Board Rules - January 2008

[will from chicago]

(I am going to cut and pasted this from the previous version of the boards. Please note that the links refer to threads on the old boards for right now, but I will try to have them directed to the appropriate ones here. )

[will from chicago]

If you have any questions on using this forum or your membership please refer to the User's Handbook & Help Desk and the board's FAQ page.

THE NEWLY MODIFIED UNN MESSAGEBOARD RULES

Mission Statement:

The Unfiltered News Network, its programs and messageboard, is dedicated to the proposition that all human beings,
regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin have the right to respect.

We believe that a democracy is the best form of government.

We subscribe to progressive values, believing that it is possible to preserve
the rights of the individual while providing for the general welfare of society.

We believe that it is important for nations to be just, as well as powerful.

As such, we believe that people should discuss the issues of the day and be
active in their societies at a local, national, and global level.

We are dedicated to sharing ideas and learning from one another.

We believe that dialogue is essential to any democratic process.

We believe that no one member of this messageboard is more important than the community as a whole.
We consider ourselves all as equal members of this community.

As such, we try to run UNN as a democratic and progressive endeavour, trying to model
the types of discussions and behaviors that we would like to see in the larger world.

These rules were revised by a panel of member volunteers; namely:

kml - moderator;
kath - moderator;
Huntress54 - moderator;
Rothbardian - moderator;
Mighty - moderator;
Forrest - moderator

The Rules Panel met from November 11th, until it concluded the panel on November 23rd, 2006
The cumulative hours the panel met was 40+ hours of meetings and discussions.

Role of Moderators -

The role of moderators is to keep the forums tidy and make posts global announcements, at the request of the OP.
The mods are allowed to fix long links in a post but are not allowed to edit the subject content of any post ever.
Mods can also fix pics that are too large, in order to maintain the flow of the board.
The mod should notify the OP that a link or pic was fixed.
Moderators will also have the task of moving offending posts to Aisle 4 (in the instance of a troll sidetracking discussion).

Role of Administrators

1) In the case where a member participates in criminal behavior as defined by a court of law which places any other member or the board at risk of legal exposure, the admins may take unilateral action to protect the board.

This action can include instituting a permanent ban upon the offending member.

Such action does not need to require actual indictment and conviction of the alleged perpetrator in a court of law. The spirit of this rule is to allow admins to protect the board as they feel necessary.

After such action is taken, the case must be presented to the board in SCOTUNN or some other forum to explain why such action was necessary, in keeping with the spirit of UNN's Sunshine policy. Names may be changed to protect the anonymity of the complainant.

2) Duties of Admins
Admins have all of the powers and responsibilities of moderators along with the following.

Admins take care of maintain the overall structure and integrity of the software and database of the board. This includes installing modifications to enhance user experience or overall functionality and performing regular database backups, as well as resolving issues with bugs or board performance problems.

Admins also carry out any corrective actions needed against members in accordance with current UNN rules. No admin may take unilateral action against a board member outside of the rules agreed upon here by the membership.

Clarifications Concerning Avowed Conservative Posters:

A. We reserve the right to ban conservative trouble makers who are opposed to the broad goals of this website.

If you are in the 33% who voted Republican in this last election, in our opinion, you need help.

You are welcome to post on this messageboard, but do not expect to be treated with open arms!

Be prepared to defend yourself!
(We do not sell flame retardant suits, so bring your own.)

B. We distinguish between normal conservatives and whacko conservatives.

We reserve the right to define "normal" and "whacko".

Trolls
Trolls are defined as a person who posts outrageous messages to bait others and purposefully provokes people into a flame war.
The sole intent of a troll is to sow discord, facts do not matter to a trolls and will not sway them one way or another. They post just to be confrontational and any subject is fair game.

Dealing with Trolls-
Members are free to engage trolls in any manner they see fit, this includes making jokes, posting recipes, trying to have
a conversation with one or not engaging at all. *If a troll shows up in the middle of a member's thread, please try to be respectful of the member who started the thread. *Alert a mod to the troll behavior and, with the consent of another mod, the offending posts will be moved to Aisle 4 where responding will not deter legitimate discussion.

Warning to trolls and would be trolls-
The rules of this message board do NOT apply to you.
You will be allowed here only as long as the members choose to let you. If you have come here with the intent to troll, you will be played with until we get bored with you, then will be shown the door.


C. The rules and guidelines shall take effect upon their ratification by the board.
There will be no "ex post facto"� rules or guidelines, as these guidelines and rules should not take effect retroactively.
(This is a basic principle of U.S. law.)

General Rules:


I. No Stalking or Harrassing Members!

A. Do not stalk members on the messageboard.
UNN's definition of stalking is following a member from topic to topic to pick a fight or continue one.
Do not "stalk" another member from one discussion thread to another.
Do not follow someone into another thread to try to continue a disagreement you had elsewhere.
Do not talk negatively about an individual in a thread where they are not participating.
Do not post messages with the purpose of "calling out" another member or picking a fight with another member.


B. No Name Calling.

You may not call people names or attack them. Attack the message not the messenger!
Do not post personal attacks or engage in name-calling against other individual members of this discussion board.
Personal attacks are defined as any negative comment directed at a member themself, as opposed to the idea or
argument they are putting up for discussion. Even very mild personal attacks are forbidden.
Do not hurl insults at other individual members of this message board.
Do not tell someone, "shut up," "screw you," "fuck off," "in your face," or some other insult.
Do not call another member of this message board a liar, and do not call another member's post a lie.
You are, of course, permitted to point out when a post is untrue or factually incorrect.

C. Treat other members the way that you would like to be treated!

If you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all.
Members who repeatedly and willfully break the rules, or who generally engage in rude, anti-social behavior,
will be banned. It doesn't matter if you are a fellow progressive or a long-term member of this community.

D. Please use the ignore feature if and when it is needed.

E. Stay on topic.
Do not jump into an unrelated discussion and introduce a barely-relevant topic.
Do not take the opening poster's topic and change it into something unrelated.

II Posting of Private Communications is not allowed on UNN.

A. The message boards and public chat rooms of UNN are considered public areas,
from which members can freely post or copy posts or other forms of communications.

Sharing, either on the board or in private communications with any member of:
private messages,
personal instant messages,
personal-emails
and the logging/recording/posting of private chats,
is not allowed on the Unfiltered News Network without the knowledge and written consent
of all participants, in the communication

B. Do not post personal information about another member, even if that information is publicly available.

Do not "dig up" information about another member.

You may post the public contact information for public figures, but you may not post
anyone's private information or private messages without their informed and written permission.


III No 'piling on' and flame baiting

A. If a fight starts, no "piling on"!
"Piling on" is when everyone starts attacking the offender. It degrades the topic and starts a flame war.

Post a warning logo, by quoting the offensive post, and posting the warning instead!

Please PM another member if you feel you need to gain support for a warning and/or
an Admin. or Moderator to have the offending post moved to Aisle 4.

B. Flame bait is defined as any post intended to start a fight with another member.
The use of broad brush generalizations relating to race, gender, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, religion are examples.

Please exercise the appropriate level of sensitivity toward others and take extra care
to clearly express your point of view, without attacking the member.

While specific words are not forbidden, members should avoid using
racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted terminology.

This does NOT apply to public figures.

IV Images, videos and links

A. If an image is not safe for the workplace, please state that in the subtitle and just provide a link to it in the post,
with a brief description of the content of the picture or video.

Do not post graphic images of violence, gore, pain, or human suffering.

If you are linking to a video, post a dial-up warning, so that members with dial up are alerted.

B. No member of the Unfiltered News Network may post a link that leads to any
deceptive or malicious content that is intended to compromise the integrity of computers using that link.

Examples include, but are not limited to:
Trojans,
viruses,
bots,
spyware,
malicious program code,
phishing,
money scams,
offshore phone billing and
hoaxes.

V We are not doctors or lawyers

A. Do not post messages asking for medical advice.
If you are in need of medical attention or think you might be, call a doctor!

B. You can ask questions discussing personal legal problems
but please, seek a local lawyer's expertise, for concrete legal advice.

VI Member Responsibilities

It's the responsibility of individual members to make sure they are understood.
If you are unsure that your post/opinion will be easily understood,
then it is advisable that you use the appropriate tools (i.e. quote feature, emoticons, etc.).

VII Threats and Harrassment are not allowed on UNN

No member of the UNN board may threaten or harrass another member,
either sexually, financially or physically or in any way, to cause personal harm
to another member.

VIII Progressive Punishment System or PPS

This system applies to all members of UNN, including adminstrators and moderators,
with the added restriction that if an adminstrator or moderator reachs Warning Level Three,
their adminstrative or moderating privileges will be revoked.

Each warning level is reached by the agreement of five members.

1a. Post a warning as follows:

Call on a total of five members to support a call for disciplinary action based on violation of the rules. Please cite specific evidence and the rules violated.

1b. After the warning is issued, four additional agreements/votes to the warning are needed.

These suspensions will have a 30-day probationary period, except level 5.
A level five offender may file an appeal with SCOTUNN.

If a member gets a warning, at any level, they will be placed in the appropriate usergroup
and will be notified via PM by an administrator.

The new usergroup status will be visible to ALL members on the board.

A. 1st Warning = Official Notice! Consider yourself warned!

Your offending posts gets moved to Aisle 4 and you are automatically on a 30-day probation, with the option
to convene a mini-CRB (phonecall, chatroom, Yahoo Instant Messenger, etc) within 24 hours of the offense.

If a poster chooses to offend more than once (as certified by five other posters) within a thirty day period, he/she should not be
afforded the opportunity to continue to be regarded as a "Level 1" offender simply because he/she is able to talk him/herself out of trouble at a series of CRB's.

If no mini-CRB is convened, then the 30 day probation stands.

B. 2nd Warning = 24 hour suspension is non-negotiable!

C. 3rd Warning = 3 day suspension

D. 4th Warning = 1 week suspension

E. 5th and last Warning = Permanent Ban

Any member at any warning level, who violates probation, will automatically be
placed in the next warning level.
In other words, you must be on your best behavior!

IX Conclusion

The Rules Panel discussed and looked at many different board rules;
including the UNN board rules and after many meetings and discussions
did their best to arrive at the above rules.
It is our hope that we've covered all the possible issues and problems
that can happen on messageboards but we realize that there is the
possibility that we may have overlooked something.
We wish for all the members that UNN messageboard will be a safe,
inviting and friendly place to participate in political discussions.
The bottom line is to remember to treat others the way that you would like to be treated.
It is our collective hope that these rules will help all members to be civil.

The following is the approved amendment to the Progressive Punishment System:

If a poster chooses to offend more than once (as certified by five other posters) within a thirty day period, he/she should not be afforded the opportunity to continue to be regarded as a "Level 1" offender simply because he/she is able to talk him/herself out of trouble at a series of CRB's.

This amendment eliminates the following language from the original proposal:

If a resolution is agreed to between the attacker and the attackee,
then the warning and the probation will be dissolved.

The person who was attacked must verify, on the board, that the situation was resolved.

Voting results can be found

here and here.

An additional amendment passed December 17, 2006 by a 15-0 vote. The link to the amendment is at http://unfilterednewsnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=11822&start=0.

As it has been stated there is no protection for harassment and/or threats via PMs.

My proposal is that threatening and/or harassing emails ONLY are allowed to be shared with ADMINS only. Not moderators. It is then up to the Admin team to recommend suspension and/or banning per rules.

Both parties or additional parties (non admin) that are involved in said PM harassment and/or threats must agree to post said PMs in public. Otherwise the ruling of the Administration staff to suspension and/or banning will be in a sealed judgment.

This replaces the following language in the rules:

II Posting of Private Communications is not allowed on UNN.

A. The message boards and public chat rooms of UNN are considered public areas,
from which members can freely post or copy posts or other forms of communications.

Sharing, either on the board or in private communications with any member of:
private messages,
personal instant messages,
personal-emails
and the logging/recording/posting of private chats,
is not allowed on the Unfiltered News Network without the knowledge and written consent
of all participants, in the communication

On July 23, 2007, UNN members voted 20-3
to adopt the following policy.

POLL: Should it take 10 votes of yes to shitlist a member?

Our current system is that it takes 5 yea votes to put someone on the shitlist for any amount of time. In the discussion to end the troll designation, I mentioned I thought it should be higher, 10 votes of yea.

By a 20-3 vote on June 10, 2008, members approved the following rule in the VOTE NOW - Fair Use/Copyright Infringement thread:

Fair Use Compliance/Copyright Infringement

In order to reduce UNN's liability for copyright infringement, we ask members to limit "copy and pasted" articles from other websites to around 4 paragraphs in length, with a link back to the original article/website. Members should post enough of the article (think of it as a "teaser") so that other members can decide whether or not to follow the link to the original in order to read the whole thing.

Exceptions to the above:

1. You have received explicit approval from the article's author to post the entire article to this website.

2. Websites with Fair Use clauses posted on the front of their site allow for other sites to quote from their site verbatim.

3. You have received something via e-mail that doesn't have a track-back link (examples would be something from MoveOn.org calling for activism, etc.)

4. It is necessary to post a lot more than 4-5 paragraphs to make your point. If this is a necessity, please point out in your post why it's necessary. In no event should the entire article be posted unless items 1 and 2 above are applicable.

5. If an article comes from a site which requires registration, the rules stated herein still apply. Please state in your post that your article requires login or registration (paid or unpaid).


Violating this rule could subject your post to being edited by a moderator or administrator to limit UNN's liability.

[will from chicago]

By a 14-2 vote, as detailed at Poll on Revised Policy & Procedures for SCOTUNN proposal on January 25, 2007. This replaces the preexisting SCOTUNN Rules.

Revised Policy & Procedures for SCOTUNN

Table of Contents

I.........Definition:
II........Purpose:
III.......Who are the officers of SCOTUNN?
IV........How are Officers of SCOTUNN elected?
V.........Who decides who gets to be on the ballot?
VI........What cases will SCOTUNN hear?
VII.......How does an individual go about making an appeal?
VIII......What happens once a complaint is filed and posted?
IX........What happens at a Hearing?
X.........What are the Responsibilities of SCOTUNN Judges?
XI........What are the Responsibilities of SCOTUNN Clerks?

I. Definition:

SCOTUNN - Supreme Court of the Unfiltered News Network

II. Purpose:

To ensure that the enforcement of the rules of the Board, which, under the new rules adopted 12/9/06 is primarily carried out a.) by the administrators, when they take action to protect the Board , (See Rules, "Role of Administrators," section 1) or b.) by the members at large, (See Rules, Section VIII Progressive Punishment System or PPS) when a significant minority of members acts to "warn" an offending member, is being implemented fairly, equitably , and in compliance with the democratic principles in the service of which, this Board was founded.

III. Who are the officers of SCOTUNN?

The officers of SCOTUNN shall include three Clerks and at least six Judges, all nominated and elected from the active membership of the UNN Board.

In order to provide for future growth in Board membership and a consequent increase in the workload of SCOTUNN, one of the responsibilities of the Clerk(s) of SCOTUNN shall be to review the active membership of the Board two months before each scheduled election to determine whether the total number of Judges in the Judicial Pool equals at least 5% of the average number of members then posting to the Board on a daily basis.

If the Clerk(s) finds that the number of Judges is equal to less than 5% of the average number of members posting to the Board on a daily basis in the month prior to the month in which nominations are scheduled, then it will be the responsibility of the Clerk(s) to post a poll asking the Board to determine if it wishes to increase the number of Judges in the Judicial Pool.

If the membership affirms the need for more Judges, then the next nominating cycle will provide for the election of one more judge at the next election. (This process will be repeated at each subsequent election until the number of Judges in the Judicial Pool is equal to, but not greater than, 5% of the average number of members posting to the Board on a daily basis.

IV. How are Officers of SCOTUNN elected?

Regular elections for Officers of SCOTUNN shall be held every six months on February 15th and on August 15th of each year, beginning with an election on February 15th of 2007.

In February of 2007 the Board will be responsible for selecting 3 individuals from its membership to serve in the Office of Clerk and 6 individuals from its membership to serve in the Office of Judge.

In February of 2007 only one Clerk will be elected for an 18-month term, one for a 12-month term and one for a 6-month term.

Three Judges will be elected for a 12-month term and three for a 6-month term.

In subsequent elections, the Board will responsible for electing only one Clerk and three Judges plus one additional Judge for every increase in the judicial pool authorized by future polls conducted under the 5% rule.

The elections will be conducted by poll in threads, one for each candidate, created for the purpose by the Clerk(s) in the SCOTUNN forum. (Members whose privileges may have been temporarily suspended at the time of any election may vote in the election by requesting an e-mail ballot from the Clerk. The Clerk is responsible for honoring all such requests within twenty-four hours of their receipt and for posting the completed ballot (numbered, but without any information that would reveal the identity of the voter to the Board) to a thread devoted exclusively to such ballots in the SCOTUNN. The Clerk is responsible for ensuring that any temporarily banned member who wishes to do so has the opportunity to vote in the election, that his/her ballot is posted to the appropriate thread and that his/her votes are counted and added to the tally in the posted polls before the results of any election are announced.)

Why are Clerks and Judges in the February, 2007 election to be elected for unequal terms of office? Why isn't there just one term of office for Clerks and one for Judges?

In February, 2007, the Board will need to elect enough Officers to fill every position in the newly-revised SCOTUNN design. In subsequent elections, the Board will need to elect only enough Officers to fill the slots created by the expiration of terms. The variation of terms in the first election allows for the election of only one Clerk and three Judges (plus any added under the 5% rule) at each subsequent election. The overlap in terms of service of Clerks and Judges, in turn, enables the Board to maintain some people with experience in the duties of the office in office at all times.

Normally, Clerks will be elected to 18-month terms and Judges to 12-month Terms. In the event that someone resigns or is removed from office prior to the expiration of his/her term, the Board will need to elect someone to replace that individual for the remainder of his/her term at the next regularly-scheduled election subsequent to the resignation/removal from office to serve out the remaining portion of the unexpired term.

V. Who decides who gets to be on the ballot?

At least two weeks prior to a scheduled election, threads will be opened by the Clerk and or his/her designee, to invite nominations for the offices that need to be filled. Any member of the Board may nominate a candidate for any of the available offices under the following conditions:

1. No Candidate may nominate him/herself.

2. All Candidates for Clerk or Judge must have been active members of the UNN Board for at least three months prior to their nomination.

3. All Candidates for Clerk or Judge must certify on the nomination thread(s) that they understand the responsibilities of the office for which they have been nominated and that they are willing to serve, if elected.

4. No Candidate for Judge may be actively involved in a dispute involving sanctions under Section VIII of the UNN Rules. (In other words, if you're being disciplined or you're involved in disciplining someone else during the period when the Board is open for nominations, you can't run for the office of Judge.)

Since the office of Clerk is strictly administrative, Candidates for that office are not bound by this rule, unless it is clear to the potential Candidate or to the general membership of the Board that the nature of the potential Candidate's involvement in conflict is such that it would interfere with his/her ability to meet the obligations of his/her office in the event of his/her election.

5. No Candidate who is currently serving as an Administrator is eligible to present him/herself as a Candidate for Judge.

6. No Officer who has completed two full terms in office (2 years for a Judge; 3 years for a clerk) may present him/herself for reelection to that same office in the election subsequent to the end of his/her second full term. (In other words, you can serve two full terms plus a partial term in the same office, but then you have to step down for six months.)

7. No Candidate may seek more than one office in the same election.*

The names of all candidates for office who meet the seven "tests" listed above will appear on Ballot threads for consideration for the office in which they have agreed to serve.

*A quasi-exception to rule 5 will occur in February, 2007, the first election under the revised rules. We will be needing three Clerks and six Judges - that's a lot of people. But, if we get more than three qualified nominees (under the first six tests) for Clerk and/or more than six qualified nominees (under the first six tests) for Judge then the three candidates for the office of Clerk and the six candidates for Judge with the highest numbers of affirmative votes in the general election will be declared elected.

The Clerk candidate with the highest number of votes will receive a 6-month term and will stand for election again in August, 2007. The Clerk candidate with the second highest number of votes will receive a 12-month term and will stand for election again in February, 2008. The Clerk candidate with the third highest number of votes will receive an 18-month term and will stand for election again in July, 2008.

The three Judge candidates who are ranked highest in terms of numbers of votes will receive 6-month terms and will stand for election again in August, 2007. The three Judge candidates who are ranked 4th, 5th, and 6th in terms of votes will receive terms of 12 months and will stand for election again in February, 2008.

Each voter will have the opportunity to vote "yes" or "no" on each of the candidates. There are some technical limitations to our polls. Therefore, details about how the ballots will look and how they will be counted for ranking purposes will need to be determined and announced to the Board before the first election.

VI. What cases will SCOTUNN hear?

SCOTUNN will only hear those cases which come to it after all the other resources of the Board have been fully implemented in the service of justice.

1. Any member who has been banned or suspended for any reason for more than 24 hours may appeal to SCOTUNN for redress, if he or she feels that an injustice has been done.

2. Any member who wishes to challenge the actions of an administrator in relationship to actions taken in regard to his/her posts or privileges may appeal to SCOTUNN.

A violated CRB agreement will not be referred directly to SCOTUNN, but will subject the offender to appropriate disciplinary action under Section VIII of the Rules.

VII. How does an individual go about making an appeal?

An individual, who feels he/she has been wronged, may appeal to SCOTUNN by sending an E-mail to the Clerk of SCOTUNN containing a summary of his/her complaint, an e-mail address at which he/she wishes to receive information and or notification regarding the progress of his/her case, and a declaration as to whether or not he/she wishes any evidence he/she may submit to be made public to the Clerk at an address (yet to be determined) accessible to the public at large and posted on the front page of the website. (This provision is to ensure that banned members retain access to SCOTUNN.)

For purposes of transparency, the Clerk will be responsible for posting the contents of each e-mail complaint he/she receives to a thread labeled with the name of the complainant in the SCOTUNN Section of the Board within 24 hours of the receipt of the complaint. (Complaint threads will be for information purposes only and will normally not be open for comment.)

However, if a member is aware that a banned member has sought to file a complaint and the substance of the complaint does not appear in an appropriate thread within 48 hours of the filing, any poster with such knowledge, may file the complaint in behalf of the banned member. (Complaint threads which are created in this manner will be treated in the same manner as Complaint threads filed by the Clerk.)

VIII. What happens once a complaint is filed and posted?

A. If a complaint is received from any member who has been permanently banned by anyone for any reason, SCOTUNN is required to convene within 72 hours of the posting of the complaint. The Complainant will be responsible for preparing his/her evidence and submitting it in writing to the Clerk of SCOTUNN within the same 72 hours. If a Complainant wishes his/her evidence to be made a matter of public record, he/she must announce that purpose in his/her original complaint.

When a Complainant has requested that his/her evidence be made public, the Clerk will post that evidence without omission, amendment or comment to the thread bearing the Complainant's name within 24 hours of having received it.

Within 80 hours of the posting of the original complaint, the Clerk will post a date, time, and place for a formal hearing, together with the names of the Judges (no less than 3) who have agreed to participate in that hearing, to the thread bearing the Complainant's name. The Clerk will e-mail the same information to the Complainant at an address of his/her choosing.

If a Complainant wishes to challenge the potential objectivity of any single judge on the panel, he/she may do so. In that case, the Complainant may recommend an alternate Judge from the judicial pool. However, if that Judge is not available, the Court will be at liberty to appoint anyone else from the jury pool who is available.

If the Complainant wishes to be present or wishes to have a representative present at the hearing, but is unable to attend or have the desired representative attend at the time specified by the Court, he/she may suggest an postponement. If a Complainant desires a postponement, he/she must specify at least three, three-hour periods within the ten days subsequent to the date originally specified by the Court at which times he/she or the specified representative can be available.

If the Complainant fails to provide the Court with such options, the Court is at liberty to meet and decide the case at the time and date and in the place originally specified. If the Complainant does provide the specified options, the Court will make every effort to schedule the hearing in one of the time slots suggested by the Complainant.

If, for any reason, the Court is unable to convene with at least three unchallenged judges present in one of the time periods suggested by the Complainant, the Clerk is responsible for using e-mail to negotiate a suitable date and time for the hearing when at least three unchallenged judges, the Clerk, and the Complainant or his/her representative, can be present. When a final date, time, and place for the hearing has been established, that information shall be posted together with a statement from the Complainant agreeing to that date, time and place by the Clerk to the thread bearing the Complainant's name.

If no date and time can be agreed upon between the Court and the Complainant within 15 days of the posting of the original complaint, then the Complainant will be considered to have withdrawn his/her complaint and any threads in the SCOTUNN area related to that complaint will be removed. The Complainant may, however, refile his/her case at a later time when he/she can be more available to participate in a hearing if he/she chooses. In that case, he/she would need to repeat the process described above.

B. If a complaint is received from a member who retains full access to the Board, he/she may post his/her own complaint directly to the SCOTUNN thread. He/she may also may also post his/her own evidence to that same thread. Note: Only the Complainant and the Clerk will be permitted to post on complaint and/or evidence threads. Discussion of the complaint and/or the evidence by other members is PROHIBITED within these threads (such posts will be deleted) and is to be strongly discouraged outside these threads, for reasons with which we have already accumulated far too much experience. (If it's not your fight, stay out of it unless the Complainant wishes to have you testify at the hearing on his/her behalf. And in that case, please work out your agreement with him/her to support his/her cause by pm or e-mail.)

Apart from the differences that result from the fact that a Complainant who retains access to the Board is able to post his/her complaint and his/her evidence directly to the board in his/her own behalf, rather than being dependent upon the Clerk or someone else with Board privileges to do it for him/her, the procedures and the requirements related to the handling of a complaint filed by an active member of the Board shall be identical with those outlined in Section A above for handling the complaint of a banned member.

IX. What Happens at a SCOTUNN Hearing?

The Court will review whatever evidence the Complainant wishes to present. That evidence will include any written material presented to the Court in the evidence thread plus whatever testimony the Complainant him/herself may wish to offer at the time of the hearing, plus whatever evidence the Complainant may wish to present through the calling of witnesses.

Since the new rules have effectively transformed SCOTUNN from a trial court to an appeals court, there should be little need for the Court to hear evidence from a defendant, (the defendant in all cases being the Board itself through the Administrators and those groups of posters who have acted to penalize the Complainant in some way by depriving him/her of some portion - or all - of his/her posting privileges.) The Court's job in these cases will be to determine whether or not the action or actions taken against the Complainant were justified and whether or not the people who acted to impose those penalties upon the Complainant acted within the rules of the Board. (Did they or did they not exceed the authority to act entrusted to them under those Rules?)

If the Court finds in favor of the Complainant then it can:

1. Lift the ban, if a ban has been imposed.
2. Publicly apologize to the complainant on behalf of the Board for whatever injustice has been done to him or her.
3. Take whatever other steps may be necessary to ensure that neither this complainant nor another poster will be subjected to a similar injustice in the future. For example,

a). By issuing a clarifying interpretation of the rule or rules it has determined to have been misinterpreted or misapplied.

b.) By issuing a warning at an appropriate level to any administrator or group of posters whom it finds to have violated the clear intention of the Rules in applying them.

c.) By calling for a second SCOTUNN to be established to consider punitive penalties against any Administrator or group of posters who appear to have willfully violated the Rules of the Board or prejudicially imposed sanctions on this particular defendant.

In the event that the Court decides to call for an Administrative Hearing, SCOTUNN itself will be responsible for filing the complaint and presenting
the evidence for any such "second"� SCOTUNN. Nevertheless, such a complaint is to be handled like any other complaint except:

1. Anyone who has been a party to the first SCOTUNN must recuse him/herself from acting in any capacity in the second SCOTUNN except that of prosecutor or potential witness.

2. In the context of a second SCOTUNN, since it is a proceeding which seeks to determine whether an Administrator or a group of five posters, acting in behalf of the Board, have been guilty of wrongdoing and, if they are found to be guilty of wrongdoing, what the penalty should be for the offense of which they are found guilty, the Accused, that is, the Administrator or the group of posters involved in the sanction of the Complainant shall enjoy

a.)The right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (which can only be determined after the second SCOTUNN hearing.)

b.) The right to present evidence and the testimony of witnesses in their own defense at the second SCOTUNN hearing.

This special type of SCOTUNN hearing will be governed in its conduct by
the rules established in Section 2e. "Hearing Conduct, Transcripts and Procedures:"� from the SCOTUNN document dated 30Jan06.

X. What are the Responsibilities of SCOTUNN Judges?

1. Within twenty-four hours of the filing of a complaint addressed to the Court in the SCOTUNN Forum, all six incumbent Judges, or as many of that number as may be available, shall meet in chat or elsewhere at their discretion to do two things:

a. Choose three members of their number who are eligible, by virtue of their lack of involvement in the substance of the current complaint, to serve as a Judicial Panel for the review of that particular complaint.

b. Specify a date, time, and location for convening a hearing to be offered to the Complainant for the hearing of his/her case and communicate both the names of the Judges selected and the date, time, and location specified to the Clerk for posting.

2. In the event that the Complainant opts to challenge one of the Judges chosen or indicates that he/she cannot be available on the date or at the time specified by the Judges, the six incumbent Judges, or as many of that number as may be available, shall, within twenty-four hours of the challenge or declaration of inability to appear at the specified date and time, meet in chat or elsewhere at their discretion to:

a. Determine whether the Judge specified by the Complainant as an alternate for the Judge he/she has challenged is available to serve and, if not, who else in the Judicial Pool can make him/herself available to serve on the panel as a replacement for the Judge challenged.

b. And/or, on which, if any, of the three dates and times specified by the Complainant, all three members of the panel finally selected, as well as the Clerk (or his/her alternate) can be available for the hearing. If the panel finds itself unable to appear at any of the times suggested by the Complainant, the Clerk (or his/her alternate) shall be instructed to communicate by e-mail with the Complainant and the three Judges on the panel to establish a an alternate date and time for the hearing.

3. All three Judges assigned to a particular SCOTUNN panel are responsible
for carefully reviewing all evidence related to the case posted by the Complainant in the SCOTUNN forum. Judges are free to examine the context of the Complainant's evidence as it appears on the Board, but they must not:

a. consider as evidence anything which has never appeared on the Board.

b. make any comment about the case or the evidence filed in support of the case prior to the hearing. Any violation of this requirement will result in the immediate suspension from office of the offending Judge and any SCOTUNN panel to which he/she had been assigned at the time of the offence will proceed without him/her.

3. Judges are responsible for seeking to avoid forming any opinion about the validity of a Complainant's case prior to hearing all the evidence which may be presented at the time of the Hearing.

4. Judges are responsible for rejecting and ignoring any evidence relating to any case to which they may be assigned that anyone may attempt to submit to them by e-mail or by any other means of communication outside the SCOTUNN Forum or in the Courtroom at the time of the scheduled hearing.

5. Judges are responsible for making themselves available to hear all the evidence which a Complainant, his/her witnesses, and/or his/her representatives may wish to present at any hearing that has been scheduled in conformity with the procedure outlined above to which they have been assigned. In cases that involve a Defendant (SCOTUNN "second hearings) Judges are responsible for hearing the Defendant's evidence in full as well.

6. Judges are responsible for the maintenance of order in the Courtroom at the time of the Hearing and shall be empowered to do whatever may be necessary to carry out that responsibility.

7. After hearing all the evidence, Judges are responsible for rendering a verdict. That verdict should be a unanimous one, if possible. However, a majority opinion will be acceptable to the Board in those cases in which the panel is unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

8. Judges are responsible for preparing a report of their final decision in each case they review, together with their recommendations, if any, and
delivering that report to the Clerk for posting in the SCOTUNN Forum.

A report of the Court's decision shall be posted within twenty-four hours after the end of a hearing.

XI. What are the Responsibilities of SCOTUNN Clerks?

Normally, the Administrative staff of SCOTUNN will consist of three Clerks, each of whom has been elected in a different election cycle to an 18-month term. In the last six months of his/her term, the incumbent Clerk shall be regarded as the Clerk. In the second six months of his/her term, the incumbent Clerk shall be designated, the Associate Clerk, and in the first three month of his/her term, the incumbent Clerk shall be designated, the Assistant Clerk. (The somewhat hierarchical structure of the Clerk's office is intended to provide for appropriate training for new Clerks, adequate distribution of labor and a minimal accountability structure.)

The Clerk is responsible to the Board for overseeing the Clerk's Office and for ensuring that all the duties of that Office are completed promptly and appropriately. The Clerk may assign any portion of the Office workload which he/she considers it appropriate to delegate to the Associate Clerk.

The Associate Clerk is responsible to the Clerk for the prompt and appropriate completion of any work assigned to him/her.The Associate Clerk, in turn, may assign any portion of the Office workload which he/she considers it appropriate to delegate to the Assistant Clerk.

The Assistant Clerk is responsible to the Associate Clerk for the prompt and appropriate completion of any work assigned to him/her.

The Board expects that the three incumbent Clerks will confer regularly, in chat, or in some other format of their own choosing to ensure that all of the tasks assigned to the Clerk's Office are being completed in conformity with the Rules of SCOTUNN and that each officer is assuming a fair share of the workload.

Most of the duties of the Clerk's office have already been described in detail in other parts of this document. (See indigo-coded sections above.) However, one of the most important of the duties of the Clerk is mentioned here for the first time.

1. Recording and Posting Proceedings: The Clerk's Office will assign one of its members to maintain a complete and accurate record of the entire proceedings at each SCOTUNN hearing and will be responsible for posting that record in the SCOTUNN Forum asap after the conclusion of the proceedings.

Other responsibilities of the Clerk's Office include:

2. Preparing for Elections by

a. Implementing the 5% rule. (see page 1, above)

1.) Determining two months before any scheduled election whether or not the size of the judicial pool currently represents at least 5% of the average active daily membership on the Board.
2.) Posting a poll in the SCOTUNN Forum to determine whether or not the membership of the Board wishes to increase the number of judges, if the current number is less than 5% of the average active daily membership on the Board.

b. Overseeing the Nominations Process

3.) Posting two threads in the SCOTUNN forum a month before each general election, one for candidates for the office of Judge and one for candidates for the office of Clerk, to receive nominations for office.
4.) Verifying whether or not each candidate for election nominated is eligible for election in accordance with the seven "conditions"� specified in the Section: "Who gets to decide who's on the Ballot?"� above.
5.) Declaring that nominations are closed on each of the nominations threads, fourteen days after they have been posted.

c. Overseeing the Election Process and Ensuring that Eligible Temporarily Banned Members are Afforded the Opportunity to Vote.

6.) Posting two ballots (polls) in the SCOTUNN Forum by 9:00 a.m. on the date of any scheduled election, one for Judges, one for Clerk(s) in the format approved by the Board. Each ballot must provide Board members with the opportunity to vote each qualified candidate up or down. (SCOTUNN polls shall remain open for one full week from the time the ballot polls are posted.)
7.) 6. Promptly (within four hours) supplying copies of the electronic ballot to any temporarily banned member who directs a request for such a ballot di to the official Clerk's e-mail box within the polling period and not less than twenty four hours before the end of that polling period. (We need an address.) ONLY MEMBERS WHO WILL CONTINUE UNDER BAN FOR THE ENTIRE POLLING PERIOD ARE ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE AN ELECTRONIC BALLOT.
8.) Posting to a thread in SCOTUNN, created for that purpose, a copy of any completed ballot received in the Clerk's e-mail box from any eligible banned poster prior to the official closing of the election polls.

d. Officially Announcing the Results of the Election.

9.) Adding the tally of these votes to those of the rest of the Board prior to the announcement of election results.
10.) Officially declaring, in behalf of the Board, the election of successful Candidates for Office within an hour after the polls close.

Expediting the SCOTUNN appeals process by

a. Receiving, Filing and Posting Complaints.

11.) Filing any complaint received at the Clerk's official e-mail address in a special thread labeled only "Complaint Thread"� with the Complainants name within 24 hours of the receipt of the complaint.
12.) Posting any written evidence directed by the Complainant to the Clerk's Official e-mail address and released by the Complainant for posting within 24 hours of the receipt of that evidence.
13.) Notifying every member of the Judicial pool by e-mail when a complaint has been posted.
14.) Forwarding by e-mail any evidence offered by the Complainant though the Clerk's e-mail, but restricted per the Complainant's request from public view, to each of the six Judges in the judicial pool within 24 hours of the receipt of that evidence.

b. Assisting, as necessary, in the Establishment of a Date for a Hearing.

15.) Negotiating through e-mail with the Complainant and the Judges appointed to hear the case to establish a date for a Hearing in those cases where the Judges find themselves unable to meet on any of the dates submitted by the Complainant. (See "What happens Once a Complaint Is Filed and Posted?, Section A, paragraph 5, above.)
16.) Notifying the Board, including the Judges of the date, time, and place agreed upon by all parties for the Hearing by posting that information on the thread bearing the Complainant's name.

c. Publishing Transcripts and Verdicts in Hearings.

17.) Creating a thread in the SCOTUNN forum for the publishing of the transcript a hearing as soon as possible after the completion of the hearing and publishing the transcript to it.
18.) Receiving and recording the decisions and recommendations of each Judicial Panel after each hearing and publishing those findings to the thread containing the hearing transcripts as soon as possible after the Judges have arrived at their decision.

Suggested Timetable for the possible future of this document.

1. It should be posted for discussion purposes only from December 20, 2006 until January 10, 2007.

2. If the only changes recommended can be incorporated into the Document without objection, then a poll can be opened January 11 to see whether or not the membership wishes to approve the document. That poll should be open for two weeks which would mean that under optimum conditions it could be voted upon between January 11 and January 25, 2007.

3. If the document is approved by the membership, nominations for the Clerk/Judge positions could begin January 26, 2007.

4. Since the document provides for nominations to be open for two weeks, the dates for the nomination period could be January 6-February 9, 2007.

5. Elections could then be scheduled any time after February 9. (The document specifies February 15, but all dates are subject to change, this year, at least.)

Delays in the process are to be expected. And, of course, if the Board rejects the Document, all activities dependent upon its passage will, at that point, cease.

[This Timetable is offered as a suggestion only and is not, in any sense, considered by its author or anybody else as being in any way binding upon the Board]

(It just seemed to me that it might be helpful to have a tentative timetable to suggest how these revised rules, now being offerred by the Rules Panel previously approved by the Board, could be implemented.)

This replaces the SCOTUNN rules as detailed at SCOTUNN Rule Proposal -- Official

Section 1. Judge and Jury Elections:
All members are charged with nominating candidates to serve as Judge or Juror according to their lack of participation in discussing any grievances to be heard by SCOTUNN. Each case heard by SCOTUNN will have its own election of participants to ensure fairness.

What about have 3 to 5 judges and no jury? All judges have equal standing. -Zowanda
Point 1 for consideration- Judge and Jury or panel of Judges; and how many Judges?

Section 1a. Recusals:
Any member who knowingly participates in any discussion related to any point in any particular case must recuse his or herself from participating as an elected member, either judge or juror, in any case where the member has any knowledge of the specifics of the case to ensure fairness. Participation consists of commenting to a thread or in a chat where topics of a case are discussed.


Section 1b. Judge and Jury challenges:
Both the Plaintiff and Defendant can challenge any candidate for Judge or Jury prior to the election of these positions. Challenges must provide documentation and just cause as to why a member should be exempted from participation.


Section 2. Procedures:
SCOTUNN proceedings will be conducted in a civil and dignified manner in order to ensure fairness and transparency.

Section 2a. Filing Grievances:
Parties seeking mediation will file a grievance with the Clerk outlining all charges backed by evidenciary support. The Clerk will then call the case under review by a 6 member Grand Jury whose membership is to be appointed by both the Plaintiff and Defendant with each allowed 3 participants to serve on the Grand Jury. Challenges listed under Section 1b are applicable. The Grand Jury will determine if the grievance merits being heard by SCOTUNN.

Section 2b. Indictments:
The Grand Jury will issue any indictments as a collaborative effort once they determine that a case warrants being heard by SCOTUNN. Individual members cannot issue an indictment as they are limited to filing a grievance with the Clerk.

Section 2c. Arraignments:
The newly elected Judge and Jury along with the Clerk, Plaintiff and Defendant as well as any witnesses will convene in chat at a predetermined time agreed upon by all parties. The indictments will be stated and the Defendant will enter a plea at this time. The Judge will set a date for the hearing and initiate Pretrial Disclosure.

Section 2c.1. Arraignment Transcripts:
The Clerk is charged with attending the arraignment's chat and copying and pasting the transcripts of the arraignment chat by starting an arraignment thread titled in the following format:
Hearing Transcript- __________ v. ___________

Section 2c.2. Arraignment Conduct:
All attendees will be subjected to conducting themselves in a civil manner. Name calling and personal attacks will not be tolerated and the Judge will issues warnings and punishment for contempt of court violations. Attendees of the arraignment whom are not participants (Judge, Juror, Defendant, Plaintiff or Witness) are there to observe and are required to read and not type. Attendees of the arraignment whom are not participants will be warned once by the Judge for interrupting the chat and the second violation will result in being kicked out of the arraignment's chatroom by an Administrator as ordered by the Judge.

Section 2d. Pretrial disclosure:

Section 2d.1. Evidence
All evidence to be deemed admissible must be submitted to the Clerk no less than 72 hours prior to the hearing. The Clerk is charged with passing on the evidence to the Judge, Plaintiff and Defendant in a timely manner as well as documenting the receipt of said evidence for the case log.

Section 2d.2. Witnesses and Affadavits:
All witnesses and or affadavits must be submitted to the Clerk no less than 72 hours prior to the hearing. The Clerk is charged with passing on the witness list and or affadavits to the Judge, Plaintiff and Defendant in a timely manner as well as documenting the receipt of said witness list and or affadavits for the case log.

Section 2e. Hearing Conduct, Transcripts and Procedures:

Section 2e.1. Conduct:
All attendees will be subjected to conducting themselves in a civil manner. Name calling and personal attacks will not be tolerated and the Judge will issues warnings and punishment for contempt of court violations. Attendees of the hearing whom are not participants (Judge, Juror, Defendant, Plaintiff or Witness) are there to observe and are required to read and not type. Attendees of the hearing whom are not participants will be warned once by the Judge for interrupting the chat and the second violation will result in being kicked out of the hearing's chatroom by an Administrator as ordered by the Judge.

I think we need some rules here on punishment. After warning do we remove chat privilages for set number of hours/days for the gallery? What type of punishment for plantiff/defendant or jurist?- Zowanda
Point 2a for consideration- what punishments are warranted for disorderly conduct?

Section 2e.2. Transcripts:
The Clerk is charged with attending the hearing's chat and copying and pasting the transcripts of the hearing chat by starting a hearing thread titled in the following format:
Hearing Transcript- __________ v. ___________

Section 2e.3. Hearing Procedures:
All active participants will be sworn in on their reputation and standing in the community to tell the truth at the commencment of these proceedings.

Section 2e.3.a. Progression:
In every phase of the hearing the Plaintiff will have the floor first and the Defendant will have the floor last. The Judge may rule on objections and award rebuttals as deemed necessary.

Section 2e.3.a.1. Opening Statements:
In accordance with Section 2e.3.a each side will make their opening statements with no objections from the other side allowed during this phase of the hearing.

Section 2e.3.a.2. Hearing Evidence and Witnesses:
In accordance with Section 2e.3.a each side will present and rebutt evidence submitted in accordance with Section 2d for the Jury and the Judge may rule as needed on any issues before the hearing.

Section 2e3.a.3. Closing Arguments:
In accordance with Section 2e.3.a each side will present their closing arguments in summary for the Jury and the Judge may rule as needed on any issues before the hearing.

Section 2e3.b. Jury Deliberation:
At the conclusion of Section 2e3.a.3 the Jury will be sequestered by the Judge to a prive and secure chat to decide the case and recommend sentencing if applicable. At this time non- Jury members are to be encouraged to migrate to General Chat to receive the announcement that the Jury has a verdict and when the hearing will reconvene.

Section 2e3.b.1. Reconvene for Verdict and Sentencing:

Section 2e3.b.1.a. Verdict:
At the conclusion of Section 2e3.b the Judge will bring the hearing to order and ask the Jury Foreman to state the verdict and recommend any sentencing if applicable.

Section 2e3.b.1.b. Sentencing:
At the conclusion of Section 2e3.b.1.a the Judge will issue any sentence or aquittal recommended by the Jury. After this time the Hearing Chat will be closed and transcripted by the Clerk and the matter before SCOTUNN will be concluded.

We need to come up with punishments too. -Zowanda
Point 2b for consideration- What punishments are suitable for any matter before SCOTUNN as in a guideline and will the court have mandatory sentencing or will it be up to discretion?


Section 3 Jurisdiction:
SCOTUNN's jurisdiction is limited to UNN's board only. A members actions on another site are not applicable to warrant any charges but are admissable as evidence for both the Plaintiff and Defense in establishing a precedent for established character traits. The presiding Judge may rule on each piece of evidence as to whether it's admissable.

_____________________________________________________________

Zowanda's comments appear above in red.

So, it looks like thus far we need to decide on:
#1. panel v. judge & jury and
(so far panel has the most support but we've yet to do an official vote)

#2. what sort of punishments fit each type of violation.
(has not been addressed yet)

and...

_____________________________________________________________

Now: 2 things:

1. What consists of an offense?
We don't have any rules per say so we must address this issue.
IMO, we're pretty ok with just us but when we get real trolls we'll need something to keep them in line. I recommend RRMB style rules but a bit more lenient and no Rule #8.... SCOTUNN takes away RRMB Rule 8 and ushers in fairness and transparency.
(We need to examine and discuss item #1 above otherwise SCOTUNN will be enforcing non-existent rules. I know we set out to NOT have rules but "Don't be a dick" has a lot of grey area and really hasn't served as a deterrant thus far. So, let's put our heads together on this one.)

2. What consists of justified punishments?
The punishment should fit the offense. So....
A. What offenses warrant punishments and to what degree of severity?
B. Will the panel have mandatory sentencing or will the panel have discretion?
(I'll write a draft for item #2 above after some discussion as Section 4 Punitive Guidelines)

From what I can tell this is where we are now and the 2nd and 3rd quotes are items which have yet to be commented upon for the most part.... other than judicial discretion which seems to have a consensus thus far.

So, it seems as if we address these and reach a consensus we'll be able to take the next step towards ratification.

I'm not the best with organizational skills so if someone is willing to go back thru this thread and add anything I might have missed that would be wonderful.

Also, if we can get some comments on the items above we'll be rolling towards completion.

Can someone write a draft(s) regarding board rules and justified punishment guidelines? Maybe form a team of volunteers?

By a vote of 20-3, in a poll that ended July 23, 2007, UNN members approved the following motion, detailed in the thread POLL: Should it take 10 votes of yes to shitlist a member?

Our current system is that it takes 5 yea votes to put someone on the shitlist for any amount of time. In the discussion to end the troll designation, I mentioned I thought it should be higher, 10 votes of yea. The idea is to foment discussion instead of gangbanging a member. Also, we are a much bigger board and this action should reflect that growth.

This poll ends in 5 days and the results will then be amended to the rules.

[dots]

One new rule was left out = smelling the blue cheese to test if it is still as bad as it was meant to be should be as forbidden as the placement of Gorgan-fucking-Zolla cheese on a pizza .

other than that the rules are superb AND fair which is amazing considering the world is falling out of orbit from the greedy dumbth.

[breezy]

New Rules

[will from chicago]

New Rules

The title on the thread from the previous incarnation of the board was New Rules. Is there any objection to changing the thread title to Board Rules. (Maybe give it a day or so.)