The World of Computer Software/World_Of_Computer_Software-02-386-Vol-2of3.iso/b/basnet6.zip/RULES.BLT

Text File | 1992-12-15 | 6KB | 119 lines

This document is for the callers who elect to be part of this network:

First off, welcome!  Glad you are here.

Second off, a bit of the nets philosophy.  There are many networks around
that have a hierarchy that determines how all good, little users should
act.  That all well and good for the Law and Order crowd, but does tend
to stifle the creative side.   This network will run with a limited set
of formal rules.  And, while those rules may be revised or even expanded
from time to time; the driving force in such change will be the users.

As a sysop and NetHub, I have one vote.  As a user you have one vote.
The same goes for your local sysop.  Each of us has a single option;
to participate or not participate.  On our local system we can tell
a user just how he must act.  In these echos, we still have that right
with our own callers.  On the network, we have no such rights.  However,
we are sworn to support the conference hosts and hubs request to remove
a disruptive users access.  That's about it for sysop control.

So, how does the network function?  In a democratic manner or more
accurately as a confederation of folks interested in a single topic
   The BASIC language.

Each conference could be considered a state.  The conference host will
be it's "Governor" and be elected by the constituents on an annual
basis.  Voting will occur within the conference and "poll watchers" from
within the conference shell tabulate the votes and report the results.

The Hubs could be considered a "treed" Senate.    The Hub is responsible
for the nodes he's supporting.  Hubs can much better track the traffic
and support from his nodes than can network officers.  And, seeing that
the nodes reflect on him, as a hub, he should be the interested party to
resolve the more local problems.

The Regional Hubs provide the same responsibility for their member hubs
and echoing bbs's.  They aren't going to be quite as locally oriented
or have the knowledge to be.  They will communicate with their hubs
via a conference local to their hub so that they can work out any
problems that occur in their area with the hubs from that area.

The Network Hub will be the collecting point for network decisions and
that will be a "local" conference that the Regional's will have access
to and who may or may not provide access to a "lower" hub who wishes to
address a problem.

All that "background" stuff should be available to any users who wishes
to see how a decision was reached and will be available as a viewable
conference on the Regional or Net hubs that they may call and access
upon request.

If the members of a conference wish to remove the host, they must petition
the regional group for that privilege.  If granted, an interim vote takes
place for the remaining term of the Host.   All conference hosting is on
a calendar basis.

So, what it all boils down to is the network is run by the network.  There
are no lofty titles and no chances for petty dictators, pocket vetoes,
or decision that don't reflect the net's real feelings.
The network trys to avoid lots of rules.  It will appreciate your
following this guideline in entering messages into the network:

AVOID OVERQUOTING
  Quoting should be a memory jogger.  It should not be long.  It should
  not contain all of the message you are replying to.  Each messages
  references the message it is replying to.  If the recipient needs to
  refresh his memory further, he can read the message again.  Sysop
  spend $$$ for the long-distance calls to provide this network to you.
  Overquoting becomes costly-redundancy for them

FANCY SIGNATURES and EXTRANEOUS HUMOR
  Your signature is always part of the message header.  Placing it in
  the body of your messages can also add to the networks costs.  Cute
  little saying and humor can be left in the off-topic conference.
  Limit these goodies to your tag line in all other conferences.

ANSI MESSAGES -- AT MACROS
  Do not include ANSI codes or BBS macros in your messages.  Many
  bbs can and do filter them out.  The result is your pretty message
  becomes a garbled mess.  Macros that change colors etc. on certain
  bbs's are also prohibited.

  The network is based on text and content.  ANSI detracts.  A conference
  may change this rule if a sufficient reason exists--such as a screen
  design conference.

ALSO
  Try to change your SUBJECT: when you are changing the topic.
  Maintain common courtesy.
  Enjoy!

NO PERSONAL ATTACK
  You can "dis" "slam" or whatever someone's code, philosophy of programming
  etc.  You cannot denigrate or attack any person.  Think of that Pencil-
  Necked Geek as being a body building black belt who lives next door and
  give him that same respect.  Don't hide behind the electrons of the
  communication medium.  Remember, it takes pretty small individual to
  succeed in hiding behind an electron. :)

  There's only one response to make when/if you fail and are called down--
  an immediate, complete apology.

So, that the flavor of BASNET.  I hope you profit from the echos and that
others profit and enjoy your participation.  And, if you're only a lurker
its the nets loss.  There are conference for all skill levels so you CAN
contribute.

Take a look at CONFEREN.TXT for the currently available conferences.

All BASNet messages are copyrighted with a publisher's copyright.
    Copyright 1992 by BASNet -- All right reserved
Any organization that is not for profit is granted a limited license to
quote from these messages.  No message may be sold by the network or
by licensed or unlicensed entities without the expressed written consent
of the copyright holder and the original author of the message.  The purpose
of this copyright is to prevent use for profit of the message content of the
network and it's member.  No message on this network can be considered a
release to the public domain.