                       F.E.B Policy
Version 1.1                                 March 12,1995 

1  Overview 

This document establishes the policy for sysops who are 
members of the F.E.B. Orginization. 

1.0  Language 

The official language of the F.E.B. is English. 

1.1  Introduction 

The F.E.B. is an organization consisting of Bulletin 
Board Systems that pass a collection of messages to 
one another. F.E.B. Uses Fidonet numbers 

1.1a  Echo Conferences

Any and all conferences that are formed by the sysop's of F.E.B
become the property of F.E.B. and will contain the prefix FEB 
and a dash example "FEB_APPLE" 
All other conferences without the prefix are passed at the request 
of the conference Moderator/owner and remain thier property.

1.1b  Acceptance of Conferences

An echomail conference will not be accepted if the conference is
not moderated or contains any profanity or is not of a general
interest to the sysop's of F.E.B. or ownership is not transfered
to F.E.B. 

1.1c  Fidonet Associations 

The F.E.B. is not associated with Fidonet and each member 
is to maintain safeguards necessary to insure that any 
messages posted on an F.E.B. System have no chance of 
entering the mainstream of Fidonet. Failure to properly 
maintain their systems to prevent the above is cause 
for removal from membership. 

1.2  Organization 

F.E.B. 

The table of Organization or chain of command 

F.E.B. Administrator 
F.E.B. Coordinators 
F.E.B. Hubs 
Moderators 
Sysops 

All the above can pass messages to those 
that are not local to a pickup hub however 
only those that are designated in this policy 
can hear appeals of moderator decisions. 

2  F.E.B. Administrator Procedures 

The F.E.B. Administrator is charged with the task 
of ensuring the smooth operation of the F.E.B. 
He also is to maintain a Current list of available 
echo's and assure each Coordinator has a copy of 
that list. 

2.1 F.E.B. Coordinators 

The F.E.B. Coordinator are to review 
Moderators decisions and assist in 
carrying out those decisions. 
They are to have a copy of this policy
available for download.

2.2  F.E.B. Hub 

These are The Pickup points for recieving 
the messages of F.E.B. and is any link in 
the chain that has 2 or more nodes picking 
up mail from him or her not including the 
node that he or she picks up the mail from. 
If a F.E.B. Hub recieves an appeal to a 
Moderator's decision he must forward that 
appeal to the nearest Coordinator. 
All HUbs are required to have a list 
of echo's available for Sysop's to download. 

2.3  Moderators 

WHAT IS A MODERATOR? 

The identification of an F.E.B. EchoMail conference 
is the identification of its Moderator. A Moderator 
is the person who defines a Conference, and keeps it 
on track; making sure message content is within 
reasonable bounds of the topic for which the conference 
exists.  A Moderator should also set the base rules 
of the conference and cut off abuses of the media 
when they occur. 

Moderator recognition & authority 

The F.E.B. recognizes that a moderator 
has complete authority over his/her 
echo in regards to the echo's policy, 
standards of conduct and participation.  

A Moderator need not be a Sysop but must 
be readily accessible via netmail through 
a FidoNet node number or F.E.B. Assigned number. 

A Moderator is recognized as follows: 

  a.  Upon formation of a conference the person who 
      forms the conference is the Moderator. 

  b.  Upon resignation or replacement of an existing 
      Moderator 
  
  c.  Should a conference be without a moderator 
      for over thirty days, the Administrator may 
      cause a tempory Moderator to be appointed 
      for a period of up to 12 months. If during 
      that time the original Moderator does not 
      return, the appointment shall become permanent. 

   Where a person takes over official moderation 
   of an echo without the previous moderator's approval, 
   or in its absence without the Administrator's approval, 
   and cause for removal from that echo.
 
   The Moderator must agree to the provisions of this policy 
   and to accept the following responsibilities: 

      a.  seeing that messages in the echo correspond 
          to the echo's theme as expressed in the F.E.B. 
          Echolist. 
      b.  ensuring that the echo does not distribute 
          or promote illegal activities or information. 
      c.  updating the echo listing in the F.E.B. Echolist 
          at least every six months via posting in an echo 
          designated for that purpose in the case an echo 
          is not available then it must be sent to the 
          Administator via Netmail. 
      d.  Monthly posting of the rules of his conference. 
      e.  designating a proxy if unable to perform duties 
          for a period ofmore than 10 days.  Moderators 
          are encouraged to appoint Co-Moderators to assist 
          them in their responsibilities and to stand in for 
          them in their absence. 
      f.  authorizing that the feed to a Node be severed 
          if the Moderator believes that the Node is 
          violating an echo rule.  Such a request will 
          conform to the feed-cut policy below. 

2.4   Node 
      The System that pick's up F.E.B. messages 

2.5   Node - Sysop 

This is the Operator of the system that recieves 
F.E.B. Messages his job is to oversee his own 
system and take any action against any User that 
fails to comply with the rules of a moderator. 
The sysop is responsible for the actions of any 
user on his or her system when they affect the 
rest of F.E.B. 

3 Routeing link 

As it stand now the routing link is a follows 

1:107/749 to 1:107/416 to 1:107/430 to 1:107/696 to 1:107/951 

107/749 Walter Kuzma :                F.E.B. Administrator 
107/951 Bruce Barton :                F.E.B. Northern Coordinator
107/696 David Wrobel :                F.E.B. Southern Coordinator 
107/416 Steve Tepper :                F.E.B. HUB 
107/726 Ken Ferrante :                F.E.B. HUB 

4. DISPUTES 

   4.0  Use of judgement 

   The application of F.E.B. policy in the resolution of 
   disputes requires the use of good judgement by the 
   F.E.B. Coordinators involved.  Decisions should be made 
   in a consistent manner with a genuine attempt made to 
   obtain both sides of any issue. 

   Where this policy does not appear to forsee a particular 
   situation the F.E.B. Coordinator is expected to use a 
   combination of this policy, FidoNet Policy, precedent 
   and his own good judgement to resolve a dispute. 

   4.1  Complaint settling 

   Complaints referred to in this section are those dealing 
   with technical issues where a decision may be made under 
   the terms of this F.E.B. Policy.  

   Where a node is unable to obtain satisfactory handling 
   of a F.E.B. complaint from his F.E.B. Coordinator he may 
   address the complaint to the F.E.B. Administrator. 

   4.2  Willful disregard 

   A person who engages in disruptive behaviour 
   such as posting multiple copies of identical 
   messages or flooding an echo with messages to 
   render communication difficult or to increase 
   costs will be considered grounds for removal 
   of access to that conference or conferences. 

   A person who alters quoted extracts in an 
   echomail message so as to misrepresent the 
   original author's text will be considered 
   annoying and subject to being cut from that echo.

   4.3  Sanctions 

   The only sanction which may be applied to a node 
   by an F.E.B. Coordinator for contravention of this 
   policy is removal of its access to the F.E.B. 
   confernce in question Upon The request of the moderator. 

   The only sanctions which may be applied to users 
   by a F.E.B. echo moderator for contravention of 
   the echo's rules are requests for apology, restrictions 
   of echo privileges, or feed cuts. 

   4.4  Feed cuts 

   To ensure fairness to both the Moderator and the users 
   of an echo, where a Moderator wishes to terminate a 
   user's participation for violation of the conference's 
   published rules, the Moderator will send netmail to the 
   user's Sysop with a copy to the Sysop's Coordinator directing 
   that the user's access to the echo be severed.  
   This netmail will include: 

      a.  instructions to cut the access for a specific user. 
      b.  copy of the echo rules section which was violated. 
      c.  copy of the user's message(s) which constituted the 
          initial violation. 
      d.  copy of the Moderator's subsequent warning to the 
          user not to repeat the violation. 
      e.  copy of the user's repeat violation. 

   Where the violation is of sufficient seriousness 
   to warrant no warning, provisions d. and e. above 
   may be disregarded.  This should be an unusual occurrence. 

   Provided that all of this evidence is attached the Sysop will 
   immediately and without question terminate the user's access as 
   directed.  If he/she fails to do so the F.E.B. Hub will terminate 
   the Sysop's feed of the conference.  If the F.E.B Hub fails to 
   terminate the sysop's feed the Coordinator will terminate the 
   F.E.B. Hub's feed. 
   If the Coordinator fails to terminate the F.E.B.Hub's feed the 
   Administrator will terminate the Coordinator's feed. 

   Knowingly feeding an echo to a Node whose feed has been cut for 
   violations of this policy or at the request of the Moderator, is 
   considered Grounds for a feed cut. 
                      
   Appeals of feed-cut instructions which contain the above 
   evidence may be made only after the feed-cut has been honoured. 

5  Appeal Process 

A decision made by a Moderator may be appealed 
to the next level above Hub, Appeals must be made 
within two weeks of the decision which is being appealed. 
All appeals must follow the chain of command; 
if levels are skipped the appeal will be dismissed. 
Appeals that are recieved by F.E.B. Hubs, must be   
fowarded to the F.E.B Coordinator and Administrator 
and a decision must be made by the F.E.B. Coordinator 
within 24 hours of acknoledgement of the appeal, 
Failure to do so will cause the appeal 
to be Considered successful. 

The appeal structure is as follows: 

   F.E.B  Hub  : 

   He cannot rule on an appeal and must 
   forward all recieved appeals to his F.E.B. Coordinator 

   F.E.B. Coordinator : 

   He will rule on the appeal and forward a copy of his ruling to 
   all involved including the Administrator 

   Administrator : 
   He has the finial say in the appeals process however will not 
   interfere with a Coordinators decision unless an appeal is made 
   directly to his level and only after the prevous steps have 
   been met. 

6  Joining F.E.B. 

To join F.E.B. 
A netmail message containing the following 
is to be sent to the nearest F.E.B. HUB 
or Coordinator or directly to The Administrator, 
That message is to be forwarded up the 
chain of command until it reaches the 
Administrator and it must 

Contain the Following 

Name Of BBS 
Name of Sysop
BBS Software
BBS Phone Number
Voice Phone Number
Street Address
State, Zip
FidoNet number 
Baud Rate
Mailer
Tosser
Hours of Operation 

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