is
considered acceptable provided the signature is otherwise compliant. Posts
advising the group of charitable events, or offering tickets at or below face
value in a non-commercial way are also permitted.

1.3.5  Crossposts are accepted, but the decision to propagate a cross posted
message to rec.skiing.alpine.moderated lies solely with the moderation team

1.3.6  Posts containing racial, sexual, religious or personally abusive
statements or any other content believed by the moderators to be abusive of the
spirit of this  charter are not welcome or acceptable. All words currently
accepted in common use as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary are allowed
to be used with postings, but the poster should ensure that the context is
valid for the newsgroup, on-topic, and is not likely to fall foul of this
moderation policy.

1.3.7  All posts must have a return address which is valid (eg:
username@domain.com) or decipherable <eg:username@domain.nospam.com>.  If email
addresses are 'spam-proofed' (ie: deliberately altered to prevent them from
being retrieved by a spam-catching bot) it must be obvious to the moderator
which alterations to make.

1.3.8  Posts which contain extensive quoting of copyrighted material will not
be accepted unless the poster has permission from the copyright holder.  It is
acceptable to post URLs pointing to skiing or other articles on the web with a
brief summary of the content. Authors of copyrighted material must be credited.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material
posted in violation of a copyright.

1.3.9  Forged posts - defined as posts which purport to come from someone other
than the actual poster, making use of the email or domain entity of the third
party - will not be accepted. Forgers may be subject to further action.

The moderators and their service providers are not responsible for any material
posted that falsely purports to represent someone other than the actual poster.

1.3.10  Repeated advertisements for a poster's website are not acceptable
except as part  of the .signature message mentioned above. Notifications of new
content are welcome, but repeated posts which contain nothing but an invitation
to visit the poster's site will not be accepted.

1.4  Unacceptable behaviour

Action may be taken against individual posters who repeatedly engage in
threatening or abusive behaviour toward a moderator or another poster.
Similarly, any poster who attempts to interfere with the normal operation of
the newsgroup or with any account involved in its administration or
propagation, other than reporting net-abuse, may be prevented from posting for
a limited or permanent period, and/or be subject to further action.

2.  Moderators' Role

2.1  Posts not modified

Posts will either be accepted as a whole, or rejected. The moderators will
NEVER modify  content. This ban includes the addition of comments to articles.

2.2  Rejected posts

The moderators will attempt to return a rejected post to the originating email
address with a short explanation for the rejection.  If applicable, he or she
will include suggestions on how to make the post acceptable.

Should there be any question about whether or not a post is acceptable, it will
be forwarded to another moderator for a second opinion.  If the first two
moderators to review an article agree, it will be accepted or rejected
accordingly. If the first two moderators to review an article disagree, the
article will be forwarded to a third moderator for a deciding vote.

2.3  Basis for rejection

No article will be rejected because of the author's opinion or position on an
issue, nor will any post be rejected because of its author's personality. The
sole basis for rejection will be a post's content in relation to the subject
matter of the newsgroup and the guidelines of this moderation policy.

2.4  Undeliverable email

The moderators cannot be held accountable for Internet failures or
undeliverable email.

2.5  Moderators' opinions

Moderators' personal opinions regarding alpine skiing will be expressed only
within their own posts t the newsgroup, and not within their moderation
activities.  All posts made by moderators as part of their moderation
activities will have the word "[ANNOUNCE]" in their subject line. Any posting,
email or mailing list activities carried out in the role of moderator that
express the opinions of the moderator about the content of a post should be
couched solely with respect to the content, meaning and spirit of this
moderation policy.

2.6   Off-charter posts

As recognised in earlier, discussions can and do veer off-charter.  Moderators
will have the right to email participants in such discussions privately to
remind them of the group's charter and ask them to comply. If they do not do
so, further action, including thread closure, may be taken at the discretion of
the moderators.

2.7  Removal of auto-approve status

All decisions concerning the removal of a poster's auto-approve status require
a two-thirds majority eg., 6 out of 9, of moderators to be enforced.

2.8  No retromoderation

No moderator will issue a third party cancel ('retromoderate') on any article
that has been approved in accordance with this policy.

2.9  Administrative mailing list

Complaints or discussions about moderator judgments, and other matters related
to the running of the newsgroup, will be handled through a separate
administrative mailing list open to any and all participants in RSAM. Messages
from this list will not be posted to the newsgroup.

The administrative list for the newsgroup is an open one, and all users of RSAM
are welcome to join it. The list is solely to discuss administrative issues of
the group. It may be joined by sending a message to:

        listserv@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com

with the following in the body:

        subscribe RSAM-admin <subscriber name>

The subscriber must use a valid email address, with no spam blocks in place, as
all commands are processed automatically and there is no human intervention.

In the event that this medium is itself used as a channel for abuse, the
offending abuser may face additional action such as temporary or permanent
banning from the mailing list. The process for this banning shall be the
agreement of at least two-thirds moderators that abuse is taking place, and
continues to take place despite repeated warnings.

2.10 Robo Moderation

In general the newsgroup will be auto-moderated (AKA robo-moderated) using
available and widely used software to provide the moderation and moderation
management system. The system will provide the following functions as a
minimum:-

- Ability to support a team of moderators
- Ability to determine if a user is new or established
- Ability to ban a user permanently or temporarily
- Ability to filter on certain users, words or phrases
- Ability to pass filtered posts on for hand-moderation
- Ability to support WWW access.

It will be the principle of the group that all new users/usernames must be
hand-moderated for their first three posts, and thereafter they will be
switched to automatic moderation. Automatically moderated posts will be
subjected to scrutiny for adherence to this charter, and in the case of
violations, the moderators may re-invoke hand-moderation or take additional
steps to mitigate the abuse, including temporary or permanent banning.

3.  General Administration

3.1  New moderators

The moderation team will periodically need new members.  Posters interested in
joining the team are encouraged to express their interest to the moderators.
Moderators shall be appointed only by the approval of at least two-thirds of
the existing moderators eg., 6 of 9.

3.2  Removal of moderators

Moderators who do not observe the charter in their personal posts or moderation
activities, or who act outside this policy, may be removed by a two-thirds
majority vote eg., 6 of 9, of the other moderators.

3.3  Revisions to this policy

3.3.1   Any discussion of revision of this moderation policy  within the
newsgroup must include "[MODPOL]" at the beginning of the subject line .

3.3.2  After discussion in the newsgroup, the moderators will accept or reject
the change based on their judgment as to the group's collective opinion.

3.3.3  Any changes require a two-thirds majority of the moderators eg., 6 of 9
moderators.

3.3.4  The moderators will post all results of modification votes to the group
within 48 hours of the decision.

3.4  Posting Guide and Newsgroup Charter

A Posting Guide will be published at regular intervals, together with a message
welcoming new posters.

The Guide will contain information on basic Netiquette, and reminders of some
of the requirements of the Charter and Moderation Policy.  Posters will be
expected to comply with these guidelines.

3.5  Disclaimer

The moderators will not be held responsible for the accuracy, truth or legality
of any of the posts. Posters assume full responsibility for the content of
their own posts.

3.6  Approval of posts

The approval of a post by a moderator is NOT an endorsement of its content by
the moderator or moderation team. Likewise the rejection of a post does not
imply that the content is disagreed with by the moderator or moderation team,
but that it falls foul of one or more of the moderation guidelines that make up
this charter.

3.7  Location of Charter and Moderation Policy

The charter and this moderation policy will be maintained on the Web within the
faqs.org structure, and will be regularly (once per fortnight) posted to the
newsgroup.

3.8 Changes to this Charter

This charter, including Moderation Policy, may be modified by a 2/3 majority
eg., 6 of 9, of those who have been members of the moderation pool for at least
six weeks.

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: rec.skiing.alpine.moderated

Article submission address:

        RSAM@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com

Administrative contact address:

        RSAM-admin@to-be-confirmed-soon-we're-working-on-it.com

Moderator: Andrew James
Moderator: Mike Speegle
Moderator: Eric Holeman
Moderator: Nomen Klature
Moderator: Aaron Daniel
Moderator: Lal Truckee
Moderator: Kurt Knisely
Moderator: Let Mikey Ski It!
Moderator: Mary Malmros

END MODERATOR INFO.

PROCEDURE:

This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes.  In this phase of the
process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroups should be raised
and resolved.  The discussion period will continue for a minimum of 21 days
(starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to
news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) may be posted by a
neutral vote taker if the discussion warrants it.  Please do not attempt to
vote until this happens.

All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.

This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation guidelines
outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to Format and
Submit a New Group Proposal".  Please refer to these documents (available in
news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the process.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, rec.skiing.alpine, aus.snow
rec.skiing.backcountry

Following acceptance of this RFD by the moderator of news.announce.newgroups, a
pointer will be posted to:

rec.skiing.nordic
alt.usenet.kooks
blarp.com web board
epicski.com web board
skilovers.com web board

Proponent: Suzie Flame <suzieflame at hotmail.com>