This document is divided into two sections: rules, which must be followed and requests, which constitute common courtesies.
RULES:
1. Subscribing and unsubscribing.
A. For authorization to post on this list, a subscription request must be made to acb-l-subscribe@acb.org or, you may visit the acb-l list info page at https://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-l Approval may take up to three days to be processed.
B. To unsubscribe yourself from the list, you may send a message to acb-l-unsubscribe@acb.org
2. Posting
A. Messages must contain either the poster's name or a consistent unique identifier.
B. A post on this List can be either an original message, a reply to a previous post, or a properly attributed article from a secondary source.
C. Discretion must be used when forwarding material written by others. The identity of authorship must be shown. If what you are forwarding is from a publication, the name of the publication, the author of the article, and the date it was written should be included. When possible, the link to the article on the web should also be included.
D. Original or forwarded advertising, surveys, or questionnaires unrelated to blindness or ACB, are not permitted. The List Moderator may be consulted if clarification is needed about the appropriateness of material.
E. While blindness-related advertising is permitted, ACB-L is primarily a discussion list. A limited amount of blindness-related advertising is welcome as a source of information and for the purpose of promoting blind business owners who engage in the sale of blindness-related products and services. The IOC reserves the right to restrict repeated or excessive advertising. A good rule of thumb is to limit advertising to once per month. Please note that this rule does not apply to nonprofit organizations.
F. Remove extraneous headers.
G. Opinions of suspended List members must not be posted.
H. Posts must relate to ACB or blindness. Religious and political discussions and posts, devoid of any connection to blindness issues, may not be posted.
I. It is okay to post well wishes to the list during occasions such as holidays, however, such posts can quickly become excessive in number. Post privately if you wish to return good will to a specific individual.
J. Read receipt requests must not be sent to the List.
K. There is A posting limit of ten messages per day. The Internet Oversight Committee understands that a person might inadvertently post more than ten messages, but repeated violations of this rule, or a day in which a person grossly over-exceeds this limit will result in the moderator taking action.
3. Message replies
A. To send a reply only to the sender of a message, use the "Reply," "Reply to Sender," or other similar command--depending on the email program in use. If the message is intended for only one person, it must be sent off List with the "reply" command or equivalent.
B. If a reply should go to all List recipients, use a command such as "Reply to All."
4. Moderator responsibilities, and how they will effect list participants
A. Violation of any List Rule will result in either a warning, on or off List, or a suspension. The first suspension will last for one week. The second suspension will be for 30 days. The third suspension will last for one year. A fourth suspension would begin the cycle again. If a first or second suspension has been received, and 24 months passed without a further suspension, the suspension counter will be reset to zero.
B. A personal attack will be grounds for immediate action by the Moderator. The first attack will result in a warning or suspension at the discretion of the moderator. Subsequent personal attacks will result in an immediate ban as outlined in section 4 A.
C. Using mild profanity in moderation will not result in a suspension, but it is offensive to some List participants and there are children subscribed to the List.
D. Other uses of profanity, and the posting of sexually explicit material, will be grounds for immediate action by the Moderator.
E. Swearing at individuals or groups of individuals, either with swear words, or with language which can be reasonably construed to imply swear words, will be grounds for an immediate suspension.
F. Threads of discussion are under the sole control of the Moderator. If it is believed that a discussion is not relevant to this List or has outlived its useful life, the Moderator can call for an end to that discussion thread. List members will have 24 hours to comply with the request.
REQUESTS:
- Please remember that this is a public list which is subject to public scrutiny. We expect that all list members will exercise discretion when posting any information of a personal nature to this list.
- When replying to messages on List, do not include the previous post, unless it must be retained for context.
- Keep the subject line relevant to the message body, It is both considerate and helpful to change the subject line of a message to which you are replying if you suspect your reply may generate a new topic of conversation.
- Criticism, however strident, is permitted, but a spirit of civility is expected.
- While forwards of newspaper and magazine articles as well as other items of interest are welcome on the ACB-l list, please keep in mind the following guidelines:
A. Remove all extraneous headers which cause major clutter for users of screen readers and screen magnification software.B. All forwarded links should be accompanied by either an explanation or some or all of the text contained within.
C. Please explain the relevance of the forward to this list.
- The Internet Oversight Committee manages this List. We want it to be a place where people can share information and enjoy talking with each other. If you have questions or concerns, feel free to communicate with the List Moderator at acb-l-owner@acb.org
These rules have been designed and approved for the ACB-L list by the Internet Oversight Committee. The Board of Publications has adopted them and will use them as a frame of reference for all ACB lists. Affiliates may also wish to use these rules as a model for their lists. It is expected that those affiliates who choose to use these rules as a model for their lists will inform list members when actions such as moderation or suspensions are carried out. Moderators of other ACB lists may choose to amend these rules. This is perfectly acceptable so long as the source of the rules is properly attributed.
Internet Oversight Committee Members:
Bob Hachey, Chair, Massachusetts
Ann K. Parsons, New York
Abby Vincent, California
Kevin Minor, Kentucky
BOP Representative, Denise Colley, Washington
Officer Liaison, Kim Charlson, Massachusetts
Last Updated: September, 2013. _____________
Internet mailing list: internet@acb.org
https://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/internet
This web page was last updated March 10, 2014.