Nancy and others,

The new rules have been drafted in the last few days after careful consideration by all of the sysops. They are new and we are getting used to implications of them. We are ernestly trying to begin to evenhandedly enforce these rules.

The difficulty with any enforcement of any rules is that it is impossible to write totally objective sets of rules that can anticipate any and all interchanges that may occur. Warnings have been sent to people already regarding violations of the new rules. Accounts will be frozen if the rules are not abided by.

Obscene and profane are a perfect example of the subjectivity of the new rules (or any rules for that matter). What is profane to one may not be profane to another, the same with obscenity. There are generally accepted social rules for interchange between adults. The sysops will be considering the context of things as well as the specific words used in judging these issues.

The sysops have decided, I believe in the best interest of everyone, to keep the warning process private. No one except the person warned will ever know that they were warned (unless they decide to go public with it). We beleive this is in the best interest of everyone. We think this is best because we all have had our moments and we should be ready to allow others to have "their moments" with out public ridicule.