CHARTER: talk.origins

No copy of the original charter of talk.origins is currently available. (Apparently a formal charter was never issued.)

The newsgroup talk.origins is meant as a venue for discussion of the scientific, religious, and political issues pertaining to various theories of the origins and development of life and the universe. Within such basic guidelines, wide-ranging discussions over a large number of topics are covered, all relating back to the main purpose of the group.

Given the sometimes contentious nature of such discussions, a moderation policy has been selected to permit unrestricted discussions, but to limit crossposting to/from talk.origins. No crossposts to more than three other groups are permitted. No content-based considerations are to be made in evaluating articles for the group, only the number of groups crossposted to. Any article submitted to talk.origins that is posted to greater than four (4) newsgroups in either the Newsgroups: or Followup-To: headers shall be returned to the sender with an explanation of the crosspost policy of the group. No alteration of either the Newsgroups: or Followup-To: header is to be performed; either a post passes the crosspost-limit or is rejected.

Articles received my the moderator will be examined to check if there are other moderated newsgroups listed in the Newsgroups: line. Should there be another moderated newsgroup so listed, the article will be forwarded to the moderator of the other newsgroup for approval. Should all other moderated newsgroups listed in the Newsgroups: line already have been approved, then the moderator shall post the article, if it passes the moderation guidelines. If the article does not pass the moderation guidelines, it should be sent back to one of the moderators of the other newsgroups, stating why the article has been rejected. The article should also be returned to the original poster where practicable. A copy of the scripts used for moderation is to be kept on a publicly- accessible web site for inspection, the location of which will be announced on a regular basis on the newsgroup.

The moderator is permitted to cancel any unapproved posting to the newsgroup, if (and only if) the posting violates the crosspost-limitation guidelines. To specifically allow posting of relevant RFDs and CFVs, articles with prior approval by the moderators of news.announce.newgroups and *.answers will be approved for posting, even where they violate the cross-post moderation guidelines.

Cancellation, by third parties, of articles containing binary data (bincancels) and posts that are considered 'spam' (spamcancels) or excessive crossposting (ECPcancels) is not prohibited by this charter, even where the post to be cancelled has been approved by the moderator of talk.origins.

Six (6) months after such time as the moderation policy given above shall come into effect (by public declaration of the moderator of talk.origins on talk.origins and news.groups), a revote on the moderation status of talk.origins is to be conducted by a neutral vote-taker in the manner of a normal RFD/CFV. Note that this revote does not depend on the wishes of the moderator of either talk.origins or any other newsgroup. Should the proposal to unmoderate the group pass, the group should revert to unmoderated status as soon thereafter is practicable. Should either the moderator of talk.origins or any other newsgroup refuse to permit or conduct the revote so as to prevent it from taking place, then the revote shall be assumed to have passed, and the newsgroup shall immediately revert to an unmoderated status. (Once the revote has been conducted and the results are final, this paragraph shall be of no further effect and may be removed from the charter.)