The Rules (Beta)

The Rules: EMUTalk.org’s Disclaimers, Code of Conduct, and Ways to Participate (Version 1.0 Beta)

When I started EMUTalk.org in September 2006, I had no idea that I would have to lay out in explicit detail the rules I am describing here for posting and comments. A couple of hundred thousand visits to the site later, I realize that some explicit rules and disclaimers are in order.

I’m presenting this document for discussion among and input from folks interested in EMUTalk.org, though I’ll ultimately be making the decisions about changes and input to these rules. I intend to enact this version of the rules officially on September 4, 2007, so please offer your comments on these rules to me either on the site or in private email (sitedad@emutalk.org) no later than September 1, 2007).

For much of the language and general guidelines of this document, I am heavily indebted to the policies at OzPolitics and the Blogger’s Code of Conduct at Blogging Wikia.
–sitedad/aka Steven D. Krause

A Bolded Preamble of Disclaimers

While EMUTalk.org is a forum that primarily discusses issues associated with Eastern Michigan University and the Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor area, IT HAS NO OFFICIAL AFFILIATION WITH EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY! If you want that, visit http://www.emich.edu

EMUTalk.org is NOT A SOURCE FOR OFFICIAL NEWS. While posters and commentators should not post information they know to be false, EMUTalk.org is different from a newspaper or other reliable news source because none of the information posted on EMUTalk.org is fact-checked or edited by the administrator or anyone else. Rather, EMUTalk.org is more like a bar, the classic office water cooler, a company break room, or a table in the student center where the conversation among participants often contains opinions, falsehoods, and rumors. Anyone seeking official news about EMU or nearly anything else ought to look elsewhere.

The opinions expressed on EMUTalk.org are entirely the responsibility of the various commentators and posters. The administrator will do everything within reason to ensure the content on EMUTalk.org is acceptable. Still, the administrator of this site accepts no liability for any comments, intellectual property, or the content of links included in any comment or post.

As section 230 of the 1996 Communication Decency Act outlines (as discussed at the Electronic Foundation Frontier web site), EMUTalk.org is primarily a service provider.

All posts and comments on EMUTalk.org are licensed by this license from Creative Commons. Anyone anywhere is allowed to share or remix any content published on EMUTalk.org as long as proper attribution is given. Writers who intend to profit handsomely from their words ought to not publish them here.

The administrator reserves the right to amend this policy without notice and without consultation.

If anyone has a problem with any of this, then the administrator would strongly encourage you to not post or comment, or to start a blog of your own. And if you do start another blog, please let the administrator know and, in all likelihood, the administrator will link to your blog.

Many will see these rules and guidelines as unfair, dictatorial, and inconsistent. So be it. Despite the use of the impersonal phrase “the administrator” over and over again, keep in mind that the administrator is a human being, often reads too quickly because of a very busy day-job, does this project as a hobby and out of the goodness of his heart, and, like so many others (Walt Whitman immediately comes to mind), the administrator is large and contradicts.

Code of Conduct

Be responsible and be civil.
EMUTalk.org is intended to be a civil discussion space where all participants are polite, courteous, and respectful. EMUTalk.org strives to post only high quality, acceptable content. Toward that end, the administrator can delete any content deemed unacceptable.

“Unacceptable content” includes but is not limited to content that:

• Is harassing, abusive, threatening, racist, homophobic, sexist, or otherwise just plain mean;
• Is libelous or knowingly false;
• Is potty-mouthed, obscene, and/or lewd;
• Infringes upon any copyright, trademark or trade secret of any third party. (If you quote or excerpt someone’s content, it is your responsibility to provide proper attribution to the original author. For a clear definition of proper attribution and fair use, please see The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Legal Guide for Bloggers.); and/or
• Violates the confidentiality or privacy of others.

Ultimately, the administrator defines and determines what counts as “unacceptable content.” The administrator makes these determinations on a case-by-case basis, and the definition of “unacceptable content” is not limited to this list.

Only the administrator may delete content, unacceptable or otherwise.
While posters technically have the power to delete or edit comments on posts they create, they should not do so without the explicit permission from the administrator.

Debate and disagree respectfully.
There is nothing wrong with vigorous debate and disagreement among participants. However, your right to swing your fist–electronically or otherwise– ends where someone else’s nose begins. Participants must be as responsible and civil here as they are in the real world, and participants need to remember that there are real people behind the words that appear on EMUTalk.org. So disagreements and debate are perfectly acceptable, but respect different points of view and be open to the idea that your opinion just might be wrong.

Violating this policy might cause the administrator to delete your material from EMUTalk.org.

When tensions escalate and/or get personal, think before posting and/or email privately.
When conflicts and tensions appear, all EMUTalk.org participants are first encouraged to think carefully before immediately posting or replying (e.g. “count to ten first”). If that doesn’t work, try emailing the party first before using EMUTalk.org as the forum for your argument.

If necessary, the administrator will moderate all comments and posts.
Generally, EMUTalk.org is an open forum where registered users can write posts and where acknowledged commentators can write comments (see the section “Ways to Participate in EMUTalk.org” below). However, when the administrator thinks it is best, the administrator will occasionally moderate all comments and posts made to EMUTalk.org.

Participate in a way that encourages others to participate.
The goal of conversation on EMUTalk.org is to be as inclusive as possible. Toward that end, all participants are encouraged to not dominate comments or posts in such a fashion that it discourages others from participating. Do not (as a professor the administrator once knew used to tell her too-talkative students) “take up too much space” by writing comment after comment with no opportunity for others to respond, by writing post after post, by drifting far from the topic, etc. Be conscious about your presence on EMUTalk.org, and if you are occupying too much space, either sit on your hands for a while or start a blog of your own.

Ways to Participate in EMUTalk.org

There are three levels of participation in EMUTalk.org (besides, obviously, simply reading EMUTalk.org):

• Administrator
• Poster
• Commentator

Administrator
As of August 2007, there is only one administrator of EMUTalk.org: aka “sitedad”, aka Steven D. Krause. The administrator maintains the software that powers EMUTalk.org, attends to various requests of posters, commentators, and readers, grants access to the site, occasionally moderates comments to the site, sometimes deletes or edits material posted on the site, and generally enforces the rules and code of conduct outlined in this document. There may someday be more than one administrator– a siteuncle or a siteaunt perhaps.

Poster
A poster is a person who has an account on EMUTalk.org and who can create new entries (aka, “posts”) on the site.

Becoming a Poster
Anyone interested in becoming a poster can request an account from the administrator by emailing, sitedad@emutalk.org. In this email, specify your reasons for wanting to become a poster, and provide a brief biography the administrator can publish on EMUTalk.org. Generally, anyone with an interest can become a poster at EMUTalk.org, though the administrator reserves the right to deny requests for any reason.

With the great power of being able to post comes great responsibilities. Besides the rules outlined above in the disclaimers and code of conduct, posters also need to follow these additional rules:

• Do not misuse the software to violate the privacy of others or by editing/deleting content. Posters should not reveal to anyone the email addresses or IP numbers of any commentator or poster on EMUTalk.org since this is private information that some participants do not want revealed. Posters should also not edit or delete comments on the posts they make, even if they think those comments contain unacceptable content. Only the administrator is allowed to edit or delete unacceptable content. Violating this rule could lead to the administrator canceling your posting privileges.
• To the extent possible, write your posts using the “code” option. This does require some basic HTML knowledge, but it works better than the “Visual” editing mode. If you do use the visual editing mode, be careful about getting too fancy with text formatting.
• For posts longer than about 250 words, do use the “more” command. The reason to do this is so that a long post does not push all other posts very far down the front page of the site. In the code editing mode, this is the button that says “more.” In the visual editing mode, this is the third icon from the right, between the insert image command and the spell check icon.
• Do select an appropriate category or categories for your post. Categories are the organizing methodology for EMUTalk.org and they help readers find past posts. Use your best judgment and common sense about categories to apply to your post, and it is okay to put posts into multiple categories. For example, you might put a post about a campus student rally covered by area media in the categories EMU Events, In the Local Media, and Student Life.
• Write well.

Commentator
A commentator is anyone who writes and posts a comment to one of the discussion threads on EMUTalk.org. Besides being aware of the above disclaimers and codes of conduct, commentators need to follow these rules (and do note that these rules are new as of September 2007):

• Commentators must have a previously approved comment. That is, before a commentator comment will be posted, the administrator has to approve the first comment that person makes. Once the administrator approves a first comment, the commentator’s comments will automatically be approved.
• Commentators can be anonymous or pseudo-anonymous, but they must post a valid email address. Any comment that does not include a valid email address is subject to automatic deletion by the administrator and/or the WordPress software. Of course, this email address can be with any email provider. Commentators should note that their email addresses do not appear on EMUTalk.org and will remain known only to the administrator and to posters. However…
• Commentators wanting to remain truly anonymous probably shouldn’t post comments at all.

Posting a comment on EMUTalk.org is very simple– simply click where at says “comment” at the end of a post. Commentators have up to 90 minutes to edit their comments.