Acceptable Use Policy and Guidelines Acceptable Use Policy ===================== National Capital FreeNet users are responsible for all mail messages or news posts bearing their name and ID. Irresponsible, abusive or illegal use may result in a backlash from other users for violating community standards. In cases of repeated abuse of NCF services or illegal use, the National Capital FreeNet Board, on behalf on the NCF community, reserves the right to suspend or revoke the user's privileges on the system. 1995-09-19 Acceptable Use -- Guidelines ============================ All users are expected to behave responsibly and with consideration for other users at all times. This document outlines the most common problems to be avoided as you develop your own sense of the community standards of NCF. 1) You are responsible for all mail message and news postings made from your account. Your account is only for your use. If your friend want to use NCF, you should get them to register or use the system as a guest. You may not allow them to use your account with you. You are legally responsible for what you say. Freedom of speech does not give you the right to slander others. You are the sole author and publisher for your posts. For this reason, the software automatically attaches your name and NCF I.D. to all your mail and news. 2) Your NCF account is for personal not commercial use. The user agreement you signed at registration specifically prohibited broadcast advertising (either commercial news message or unsolicited e-mail messages). Commercial news postings are only allowed in a very few business newsgroups (Your Choice ==> go help-news for more information). Just as you might send a personal letter on paper with your business letterhead, you may include your business name or other information in your signature file. 3) You may not spam newsgroups. Spam is the technical term for (i) posting the same message to the same newsgroup too frequently or (ii) excessive crossposting. Posting the same message again and again to the same newsgroup interrupts the flow of discussion. It is simply annoying. If no one is interested, you may have the wrong newsgroup. Use the search tools to look for other possible newsgroups on that topic (Your Choice ==> go search-news). Crossposting is sending your message into many newsgroups at the same time. It is useful when there are two newsgroups with an overlapping field of interest. It is disruptive when more than a few newsgroups receive the message. You might want to crosspost when you start a new thread of discussion but you should be sure to tell people where to post the followup messages. This way all the messages will go to the most related newsgroup and everyone who is interested knows where to look for it. *.general newsgroups are not exempt from rules about crossposting. For example, there is no need to crosspost all messages in ncf.general, ott.general, ont.general and can.general. If the topic is Ontario politics, use ont.general for the daily messages. Monthly you could post a reminder about the discussion in the other groups. 4) You can't say _______ here. Mostly NCF is self-policing. All members define what the community standards are with each post on the system. If you use language that others find offensive, you will hear from users that object. Most NCF newsgroups do not have any swearing or offensive language but each newsgroup has slightly different ideas about what is okay. ALWAYS read the newsgroup before posting to know what is the common practice. Some newsgroups have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) post to help new readers get oriented. You may also find that some newsgroups have agreements about topics which cannot be discussed there. There are some topics which always result in "religious wars" (For example "What is better PCs or Macs?"). These arguments can't be resolved so a truce may have been declared. Again, read the newsgroup and FAQs to learn what belongs where. 5) But that's just gross, offensive, wrong, crude, etc... NCF has something to offend everyone. It isn't IF something will offend you but HOW SOON you find something offensive. You always have the choice not to read anything you find offensive. NCF believes strongly in Intellectual Freedom. But this freedom requires that everyone learn to be tolerant. Generally the best way to handle offensive material is to ignore it. Commenting on the post may be giving the authors the attention they are seeking. 6) Personal attacks don't help build community. When people stopping discussing why their ideas disagree and start insulting each other, it is called a "flame war" (because someone ends up as toast). These flame wars can be very disruptive to the rest of the discussions in the newsgroup. Generally you should move your dispute to e-mail when it becomes a flame war. Or you could just stop. This document does not list all the unacceptable uses of NCF. It is just a list of the common types of problems. See also: Your Choice ==> go help-manners . 1995-09-19