EnMasse

[EnMasse Moderators]

Please read the following Acceptable Use Policy carefully.

Effective As Of: March 24, 2008

1. Introduction

EnMasse is an online forum which endeavours to help foster community while also celebrating diversity.

We are dedicated to providing a forum of open discussion, equality, and fairness to encourage participants to look critically at the social, political and economic structures of society.

We realize that certain conversation and debates on this forum will become heated, thus we ask participants to please abide by a set of rules and regulations to help facilitate challenging, productive dialogue between diverse groups of participants. This Acceptable Use Policy sets forth the principles that govern the use of this forum.

These rules and regulations have been drafted with community input and approval and we expect that site participants will self-regulate their language and their tone of the debate while using this forum.

2. Definitions

EnMasse operates on democratic principles hence all references to "we" or "us" shall be construed to mean the will of the forum participants as a whole, represented by the elected moderator(s).

Participants are defined as any person registered on this forum as a user.

Moderators are defined as users who have either some moderating permissions or total administrative permission.

Site facilitators are defined as contributors to the site who are directly involved in the technical aspects of forum maintenance.

3. Modification of Acceptable Use Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Acceptable Use Policy at any time , and without prior notice, by a vote on the forum in which a majority of voters accept to amend a section of the Acceptable Use Policy. Your continued use indicates your acceptance of the amended Privacy Policy. You may verify if there has been a change by noting the Effective Date above.

4. Illegal Activity

Use of EnMasse for any activity that violates Local, Provincial, Federal or International law, order or regulation, is a violation of this Agreement. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:

1. Posting, transmitting or disseminating unlawful material in the forums or by using the private message function, including with out limitation, child or other pornography, any content, data or other material which is libelous, obscene, hateful, unlawful, threatening, reaction or ethnically offensive, defamatory or which in any way constitute or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense;

2. Disseminating material which violates copyright or intellectual property rights. The member assumes all risk regarding whether material is in the public domain;

3. Pyramid or other illegal soliciting schemes.

The author of any content posted is solely responsible for adherence to any and all laws, rules, regulations and directives while using EnMasse.

5. Moderator Elections

In keeping with the democratic nature of the enMasse discussion forum, all moderators shall be elected to office by a vote of the membership. A term in office of a moderator shall be six months, without term limits.

Elections shall take place by means of a one week long nomination period, followed immediately by a one week long voting period. After the close of the nomination period, no new nominations shall be accepted for the position of moderator.

In keeping with the six month terms of the moderators, elections shall be held semi-annually.

For the first term elections, nominations shall open on February 21 at 8:00 AM Pacific Standard Time and close on February 27 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time. Voting shall open on March 1 at 12:01 AM Pacific Standard Time and close on March 7 at 8:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

For the second term elections, nominations shall open on August 24 at 8:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time and close on August 30 at 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time. Voting shall open on September 1 at 12:01 AM Pacific Daylight Time and close on September 7 at 8:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

6. Official Vote Enfranchisement

To protect enMasse from an influx of last minute voters attempting to derail an official vote, voters will need to meet the following criteria in order to be fully enfranchised in any given vote:

1. the member must have been logged in to enMasse a minimum of three (3) times in the two week period immediately preceding the start of the vote, and a minimum of three (3) times in the two week period immediately preceding that, for a minimum total of six (6) times in the four weeks preceding the start of the vote,

or

2. the member must have been a registered member of enMasse for a minimum of six (6) months and have contributed a minimum of 50 posts to the board.

When members casts their votes using enMasse's Condorcet voting tool, they will be informed at that time whether or not they have met either of these two conditions.

Voters who have met either or both of these conditions will be considered fully enfranchised, and their votes will be automatically counted in the final results.

Voters who have not met either of the two conditions will still have their votes counted so long as the percentage of such voters does not exceed 35% of the total number of voters. If the 35% threshold is exceeded, then no votes from voters who do not meet either of the two enfranchisement conditions will be counted.

7. Intolerance

Any posts that include hateful, discriminatory, racist, sexist, homophobic language are considered inappropriate on EnMasse and will be dealt with by the elected moderator(s) of that forum and/or the board as a whole. This may include the banning of a participant from further use of EnMasse.

8. Personal Attacks

EnMasse does not tolerate abusive debating tactics or personal attack / ad-hominem topics, slander or libel, or any posts which contain language or subject matter which is commonly agreed to be indecent or disgusting. We ask that participants do not engage with the offending participant and instead immediately notify a moderator.

9. Unsolicited Advertisement

You agree to not post any form of unsolicited advertisement, otherwise known as spam. Any unsolicited advertisement found will be deleted and its author banned from this forum.

10. Objectionable Material

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should they see fit.

11. Removal of Objectionable Material

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material that may violate any applicable laws as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

12. Disciplinary Actions

If anyone posts discussion in contravention to any/all of the rules set out in this Acceptable Use Policy, the following restrictions and/or punishments may be applied:

1. In the case of a minor transgression, the participant will be warned by a moderator with a request to edit/delete the offensive post;

2. In ANY major transgression, the offending participant will be immediately suspended from posting privileges on the site for 24 hours (one day) as a “cooling off” period. The moderator will also post a message directly in the thread where the infraction occurred and state their decision;

3. If a participant fails to abide by the aforementioned guidelines, and has progressed through the above two steps of the disciplinary process, the offending participant will be suspended from posting on the site for 72 hours (three days);

4. If a participant continues to fail to abide by the guidelines after a 72 hour suspension, they will be banned indefinitely.

The decision of the moderating team is final.

Any participant who notices any infractions of the Acceptable Use Policy or anything that is otherwise in contravention of the rules set out in this document; please alert a moderator through a Private Message or by sending an e-mail to contactus@enmasse.ca.

13. Return of Banned Members and Multiple Accounts

1. If a member of the forum is banned by the moderating team under the process of Article 12, it is not permitted for that member to return to the board under a different account, and any accounts so created may be banned immediately by the moderating team.

2. Members of the forum who have opted to exercise the self-banning tool are welcome to contact the moderators at any time via e-mail at contactus@enmasse.ca to request that their self-banning be reversed.

3. No member may have more than one account (or "sock-puppet"). Any such extra accounts may be banned immediately by the moderating team. The moderating team may make exceptions to this clause at their discretion. Partners/relatives/friends who may be posting from the same computer using different accounts are requested to notify the moderators in advance at contactus@enmasse.ca.

14. Moderator Accountability

Moderators who suspend and/or ban a participant, while able to make an independent and autonomous decision, must also notify the other members of the moderating team of their decision in a timely manner.

15. Right to Appeal

Any warned, suspended or banned participant has the right to appeal to the moderating team for a reconsideration of the warning/punishment. Appeals should be made in a timely process, to the best of the ability of all involved. The appeal should be done by sending an e-mail to contactus@enmasse.ca, clearly specifying the intent of the message.

The moderating team as a whole has the right to uphold and/or review the specific post in question if an appeal is brought forth by the offending participant. Any decisions thus made must be posted into the thread where the breach of policy occurred, with the result of that decision clearly stated.

16. Member Account, Password, and Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. You agree to immediately notify EnMasse of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security. EnMasse cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this section.

17. Storage of Information

As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

18. Cookies

This forum system uses cookies to store information on your local computer. These cookies do not contain any of the information you have entered above; they serve only to improve your viewing pleasure. The e-mail address is used only for confirming your registration details and password (and for sending new passwords should you forget your current one).

19. Opinions

All opinions posted on EnMasse are the opinions of the participant alone who authored the post, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the moderating team, site facilitators, the hosting provider, or other sponsors.

20. Agreement

By becoming a member of this forum, you agree to be bound by the rules and regulations of this Acceptable Use Policy. Any infringement of these rules and regulations will be dealt according to the section on disciplinary action.