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.
quote - edit - delete - IP 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.
In the first place, please always check the extensive FAQs when necessary before requesting human assistance.
1] "This forum is not a discussion, it is publishing".
This is the strangest and seemingly most controversial principle. We sincerely hope you enjoy yourself on this Forum and feel free. However, 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 much as we sincerely encourage support and friendship, keep in mind as you write that you are on the world wide stage and make it valuable. Use the built-in private messaging system.
2] As a "publication" the BrahmaKumaris.Info forum is lightly edited.
One of the major pitfalls of most public forums is that they tend to decline into flame wars or an unreadable morass that makes it very hard for newcomers, or third parties, to follow threads or understand what is being said. 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 should be as invisible and as uninvasive as possible, not affecting the actual content or meaning of posts, but include; • built in spellchecker that standardises spelling and capitalization of BK Brahmin related words, e.g. "b"aba to Baba, "t"rimurti to Trimurti. • automatic abbreviation translation, e.g. D L K [with no spaces] will equate to Dada Lekhraj, V D D to Veerendra Dev Dixit, B D to BapDada, S B to Shiva Baba etc. 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 others to read. • reduce to single spaces to keep threads and short and regular as possible in order that readers can easily view them in their browser. • standard punctuation. It is clear the first consideration should be given to the reader rather than the writer. Again, we are not aiming for perfect nor expecting it from contributors, merely to attempting to make the forum as user friendly as possible.
3] Human moderators.
We encourage genuine discussion but a reasonable standard of English is required for membership.
There have been as many 6 voluntary moderators active 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 entails 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.
Moderators have no official rights of representation or responsibility over any individual, the forum or website as a whole. Moderatorship confers no position of status, merely a position of voluntary service.
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 retain the 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 ; http://www.brahmakumaris.info/w/index.php?title=Copyrights
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 up to 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 posts would make to topics, b) to avoid any criticism that posts are removed if they do not fall in line with the editorial policy, c) due to the forum being voluntarily supported, no one is paid to look after contributors. From time to time we must reserve the right to "prune" time specific posts, (e.g. for events that have now past), admin requests or inconsequential posts. These will not be deleted but may be moved to the "Lost Property" topic in order to reduce the length of topics. Or ultimately, the overall size of the Forum. If you wish to reply to a topic, consider first whether it would be best to reply personally to the original contributor via 'pm' [private message] or to make another public statement.
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.
Posting a 'personal message', or email, from another member onto the forum without permission is a breach of the forum guidelines.
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 wish to protect contributor's anonymity, and the insecure nature of the internet, it is impossible for us to police individual's memberships. Although not encouraged, it is possible for individuals to have more than one membership and there is nothing the forum moderators can do about this. Site passwords are held in an encrypted form that does not allow any access even to administrators.
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.
8] Conflicts.
Where a problem arises, contact the bbsysop [bulletin board system operator] directly and allow a reasonable time for response, , e.g. three working days, before raising the issue on the forum as there is no guarantee your message will be found. Usually matters will be resolved within 24 hours or sooner.
9] Smilies and punctuation marks.
Limit the use of smilies and punctuation marks to where they are ultimately only necessary to avoid verbal misinterpretations. There are technical reasons to why contributors need to limit the use of punctuation marks as mood indicators as they affect the way that text is rendered elsewhere on the site. Please use no more than three stop marks and use a break between the uses of fullstops and new words, e.g. "word ... new word".
10] Spamming.
Members are requested not to flood the personal messaging, email system or forum with duplicate messages and not to flood the forum with weblinks or headings to promote other websites. Such action with be considered spamming [unsolicited emails] and treated as abuse. Any members continuing to abuse other members in this way after a warning will have their membership suspended or be banned.
11] Don't beat up individual BKs.
It takes a lot of courage for individual BKs to enter this forum. They are invited to do so and might be at a transition point in their own lives.
12] Sexual references and humor.
The issue of what are acceptable sexual references arises due to the focus and target audience of this forum. We encourage open discussion about relationships, any sexual problems arising during or after life as a BK, one's general opinions about the subject as a BK or ex-BK and any sexual hypocrisy within the BKWSU in a reasonable fashion.
However, contributors need to consider that; a) we have individuals as young as 13 subscribed to this forum and perhaps even younger reading it b) what is culturally acceptable to the West, e.g. harsh language and open discussion is not acceptable elsewhere c) any elements of the abuse of women and children within male sexual practises and the focus of the BKWSU in this area. Most importantly, individuals have to realise that we have people coming to this site that are; confused and in a genuine state of need whose families and lives are falling apart who are at a point of spiritual crisis Our duty to care for, and educate the general public as to the realities of the BKWSU, come before our wish to indulge. If we refer back to the first guideline, this forum is not general discussion, it is a published record of BKWSU related thought.
12] Special Disclaimer.
The information within Brahma Kumaris.info archives has been collected to offer the public a resource concerning groups the BKWSU/BKWSO, PBK and other BK splinter organizations. However, mention and/or inclusion of a group or leader within this archive does not define that group and/or an individual mentioned as either destructive and/or harmful. Instead, such inclusion simply reflects that archived articles and/or research is available about a group or person that has generated some interest and/or controversy.
All the information archived must be evaluated critically, through a process of independent and individual judgment. Please note that there are links often prominently posted to a group or movement's own official website, which reflect their views. It is important to see what they have to say.
Warning
All meta tags, page titles, keywords, other content and descriptions used throughout this website are only intended to assist search engines for research and locating purposes. This in no way, shape or form is intended to mislead anyone by implying any official representation and/or relationship exists between this website and the owners of any trademarks, service marks and/or copyrights, which may contain the same keywords and/or titles.
Brahma Kumaris.info, its Advisory Board and contributors do not necessarily endorse or support any of the views expressed within the documents, articles, reports and testimonies archived within this website, with the exception of those specifically so attributed. Brahma Kumaris.info, its Advisory Board and contributors do not necessarily endorse or support any of the views expressed within linked websites listed at the Links page of this website. They are provided only for the convenience of researchers and those concerned.
Books listed on the Books page of this website and the views they express are not specifically endorsed by Brahma Kumaris.info, its Advisory Board and contributors. Readers must exercise their own judgment in choosing and/or reviewing such material. Critically evaluate any views or opinions the authors may express. Some readers may find this material controversial. BrahmaKumaris.info has archived this information for the convenience of researchers and those concerned.
Any minor child should consult their custodial parent(s) before reading the information provided within this website.
All content contained within this web site are provided without profit by Brahma Kumaris.info and are intended to be available to anyone interested in the topics included, for educational purposes only.
Any publisher, webmaster or news service (i.e. official and legal holder of copyright) that objects to their material being included in this archive should read the Notice and Take Down section of our FAQs.