MAI-NOT posting guidelines (Monthly posting)
Russell McOrmond
MAI-NOT POSTING GUIDELINES
This forum is "auto-moderated". The moderator only screens messages
from people who are not yet subscribers. This cuts out inappropriate
and 'hit and run' commercial postings. It strikes a balance between
the ease of access available through public newsgroups, and the
responsibility in postings seen by 'membership required' discussion
groups. Add into this a moderator that will approve appropriate
messages from unknown people, and you hopefully have the best of all
worlds.
Nonetheless, subscribers should consider that all postings to the
group will be open to public view via Usenet and the website.
Subscribers are asked to comply with these guidelines (you may wish to
post it conveniently near your computer):
1. WHAT TO POST:
Basically, only items from which many people are likely to benefit, as
follows:
a) Information on events and planned events relating to the MAI,
whether in favour or in protest against the proposed treaty.
b) The text of published articles and essays relating to the MAI,
provided that prior permission has been obtained from the
copyright-holders where necessary.
c) Reference information for books and articles for which permission
to reproduce has not been obtained, or which are too long (i.e. a page
or two) for a single e-mail message.
d) Information on organizations which have come forward in favour of
or against the MAI.
e) Copies of letters, faxes and e-mail messages sent to politicians,
government agencies, the media, etc. calling for public debate of the
MAI before it is signed or expressing citizens' concerns over its
contents.
f) Suggestions for future activities by individuals or community
organizations, names and addresses of people to contact about the
issue, and other pertinent information.
g) Opinions and interpretations of the MAI as a whole, particular
clauses of the MAI draft, or its implications for international,
national, provincial or local laws, socio-economic conditions, the
environment or human rights.
h) Discussion of the various possible strategies for bringing the
issues involved to public attention.
i) Courteous, topical replies to postings by other subscribers,
quoting _relevant excerpts_ from previous messages rather than
repeating those messages in their entirety, i.e. one or two lines of
the original message to set the context for your remarks. It takes
only a second to delete the bulk of a message. People do not have time
to re-read numerous messages only to find a brief remark.
2. WHAT NOT TO POST:
a) Any material not directly or indirectly related to the Multilateral
Agreement on Investments, often cross-posts intended for other lists.
b) Extended discussion, articles or opinion-statements on matters
peripheral to the MAI and its consequences.
c) Copyright material for which permission to post has not been
obtained.
d) Personal or off-topic remarks, line-by-line refutations of other
people's opinions, and insults.
e) Comments intended for one or more individuals rather than all
subscribers: please post these messages to the individuals concerned,
NOT the list. It takes only a second to find the individual's personal
email address in the message header and then post your reply to
him/her.
f) Messages promoting the interests of other organizations, companies
or individuals for purposes other than the purposes of this list.
g) FILE ATTACHMENTS (graphics, wordprocessor files, "winmail.dat"
format files) which may cause major problems for those using different
software from your own. Instead, post ASCII text, or a brief message
offering to forward attachments to those interested.
h) Articles that have already been posted on the same newsgroup.
Please check your incoming mail before deciding to send a long posting
from an outside source, in case someone else has already done so. It
is especially discourteous when the same person posts the same article
two or three times.
i) Articles larger than 40000 characters in size. Many people have
limits to the size of their mailboxes, and some need to pay for their
network bandwidth in bytes. If you have a large message you wish to
post please consider putting it on a Webpage somewhere and posting
only the URL to the discussion group.
j) Messages including large lists of Carbon-Copied recipients. These
lists are often used to SPAM people so it is just not friendly to
include them on a public list. Please make use of the
Blind-Carbon-Copy feature of your mailer for any postings to MAI-NOT.
3. TECHNICAL ISSUES:
Since this group is a mailing list that has a News based archive, and
not a newsgroup, some differences with newsgroups exist.
a) When you post a message to the flora.mai-not group, the message is
not sent directly to the news system but first to the
mai...@flora.org mailing list address. This means there will be a
delay before you see your posting in the mai-not group.
b) Cross-posting is not supported. Since mai-not postings are
automatically approved and posted by a program, cross-posting needs to
be disabled in order to ensure that nobody will ever cross-post to
mai-not as a method of bypassing the moderator for a different
conference.
c) Carbon-Copies do not always work. If you carbon-copy a message to
two different mailing lists that are gated to a newsgroup, only one of
those messages will appear in the news archive, visible from one
group. This is because the NEWS system does not allow two messages
with the same Message-ID to exist.
d) Threading doesn't currently work. This is a problem with the
current tool, and volunteers are requested to contact Russell McOrmond
if they are willing to help.
THANK YOU for complying with these guidelines. Feel free to offer
suggested changes to Terry Cottam at di...@freenet.carleton.ca. (Rev.
Oct 14, 1998 by Russell McOrmond, rus...@flora.org)
Back to the [1]Newsgroup Page
References
1. http://mai.flora.org/newsgrp.htm
--
For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
Janet M. Eaton
which permits all of us to work together towards a brighter future
than the one we faced going into 1998.
Each day is an adventure on the mai-not list as we survey the future
unfolding at an unthinkable pace before our very eyes. Some postings
evoke sadness for humanity like the myopic madness of Monsanto
in India and others like Margrete Strand Rangnes remarks posted by
Janice tonight inspire hope and satisfaction in their tribute to the
work of all who have continued to resist, confront and find
alternatives to the MAI over the past year. But all together they
provide a sense of immersion in something much greater - than any one
individual -could ever hope to be.
To lose this list serve at this moment in history would be for me
an inexpressible loss so I want you to know how very grateful I am
for your part in making this sustained exercise in global democracy
possible !!
Thank you from the heart!!
Janet
Our mai-not list helps us to realize in the words of the
Desiderata that : "With all its sham, drudery and broken dreams, it
is still a beautiful world. " and that we do have reason to "to be
happy!"
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 01:20:04 -0500
From: Russell McOrmond <rus...@flora.ottawa.on.ca>
To: mai...@flora.org
Subject: MAI-NOT posting guidelines (Monthly posting)
rus...@flora.ottawa.on.ca
> To lose this list serve at this moment in history would be for me
> an inexpressible loss so I want you to know how very grateful I am
> for your part in making this sustained exercise in global democracy
> possible !!
Trust me - while the group name might no longer reflect it's content
(The MAI document isn't the hottest topic ;-), it is very much recognized
as an important forum. I myself have used it for research, even for my
trip to India (Last 3 weeks of this month) to give me a taste of what I
will see.
Since I won't be around at the time, I would like to wish everyone a
happy holiday season (For those countries that celebrate Xmas), and a
happy new year. We have much ahead of us, and it's great to be able to
participate in a group of people that are always looking ahead!
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.org/russell/work/>
Barely used Eurocom Laptop for sale: http://russell.flora.org/7200t3.html
Freenet or FeeNet? http://www.flora.org/flora.general/1034 You Decide...
Climate Change Costly http://www.flora.org/flora.afo/1853 Cut losses now!