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MOBirders,
Apologies for catching up with this a day late.
Your list owners make every effort not to stand in the way of
allowing people to express themselves, their opinions, and their personalities,
and to the greatest extent possible, we refrain from policing the manners of
our subscribers. We understand that communication styles vary greatly from
person to person, and some of those styles translate better than others into
email. And yes, we're all human. Sometimes we're feeling a bit impatient, or
grumpy, or put upon, and sometimes those emotions come through in our posts. Any
of us might underestimate another poster's level of experience or offend
someone inadvertently. Perhaps it isn't always inadvertent, but in the interest
of lively discourse and open sharing of topical information, we're willing to
give our subscribers the benefit of the doubt whenever we can.
But in the interest of maintaining some semblance of civil
discourse, we have to draw the line somewhere. And here's where we draw it:
Personal attacks.
Personal insults.
Questioning of another's character or motives.
Calls for public judgment of another party.
Divisive language intended to pit one group or individual
against others.
Forward of private emails without consent, for purpose of argument
or embarrassment.
These things constitute what are generally referred to on email
lists and forums as "flames," and flames are not allowed on MOBirds-L.
Period. Not even in self defense.
When a member violates list guidelines, your list owners
send them a polite and private reminder, and this is, in almost every case,
sufficient. But if that member continues to disregard the guidelines, we issue
a warning to the member that should he or she continue to disregard the list
guidelines, posting privileges will be curtailed or even revoked. Recently,
because of repeated violations, we issued such a warning to a subscriber, and
I'm very sorry to say that because the individual in question has broken the
rules again, we have had to revoke her posting privileges.
As a reminder, forwarding an email that violates list rules,
or posting such an email to the list on behalf of another, would itself be a
violation. Please don't do that.
Thank you all for your understanding, and of course for your
participation in the Missouri Wild Bird Forum.
Sincerely,
David Scheu
Susan Hazelwood
MOBirds-L list co-owners
------------------------------------------------------------ The Audubon Society of Missouri's Wild Bird Discussion Forum ASM Website: http://mobirds.org/