Conference rules for the EMERGCOM echo:                  rev. 25 Feb 13
 Posting Frequency: 1st of the month.
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 By posting in this echo you agree to abide by these posted rules. They
 are posted on the first day of every month for your convenience.

 We welcome you to the emergcom echo and hope you find this forum
 helpful in your public service radio endeavors. The purpose of the
 emergcom echo is to assist volunteer radio operators with discussion
 of techniques and equipment that can be of benefit to emergency and
 disaster communicators. Though its primary focus is on amateur radio
 emergency and disaster communications discussion of other radio
 services is permitted.

 We invite interested volunteer and professional communicators to
 participate in emergcom and ask you to take note of a few simple rules
 as follows:

 1. This is not a place to advertise buy/sell trade items or wants.
    Take it to the other echoes which are appropriate. Posters of
    pyramid schemes, advertising 900 numbers etc. will not be warned
    even once. Chain letters, get rich schemes etc. are not welcome
    here! You can immediately lose your access to this echo. NO
    discussion, no second warning. Multiline signatures are also
    unwelcome. High ascii is permitted so long as it is necessary to
    convey proper names of individuals, etc.

 2. English is the official language of this echomail conference. We
    understand that for many English is a second or third language
    however, and expect participants to show some tolerance and not
    parse posts by those individuals who don't natively speak the
    language for errors.

 3. Keep discussions friendly. Debate issues and don't attack
    personalities. Hopefully we're all here to improve our ability to be
    of service to the public during a communications emergency.

 4. Our primary focus is radio communications in emergency or disaster
    situations. We don't want a "ham vs. cb" or code vs. no code debate
    raging here. Such debates are not welcome. Though the echo moderator
    is a firm believer in the utility of continuous wave international
    morse for communicating when all other modes aren't as useful there
    is no desire to have the code vs. no code debates running here.
    Every mode and/or technique has its place. Discussion of techniques
    or radio services is not off topic so long as the focus is on
    providing emergency and/or disaster communications. Discussion of
    strengths and weaknesses of various modes will not be considered off
    topic so long as the discussion is friendly and sticks to facts and 
    carefully considered opinions.

 5. Echo participants who cannot follow these simple rules will be
    warned once via fidonet netmail. IF that fails he/she will be
    warned in the echo. This moderator prefers to handle such warnings
    via netmail however. IF a public warning is warranted because
    netmail doesn't work then I'll post to the offending thread and ask
    that it be taken elsewhere or remain topical. To keep moderation out
    of the public echo, the moderator asks that a poster warned via
    netmail respond to the message indicating that it was received.

    Upon a second occurrence the operator of the system where you read
    this echo will be asked to curtail your access. IF the offending
    party is a sysop his/her feed will be contacted. sysops hosting
    posters who warrant moderator attention will be contacted via
    fidonet netmail and advised. If a sysop does not offer users netmail
    access we ask that he/she notify the offending users of our
    communication. Upon a second offense the moderator will see to
    getting the user's access cut. we want you to continue to
    participate, and we would really rather not be in the business of
    policing fidonet traffic. Please note that most moderator postings
    to the echo will be clearly identified. Otherwise the moderator
    will participate in the echo using his real name.

 6. NO gating of this echo outside fidonet without express moderator
    approval.

 7. Important for sysops: Check your configuration. Posts from you or
    your users should show a valid FIdonet address in the header or
    origin line. Both would be nice, but one place is mandatory! Any
    poster who has access should be able to automatically reply via
    netmail to a post in the echo. This helps keep off topic chatter off
    echoes, as well as enables the moderators to deal with undesirable
    conditions in the echo. This one isn't negotiable, no gray areas.

 8. Your moderator has a zero tolerance policy for spam. Anyone
    providing a gate or other automated posting facility from an
    internet listserv or usenet forum should endeavor to block all
    postings which are not relevant to the stated purpose of the echo.
    IF this cannot be done reliably the system operator providing such a
    gateway will be warned once. Upon a second occurrence the moderator
    will endeavor to institute a feed cut. Anyone wishing to provide
    such a gateway should first contact the moderator before instituting
    such a gateway. Your moderator suggests you monitor such a listserv
    or forum for a sufficient period of time to assure yourself that
    there will be no need for moderator action resulting from such a
    gateway.

 9. The moderator will appoint additional moderators as he sees the need
    and subject to their willingness to serve in that capacity. Leave
    moderating to the moderator and duly appointed co-moderators. Take
    rules debates and discussions to netmail or email, not in the echo.

 The echo tag emergcom is copyright 2007 by Richard Webb.

 Please address comments or questions to the moderator at 1:3634/12.

 Richard Webb : moderator emeritus
 Mark Lewis   : moderator


 * Origin: (1:3634/12)