Hi Everyone, LilaQ's and Lurkers alike
There have been a few posts over the last few days regarding how we conduct the
business of the moq_discuss mailing list. This now needs to be put on a more
formal basis. A Charter for this mailing list is being constructed along with
sufficient rules to ensure that the discussions and dialogues maintain acceptable
standards of social and intellectual etiquette. Acceptable, that is, to the members
of the list as a whole.
You should have seen Diana's post by now regarding the re-opening of the Lila
Squad mailing list. We want to provide a broad base for discussing the MoQ and
Pirsig's work in general. This list (moq_discuss) is to remain unmoderated and
members will be able to suggest and/or start new threads and discussion
subjects as they please.
I have no intention of trying to force a bunch of pointless and wearisome rules on
the list members so please do not look at this as some sort of control exercise.
The reasons for the construction of a Charter and Rules should be obvious
considering the mayhem of the last few weeks and the comments that a number
of members have made on their way out of the door. Once the structure is
complete it will be posted to the list for reference and the MoQ site for any new
and/or prospective members to read before joining - another reason to keep it as
short as possible.
To start with I've gathered some quotes (written by Diana McPartlin) from the site
pages to remind everyone as to why the MoQ site was set up:
"The mandate of moq.org is to provide a forum for the discussion and exploration
of the Metaphysics of Quality."
"The objective of the group is to look more closely at the MoQ and to come to
some consensus about what the MoQ says, how appropriate it is and how we
can use it."
"It's fair to say that the MoQ has not been embraced by academia and one of the
aims of this website is to remedy that. However, ultimately the MoQ is a living
philosophy and its students are people who seek to make sense of reality, simply
because it's there."
Which sums it up pretty well.
Below I have laid out a draft Charter and some initial rules. Everyone is invited to
submit criticism of both the Charter and the Rules, suggest new rules,
modifications etc. Time out for this will be 24th December as I intend to have an
enjoyable and relaxed Christmas. I have some time off after Christmas so I will try
to put together the final version in this time.
Please try to keep to one post on the subject unless you feel you have left out
something critical. I'll respond where I can but my time is limited and I like to
sleep occasionally.
Use the same subject line as this post to respond - all upper case characters.
Only reproduce those parts that are necessary - i.e. what you intend to criticize
etc. using the > character if possible.
Spend some time considering what you object to and why. Also what alternatives
would you suggest. Constructive criticism is appreciated - everything else will be
ignored.
Feel free to respond privately if you feel it is necessary to:
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MOQ_DISCUSS CHARTER
The MOQ_DISCUSS mailing list exists to provide a general and free-ranging
forum for the discussion of Robert M. Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality.
An 'Open' policy of subscribing and unsubscribing currently exists to make it
convenient for members and prospective members to come and go as they see
fit. The list administrator reserves the right to change the subscribe policy status
to 'Closed'.
MOQ_DISCUSS is currently an unmoderated mailing list. Members should be
aware that the Rules of the list should be adhered to in order that discussions can
be conducted in in a civilized and reasonably curteous manner. The list
administrator reserves the right to change the unmoderated status to moderated.
Removal of a member from the list for persistent and blatant disregard for the
rules will only be carried out after several warnings have been issued. This will
hopefully be an extremely rare occurrence.
Discussion topics do not need to be initiated by any group or by agreement.
Members are free to initiate a new discussion topic by posting a message
announcing a new topic.
No member is required to post. Members can be active, temporarily inactive or
permanent lurkers. You choose.
MOQ_DISCUSS RULES
1) All members must have read either or both of R.M.Pirsig's books, Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or Lila - An Inquiry into Morals.
2) Each member may post no more than one message per topic/discussion item
in any 24 hour period.
3) All topics for discussion must be directly relevant to some aspect of Zen and
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Lila - An Inquiry into Morals or the
Metaphysics of Quality.
4) Contributors will reproduce only those parts of any previous message to which
they are responding. There will be no wholesale inclusion of the original message.
5) Reproduce the Subject line of the thread/discussion. The mailing list archive at
http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
groups posts by subject. If you stick to the subject line then it makes it easier to
follow an archived thread.
5) No personal messages or 'Chat'. All posts should be relevant to the subject of
the thread or discussion topic. Personal messages should go via personal email.
In the case of an emergency or exceptional circumstances contact the list
administrator.
6) Posts should be restricted to plain text - no html, rich text etc. and must not
contain attachments, gifs or other documents except by arrangement with the list
administrator. MOQ_DISCUSS should not be used as a file transfer/document
exchange service. Use FTP or the Web (put your file/document on the Web and
mail the list its URL).
7) Members should refrain from swearing, using offensive language or personal
attacks on other members. Abuse, in any form, will not be tolerated on the list.
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OK there you have it. I've tried to keep the rules to a minimum so that there is as
little confusion as possible. I don't think any of the above rules are likely to restrict
the posting rights of the vast majority of members. As this is an unmoderated list
it is in the interests of the group to ensure that the rules are observed and
group/social pressure is as effective a way of doing this as having one person
having to get heavy. If I've forgotten something (obvious or otherwise) I'll just have
to criticize myself.
Don't forget, the closing date for citicism and suggestions etc. is 24th December.
Horse
homepage - http://www.moq.org
queries - mailto:moq@moq.org
unsubscribe - mailto:majordomo@moq.org with UNSUBSCRIBE MOQ_DISCUSS in
body of email
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:02:46 BST