Editorial Policy, Forum Guidelines and Special Disclaimer
Editorial Policy and Forum Guidelines. - work in progress.
Recent incidents have raised question about the Editorial Policy on these Forum. I would hope to make clear some of the guiding principles that we use. These are not meant to be hard and fast rules, merely guidelines which are likely to change and evolve as the need and encouragement demands.
1] This forum is not a discussion, it is publishing.
This is the strangest and seemingly most controversial principle. But since the development of the internet, and specifically internet law, this forum - or indeed any forum is not a passing discussion between friends, it is archived publishing and in the public domain. As such it, its owners, developers and moderators and contributors are essentially bound by laws governing publishing, e.g. copyright, libel etc. Unlike a casual chat, a bulletin board forum documents and publishes the develpment of thoughts and communication between indivduals. As you write, keep in mind that you on on world wide stage and make it valuable.
2] As a "publication" the BrahmaKumaris.Info forum is lightly edited
One of the major pitfalls of most public forums is that decline into an unreadable morass that makes it very hard for new comers or third parties to follow threads or understand. With a subject matter that is not English native and many members who are not native English speakers, this problem is increased. To counter this we use a variety of different methods and policies, please understand that none of these are perfect and none personally targetted at any individual. These include ;
• built in spellchecker that standardises spelling and capitalization of BK Brahmin related words. • automatic abbreviation translation, e.g. DLK will equare to Dada Lekhraj, VDD to Veerendra Dev Dixit.
In general, our guidelines are to ;
• capitalize specific Brahmin related words so as to differentiate Alokik from lokik uses of a word. • credit original forum contributors when in quotation marks. • make clear references to the various souls and medium that contribute to the collective understanding of Knowledge especially where they use the same names or titles, e.g. Baba, ShivBaba, Mama etc. • add paragraph breaks to large tracts of prose to make posts easier for tohers to read. • reduce to single spaces to keep threads and short and regular as possible in order that readers can easily view them.
It is clear the first consideration should be given to the reader rather than the writer. Again, we are not aiming for perfect, merely to make the forum user friendly.
3] Human moderators.
There are current 4 voluntary moderators internationally, in a variety of timezones, who engage to varying degrees in maintaining the overall presentation of the forum. Largely this work is to the extent of correcting simple typographic errors and formatting. From time to time it entials splitting or moving threads that leave the original topic or forum. Very rarely, it is to remove personally offensive, obscene or posts that appear to be attempting to reveal the identity of others. [See, Privacy, below].
Again, there are no strict guidelines. We are not intending or expecting perfection from either our contributors or our moderators. This work is voluntary, experimental and at the discretion of the individual but has been shown to help others and third parties. Particularly interesting points may be highlghted. Particularly interesting posts will be archives in the "Classic Posts" section of the BrahmaKumaris.Info "News & Article" section of the site. Individuals are invited to submit or nominate classic posts.
If you are unhappy, complain. Moderators will also help you if you require help with layout or understanding the forum's formatting tools.
5] Publishing your thoughts on this forum puts them into the public domain under the GNU Free Documentation License or Copyleft principle
We are committed to making public all available information relating to the Brahma Kumaris. As such, when you post on the forum, your thoughts are entering into the public domain and will remain free for others to read, copy and develop. In a sense, although you will retainthe right to be credited for your own original thoughts, you will loose proprietary copyrights, or private ownership, over them. If you are not happy with this, then do not post.
For more information, see ; [url]http://www.brahmakumaris.info/w/index.php?title=Copyrights[/url]
6] Removal of posts
In essence, except for cases where there is a clear factual error, unfounded personal or institutional libel or other legal contraventions posts will not be removed after they have been made. The forum software will allow you to correct your post for upto 1 hour after you have made it, after that you will not be able to change it. If you require a change, then please contact a moderator, but in principle, posts will not be removed; a) due to the damage that removing would make to topics and, b) due to the forum being voluntarily supported.
7] Privacy
We appreciate that many ex-members of the BKWSU will feel insecure or unhappy with their experiences in the BKWSU and most contributing current members of the BKWSU would wish to their membership to remain confidential.
All efforts to sustain the anonymity of contributors will be made. You are not obliged to reveal any personal details other than a live email address. Your contact details and IP address will not be sold, given over or revealled to any other parties. Moderators do not have access to personal details of any individuals. Efforts to reveal the private identity of individual contributors will be removed as soon as they are reported or discovered. However, please realise that the internet is an inherently insecure method of communication and the forum team cannot be held responsible for any disclosures.
8] Membership
Membership and forum access is open to anyone interested or experienced in the BKWSU and its teachings. To gain membership all one requires is an active email address and to answer a simple question determining which Usergroup one wishes to join. Membership is basis on trust and respect.
Because of the our wish to maintain anonymity, and the insecure nature of the internet, it is impossible for us to police individual's memberships. It is possible for individuals to have more than one membership and there is nothing the forum moderators can do about this.
It is also not possible for us in any way to confirm personal claims or details of any other individual and so caution is advised in any personal interaction with others on or off the Forum. If you are in any way unsure, do not reveal any personal details about yourself.
Your input and skills are welcome