2nd RFD: humanities.philosophy.objectivism moderated
Jason Kuznicki
moderated group humanities.philosophy.objectivism
This is a formal request for discussion for the creation of
the Usenet newsgroup humanities.philosophy.objectivism (h.p.o.).
CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS RFD:
1. A list of potential discussion topics for the group was added
to allay concerns that certain controversial subjects might
be forbidden by the moderator.
2. Crossposting has been permitted for certain administrative
purposes. The moderator may crosspost for purposes such as
the posting of further RFDs, CFVs, and the group's FAQ.
3. Several clarifications of the nature and extent of the FAQ
have been added.
4. First-time posters shall be sent a copy of the FAQ.
5. Authors of rejected or cancelled articles shall be sent a copy
of the FAQ rather than the charter once said FAQ is created
to explain why their articles were rejected or cancelled.
6. The discussion and advocacy of Neo-Tech are now cited as an example
of the kind of off-topic posting that will be forbidden on the
group.
7. Encoded binaries are now to be rejected automatically, as are
articles with a large proportion of quoted text to original
reply.
8. A notice was added indicating that the creation of h.p.o.
should in no way be considered an attempt to moderate or
otherwise change the status of alt.philosophy.objectivism.
9. The moderator shall be Tim Skirvin <tski...@uiuc.edu>. The
alternate moderator shall be Richard E. Depew
<r...@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us>.
NEWSGROUPS LINE:
humanities.philosophy.objectivism The ideas of Ayn Rand. (Moderated)
RATIONALE: humanities.philosophy.objectivism
Alt.philosophy.objectivism (a.p.o.), a currently existing group for the
discussion of the philosophy created by Ayn Rand and known as Objectivism,
has become nearly useless as a forum for discussion of philosophy because
of extremely high traffic of irrelevant crossposts, spaming and flaming.
Though they have been repeatedly asked to leave, the perpetrators of
these abuses continue to disturb a.p.o.
The problems of a.p.o. are particularly great because Objectivism is in
many respects an unconventional philosophy and thus tends to attract post-
ers who are extremely hostile to it, including trolls and the perpetrators
of interminable flamewars. These problems can be avoided by those inter-
ested in Objectivism through the creation of a moderated newsgroup.
Traffic on h.p.o. will be significant; previous proposals and the first
RFD were met with numerous e-mail and posted messages by individuals
who plan to post to the group regularly.
The newsgroup's name follows established protocol with regard to
newsgroup creation. Objectivism is a philosophy; philosophy is a part
of the studies commonly called the humanities. Finally, the
humanities.* hierarchy is a legitimate and previously recognized
first-level hierarchy.
CHARTER: humanities.philosophy.objectivism
Humanities.philosophy.objectivism shall exist for the purpose of fur-
thering discussion by Objectivists and those who admire Ayn Rand's
ideas. Those who disagree with these ideas may of course also post to
h.p.o. for the purposes of civilized debate and discussion of Object-
ivism. Any posters who persistently abuse their posting privileges
are subject to revocation of these privileges at the discretion of the
moderator (qv).
Discussion on h.p.o. may consist of attempts to support, elaborate,
apply, question, or refute the tenets of Objectivist philosophy on the
part of participants. For example, discussion on h.p.o. may include
but is in no way limited to the topics of Anarchism in relation to
Objectivism and the dispute between David Kelley and Leonard Peikoff
as it relates to Objectivist philosophy.
Posts which request information about a particular topic of Object-
ivist philosophy are also welcome, and every effort shall be made by
the posters of h.p.o. to compile a thorough text-only FAQ on the
fundamentals of Objectivism, as well as describing the moderation
and posting policies of h.p.o. and its reason for creation.
Crossposting shall not be permitted, excepting administrative posts
such as further RFDs, CFVs, and the FAQ. With the approval of the
administrator such material may be crossposted to news.announce.new-
groups, news.answers, news.groups, and other groups deemed necessary
by the moderator. Because a philosophy such as Objectivism has ap-
plications in numerous areas of human action, the actors in many of
which are not themselves directly concerned with Objectivism, discus-
sions that are crossposted often become irrelevant to one or the
other of the groups. This has been a major problem with a.p.o. in
the past.
The creation of h.p.o. shall in no way be considered an attempt to
moderate or replace a.p.o., whose status will not change with the
creation of a.p.o.
Moderation Policy:
The newsgroup shall be automoderated; the automoderator shall be
overseen by a nonparticipant net administrator.
The automoderator shall automatically reject all articles that fall
into the following categories:
A) Articles that contain more than 80 characters per line;
B) Articles that are crossposted;
C) Encoded binary messages;
D) Messages containing more than 20 lines of text, 80% or
more of which is quoted material;
E) Articles authored by those that the moderator has
expelled from the group (see below).
The submitters of rejected articles shall be sent a copy of the FAQ
to inform them of the reason why their submissions were rejected.
The moderator of h.p.o. shall be Tim Skirvin <tski...@uiuc.edu>.
The alternate moderator of h.p.o. shall be Richard E. Depew
<r...@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us>. The moderators shall not post to
humanities.philosophy.objectivism except as administrative duties
require.
Commercial postings shall not be permitted; repeated posting of a
commercial nature shall be grounds for the banning of the submitter
from humanities.philosophy.objectivism at the discretion of the mod-
erator. The moderator is further authorized to cancel said postings
if and when they appear, forwarding a copy of the FAQ to the poster.
If a FAQ is not yet available, a copy of this charter shall be sent
instead.
Postings commonly acknowledged by the Usenet community to be "spam"
or similar forms of net-abuse shall not be permitted; the moderator
is authorized to cancel all such posts, inform the submitter of his
decision, and, if the abuse persists after an initial warning, ban
the submitter of the posts from the newsgroup.
The moderator may also cancel posts which are offtopic for the group.
For example, humanities.philosophy.objectivism excludes the discus-
sion of Neo-Tech, Zon Power and the publications and activities of
the Neo-Tech Publishing Company. Such material is off-topic for
humanities.philosophy.objectivism and repeated posts of this nature
shall result in the expulsion of the poster. The Automoderator may
also be programmed and reprogrammed as necessary to return the ex-
cluded postings to the sender, attatching a copy of the FAQ for h.p.o.
No specific individuals shall be excluded from h.p.o., save as their
behavior on the forum itself warrants.
The alternate shall succeed the moderator upon retirement. Should
the alternate be unwilling to do so, the moderator may choose an-
other impartial nonparticipant individual to fill his place.
END CHARTER.
MODERATOR INFO: humanities.philosophy.objectivism
Moderator: Tim Skirvin <tski...@uiuc.edu>
Alternate Moderator: Richard E. Depew <r...@redpoll.mrfs.oh.us>
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 raised and resolved. The discussion period will continue for a
minimum of 21 days (starting from from when the first RFD for this
proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups). All discussion should
be posted to news.groups.
At the end of the discussion period, a Call for Votes (CFV) will be
posted by a neutral vote taker.
This RFD attempts to fully comply with Usenet newsgroup creation
guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and
"Writing an RFD". Please refer to these documents if you have
questions about the process.
DISTRIBUTION:
news.announce.newgroups
news.groups
alt.philosophy.objectivism
Jason Kuznicki http://b61718.student.cwru.edu/ jt...@po.cwru.edu
John Alway
>... snip ...<
> At the end of the discussion period, a Call for Votes (CFV) will be
> posted by a neutral vote taker.
Excellent, Jason. I will vote _yes_ when votes are requested.
Btw, for those who are interested, I understand that the ng
"humanities.philosophy.objectivism" was a bogus group. The
official hpo group hasn't been created yet.
...John
--
___________________________________________________________________
\_The most formidable weapon against errors of any kind is Reason._\
/_I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.__________/
\_____________________________________________________Thomas Paine_\
/__John Alway jal...@icsi.net______________________________________/
Brad Aisa
humanities.philosophy.objectivism.
I have one opposition to this charter: the idea of an official FAQ. This
creates a corollary problem of who will write and maintain it?? I think the
final CFV should drop the idea of an official FAQ, and simply email the
newsgroup charter to new participants. Regular posters will be free to post
their own FAQs, if they wish.
--
Brad Aisa <ba...@hookup.net> web: http://www.hookup.net/~baisa/
1 Mises (M1.00) = 0.01 troy ounce gold; 1 Rand (1R) = 0.01 Mises
"The highest responsibility of philosophers is to serve as the
guardians and integrators of human knowledge." -- Ayn Rand
Bruce Baugh
> REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
> moderated group humanities.philosophy.objectivism
I like it! I'm pleased by the changes in the charter and very pleased by
the choices of moderator; I'll be happy to vote in favor, and to use the
group in the future.
--
Bruce Baugh <*> br...@aracnet.com <*> http://www.aracnet.com/~bruce
See my Web pages for...
Christlib, the mailing list for Christian and libertarian concerns
New science fiction by Steve Stirling and George Alec Effing er
Daedalus Games, home of Shadowfist and Feng Shui
Jimmy Wales
FAQ? The concept of an official FAQ raises all the issues of sanction
and control that we've worked so hard to solve.
I would agree with the concept of an official FAQ if it is *solely* an
administrative FAQ about the policies of the group. If it treats issues
*within* Objectivism in any way, then it will necessarily have to be
partisan on some controversial issues. That's something that I don't
think many people will find acceptable.
Questions like: "What is this group?", "How do I post?", "Who controls
this group?", etc. would be fine.
--Jimbo
Jason Kuznicki
I would not be adverse to that at all. In retrospect you are right; an
official FAQ would be one fight I definitely *don't* want to start. Do
you believe the definitions included in the charter are sufficient and
amenable to both camps? If so then nothing more is really needed.
A FAQ on the nature of the group and its moderation would be far sup-
erior to a charter in terms of format and readability; I could make up
something like this with no problems at all.
Looking forward to the vote...
Jason Kuznicki http://b61718.student.cwru.edu/ jt...@po.cwru.edu
"What objectivity and the study of philosophy require is not an "open
mind," but an *active mind*--a mind able and eagerly willing to examine
ideas, but to examine them *critically*."--Ayn Rand
Martin Sandberg
GOOD JOB on the RFD. I'm voting in favor. Thanx for all the hard work!
Martin
All my posting are copyright Martin Sandberg
Brad Aisa
>A FAQ on the nature of the group and its moderation would be far sup-
>erior to a charter in terms of format and readability; I could make up
>something like this with no problems at all.
Yes, that is a good idea -- why not just condense and prettify the charter,
and post it as an addendum to the charter. Hopefully, you can do this
before the CFV.
Once again, thanks a lot for all your effort. Good luck and good premises!
YES on humanities.philosophy.objectivism!