As you know, considerable email traffic and discussion on this topic has recently occurred in the Public At-Large email list... 

As you also know the matter of moderation/ sanction (and an unfortunately I admit L somewhat complex procedure for future management of complaints on postings and list activity ruled to be outside of that permitted under Rule 22 of that ALAC Rules of Procedure) was on the Agenda for discussion at the ALAC meeting held at 1330 UTC on 11th of March.

This message is to inform this list of the outcomes of that part of the meetings discussion and the associated resolutions of the ALAC, in advance of the meeting notes being posted, as well as the meeting recording and transcript (if any) being posted to the Wiki page associated with that meeting...

Please be advised that any person who has been deemed as having been posting to this list in variance with our existing Code of Conduct for list activity has recently received a private message from me, indicating that they are now moderated, as at 1200 UTC March 12, 2008.

They have also  received the following explanatory text…

Please also note that:-

1. Considerable time was taken in our discussion of this complex matter in an effort to find a balance between the requests of many list Members  and the desire to ensure that we continue to provide a forum where opinion and points of view can be posted, providing they are within the published ALAC list guidelines.

2. As a result of our deliberations you are now being moderated in the At-Large (public) email list, and that moderation means that you will currently have a posting limit of three (3) messages per day.  These will literally be the first three (3) messages sent in any 24hr period  beginning from 1200 UTC 12th of March, 2008.

3. Moderation is manual, will be conducted by the At-Large staff with no attention being paid to the content or topic of the messages.  They will simply forward the first three (3) messages to the list and all others (in any 24hrs 1200 UTC onward) will be deleted regardless of topic or content.

4. This level of moderation will be reviewed in 30 days.

5. Further activities outside of our list code of conduct (with or without complaints from list Members), will result in an increase in moderation, and could result in removal from the list.

6.  The ALAC At-Large List will now be informed of these outcomes, without any specific reference to any particular list Member(s).

Cheryl Langdon-Orr (CLO)

ALAC Chair 2007-2008