I.  Proposed Netiquette Guidelines
for the Village Green Internet Forum

A)  Freedom of expression is encouraged within a convivial community:

• Freedom of speech and other freedoms are encouraged;
  these freedoms are to be exercised within the context of an atmosphere of welcoming and respect for divergent perspectives, in the spirit of the Four Pillars of the Green Party:
  
  
  • 1)  Ecology
  • 2)  Social Justice
  • 3)  Grassroots Democracy
  • 4)  Nonviolence

B)  Hostile forms of speech discouraged and disallowed in this forum:

• In order to help maintain an atmosphere of respect for diversity and divergence of opinion, the following are discouraged and disallowed from postings on this Internet forum:
  
  
  • 1)  Personal Attacks:
    A "Personal attack" is defined as a direct and hostile insult or threat to an individual and/or their family member(s) and/or their close friends and associates.
  • 2)  Slurs Upon Whole Groups:
    "Slurs upon whole groups" are defined as hateful and hostile disparagement; insults; defamations; and other clearly and openly hateful and/or violent speech towards whole groups of people, including groups defined by ethnicity; religion; sexual orientation; occupation; creed; political orientation; and geography.
  • 3)  Foul Language:
    Please delete all expletives before posting.

C) Other types of abuses that are disallowed in this forum:

• 1)  Excessive bandwith; redundant or excessively large postings.
• 2)  Spreading of computer viruses; spam or spyware; email bombing; and other types of system security breaches and email attacks.
• 3)  Forwarding of a posting from an identifiable forum member without that member's explicit permission; also, exposing personal or confidential group or individual information to the Internet or to other persons or groups without their permission.

II. Process for Enacting the Guidelines

A) Co-Facilitators:

• This forum will have at least two Co-Facilitators at all times, who will act as moderators and will be empowered to subscribe and unsubscribe people to the list.

B) In the Event of a Problem as defined above in sections I.B. and I.C.:

• 1)  Acute Problems: The Co-Facilitators are empowered to unsubscribe those who, in the Co-Facilitators' judgement, are parties to an acute problem demanding immediate action. In a crisis, co-facilitators may shut down the entire list, temporarily.
• 2)  Chronic or Less-Urgent Problems: The Co-Facilitators are empowered to first issue a warning to the offending party; if repeated violations occur, they are empowered to unsubscribe the offender(s) for an appropriate period of time; if the offender wishes to dispute this action they may bring their claim to the MGP Conflict Resolution Committee.