Welcome To The CROSSFIRE Echo
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[RULES] Last Revised: 09/20/2008

The CROSSFIRE echo is meant for the discussion of political, social and
everyday concerns that affect society at large.

The topic matter of this echo is not one to be taken lightly, it is not 
for example as easy to discuss as lets say a shared hobby, like ham radio, 
hunting and fishing, stamp collecting or wood carving. People whom discuss
the topic matter can be laid back all the way up to extremely passionate.

Political discussions often touch on or are affected by religion, the 
CROSSFIRE echo is not a safe haven for those with faith or those 
claiming to be without faith. Neither is it a safe haven for those whom
fall onto any one spot of the political idealogical spectrum.

Discussion of religion is not forbidden here, but it should not be the sole
constituent of your debates. If your intention is to only discuss religion 
for the sole purpose of antagonizing your idealogical opposites, take it 
elsewhere such as the HOLYSMOKE echo, where such activity is encouraged.

[Names]

Aliases/assumed names, handles are forbidden.

For purposes of this echo, the first and last name as presented in the message
headers are the acceptable names to refer to others.

Exceptions might be the normal dimunitive of some names such as but not limited 
to:

Robert: Rob, Robby, Bob, Bobby
Daniel: Dan, Danny
Richard: Rick, Dick, Ricky

So long as they are not used for demeaning purposes.

[Imported Content]

If you post a article of interest from elsewhere, the internet et al, do
not post without including or following it with some commentary and make
sure the source gets properly creditted. Posting the source URL is a
very good idea and in many cases preferable over posting the (entire) article
itself.

When posting Internet URL's if it cant fit on one line, try using one of
the URL services, like Tinyurl.

When posting articles, please make sure you format or reformat it so its
easily digestible by every ones readers.

When using a source, especially from the Internet, to support or make a
point, please keep in mind that one can find content anywhere on the
Internet to support their own point, position or idealogy. Dont expect
that any reference you cite to be taken as the gospel truth, remember
this hard truth, your opponent can also cite content to refute the point
you tried to make or to simply support his/her own point or position.

[Message Quoting]

When replying to messages in the open echo, you should quote back those
parts of the original message to remind the person and the other echo 
participants of what you are replying to. Please do not over-quote messages 
if you are not addressing every point the original poster made.

*DO NOT* change the wording of any quoted text that you decide to include 
in your reply to make it appear that the original author said something 
that s/he did not..

What you post versus what someone replies to, is beyond your control, this 
means that no one is required to address every single point that you you 
might bring out in your messages. If you talked about A, B and C and someone 
only replied about B, then so be it. Get over it and get over yourself. No
persons prose or point of view is so golden as to require 100% attention.

[Taglines And Signature Lines]

Echo participants are not to be mocked in, by or otherwise be the
subject matter conveyed via taglines or header/signature/footer lines.
                                                                       
The moderator's recognize the fact that some mail readers include variables
in their tagline abilities to extract the name of a person being replied to. 
More often than not it is to complete what some would interpret as a funny or
cute tagline, to this end, that is acceptable. If you use a reader with this 
ability and you have a tagline that is otherwise malicious, do not allow it to 
be included in your messages.

[Carbon Copying and Privacy]

Posting a identical message to multiple recipients in the open echo is
forbidden. This wastes bandwidth and confuses message threads. If the
need arises, post a message to 'All' and reference the individuals names in
the message body.

Since by its nature, the echo can be read by all whom choose to take it, every
message is readable by all. John Doe can as easily see messages addressed to
him as he could for messages addressed to All.

There is no expectation of privacy in the echo as far as the content of the 
messages you post or have posted to you, if you desire privacy then use private
methods of communication. If there is information you do not want publically
known then do not post it or make it known how to access this information. If
you know intimate details about another participant that you had knowledge of
in which the participant did not want revealed, do not reveal it. The exception
being knowledge freely obtainable as being dessiminated publically.

Messages addressed to you are fair game for anyone to reply to, remember
this is an open echo, not a private netmail or email inbox. However if you do
respond to a message that is addressed to someone else, do not pretend to 
speak for or as that individual.

[Open Doors]

Due to the nature of this echoes topic, there is going to be in most cases
an adversarial footing, meaning that your opponents will seek to probe and
prod you to find out your weaknesses or your strengths, but more often the
former. On any given topic whether it is about you or not, you are responsible
for the doors you open. If you say you did this, are on that, then that is
your problem if the information gets turned around on you or turned on you.

When debating a opponent, for petes sake, have a leg to stand on when you do 
so, we dont need bank robbers calling shoplifters, thieves.

The moderators in this case cannot be your Holy Protectors in this instance. 

[Behavior]

Unfortunately, some will flame, be flamed or "feel" flamed, its how you
respond to them is what counts, ignore the person or ignore the flame.
Politics are a passionate topic for all those who take the time to
discuss it. (See tail end of this section)

With that said..

The CROSSFIRE echo IS NOT a FLAME ECHO! (MATZDOBRE echo is)

This echo is not a platform for the sole purpose to cast insults onto another
participant.

If you need to do so, take it to the MATZDOBRE echo.

The common list of swear words are not forbidden especially if used to
reinforce emphasis. However using them for the sake of using them can
discredit your post. Spit spewing tirades will be dealt with on a case
by case basis.

Messages that only convey a personal slam are off topic, but will be
dealt with on a case by case basis.

Given the nature of the echoes topic, Oneupmanship is to be expected.

If you are spending time retaliating against what you perceive as attacks,
do not expect moderator protection, sometimes a reprisal often exceeds
the level of the offense? When one wrestles with pigs, by the time its
over, all are so muddy that you cant tell the pigs apart. The key is to not
let everyone else know which of your buttons can be pressed in which the 
pressing of them positively reinforces the idea in their heads that they are
getting to you. If you are truly the victim of a flame or personal attack, then 
play that part and do not retaliate, do not even respond to the attack. If
you retaliate then chances for a remedy are diminished.

[Moderator rulings and echo moderation]

Leave the moderating of this echo to the moderators.

DO NOT publically call upon the moderators to enforce the rules, the moderators
are not your Holy Protectors and are the sole interpreters of the rules and
as to what will be acted upon.

Moderator rulings or warnings are not up for discussion or rebuttal in 
the open echo, if you disagree with them, then use the private netmail
or email.

The Moderators reserve the right to determine the rules for this echo, 
when a rule has been broken, whether or not to enforce a rule, when in 
doubt, leave the moderating of the echo to the moderators.

This rule set cannot possibly cover every possible scenario or event that
could be defined as disruptive to this echo, therefore the moderators are 
not confined to only those things elaborated on in this rule set. If the
need arises, the moderators reserve the right to act upon and rule out of
bounds any activity that disrupts the echo, challenges moderator authority
despite not being spelled out within this rule set.. Meaning the rules are
subject to change at anytime with or without warning.

Coming into the echo to complain about it or how it is moderated is forbidden,
entry and usage of this echo is voluntary, if you dont like what you see,
then use the same freedom of choice to go elsewhere.

If you are a moderator of another echo in which you proclaim to have a better 
echo, rule set or style and you behave disruptively in here that contradicts
your own posture and philosophy from your own echo, then you will be held to 
the standards you demand in your echo.

Your moderators are:

Ross Cassell, 1:123/500 or 1:123/456 E-Mail: rcassell[at]gmail[dot]com
 
Alan Hess, 1:261/1000 E-Mail: alanh77[at]comcast[dot]net

**NOTE**

References made to 'email' mean that mail which is privately distributed
over the internet. The moderators recognise that email, being a shortened 
version for 'electronic mail', could be defined as any type of message 
dessiminated electronically, such as but not limited to a public fidonet
echomail message. However, in this case these definitions apply:

Netmail: 

System to System messages, semi-private, meaning that if the message is
written by a non-sysop, the message is readable by the sysop of the system
a user wrote the message from and if sent to another non-sysop, the sysop of 
the system the message was sent to. Due to the way netmail is transported, 
often routed through intermediary systems, netmail can be read by the sysops
of the systems that message traverses and at a minimum by the sysops of the 
source and target systems. Ordinarily you wont have too many issues here but
you should be aware that you do not have total privacy here and that netmail
messages are readable by others under certain scenarios. The exception to this
would be if a sysop sends a netmail message directly to another sysops system 
in which the sending sysop is the the author and the receiving sysop is the 
intended recipient of the message, in this case there is privacy.

Echomail:

Publically readable messages. Anyone can read these messages whom take the
echo area they are in. These messages are why you are here. In many cases
users can access older messages that exist in an area before they joined said
echo area. There is no expectation of privacy when writing messages in this
form.

Email:

Internet Email (Hi BK)... If you want privacy, then use this!
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