POLICIES AND PROCEDURES OF INTELLIGENCE FORUM

I.F. Listserve Posting Rules & Procedures  Please Read!
Revised 10 October 2001

All policies and procedures of Intelligence Forum are determined by the Director in consultation with the Advisory Board.  As a matter of professional courtesy, proposed changes in the policies and procedures of Intelligence Forum will be submitted to members for comment and debate before they become effective.

Intelligence Forum is a non-partisan organization.  As an organization, Intelligence Forum advocates no particular position on intelligence or intelligence-related matters.

The Intelligence Forum e-mail list is a moderated discussion group.  The I.F. Director, or his representative, serves as Moderator.  The Director and other officers of Intelligence Forum assume no responsibility for the accuracy, propriety, or legality of any post submitted to Intelligence Forum.

Intelligence Forum is a scholarly discussion group, and members are expected to act in a professional and courteous manner without the need for constant attention from a moderator.  To assist you, a style guide for posts will be sent out periodically.  If any member persistently posts inappropriate messages, engages in personal attacks ("flaming"), or attempts to monopolize discussion, their posting rights will be suspended or they will be permanently removed from the mailing list by the Director after due notice has been given.

Members who submit e-mail posts to Intelligence Forum assume full legal responsibility for the contents of their submissions.  Contributors to Intelligence Forum are expected to own the copyright for all materials submitted, or to have obtained permission from the owner of the copyright to use the materials.  The Director and other officers of Intelligence Forum assume no legal responsibility or copyright for other legal infringements contained in postings to Intelligence Forum.

Intelligence Forum reserves the right to dispose of, archive, re-post, cross-post or make any other use of all e-mail submissions to Intelligence Forum as the Director see's fit without prior permission from list members.

All intelligence related subjects past, present, and future are encouraged as discussion topics to be treated to serious and scholarly debate.

Practitioners of all disciplines — historians, political scientists, journalists, students, intelligence officers active and retired, and others — are encouraged to join Intelligence Forum.  Further, we urge all members to participate actively in our discussions.  The main principle behind Intelligence Forum is to conduct an open discussion among persons with a wide range of knowledge and experience.

E-mail messages posted to Intelligence Forum discussion threads will include the sender's e-mail address to facilitate direct contact between discussants.  To protect privacy, Intelligence Forum will not honor requests for the e-mail addresses of its members.  To obtain a member's e-mail address, it will be necessary to post such a request to the membership at large.

Sponsorship funds are accepted with the understanding that the sponsoring organization or individual has no editorial control over Intelligence Forum e-mail discussions or any other operations.

The following are general Membership and Posting Guidelines for I.F.

Updated :  10 October 2001

MISSION OF INTELLIGENCE FORUM

Intelligence Forum is a private, not-for-profit organization which maintains a free electronic mailing list (intelforum@his.com) dedicated to the scholarly discussion of intelligence.

Intelligence Forum has three primary goals :

• Taking advantage of technology and the Internet, Intelligence Forum seeks to provide scholars, professionals, and students with an international and multi-disciplinary environment in which to conduct an open dialogue on the history, theory, and practice of intelligence;
  
• Intelligence Forum is committed to providing a venue for the free exchange of ideas and seeks to increase contact among those studying intelligence in its various manifestations. We encourage scholars to discuss not only their current research interests but also new theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of intelligence;
  
• Intelligence Forum seeks to facilitate research on intelligence by updating scholars on new archival sources, evolving declassification policies, and recent publications.
  

COPYRIGHTING AND ARCHIVING OF MESSAGES

Intelligence Forum recognizes that authors hold copyrights to their messages.

A member of I.F. who submits a message for distribution via I.F. does so with the understanding that Intelligence Forum is granted certain privileges, specifically:

• To archive the post indefinitely, retaining the author's identity;
• To re-post or cross-post the message, retaining the author's identity.

Members of Intelligence Forum retain Copyright to their own messages. Members who archive or cross-post I.F. messages should not do so without obtaining the prior expressed permission from the authors of the posts. In addition, members of Intelligence Forum who archive or cross-post I.F. messages must :

1. Specify the I.F. origin of the messages;
2. Specify the identity of the original posters;
3. Do so on a non-profit basis;
4. Remove the I.F. member's Email address unless specific, prior expressed permission from the member/author is given to include it with any archiving and/or cross-posting of their message.

PROCEDURES FOR MODERATED FORMAT

• Intelligence Forum is a moderated discussion group. The I.F. Director, or his representative, serves as Moderator.
• The basic purpose of the moderated procedure is to ensure that posts to I.F. are related to intelligence and that they conform to I.F.'s Posting Guidelines.
• Only members of I.F. may submit e-mails for distribution to the list.
• Members of I.F. assume full responsibility for the stylistic and substantive content of their posts.
• Messages submitted for distribution to I.F. are reviewed by the Moderator and, unless found to be in violation of the Posting Guidelines, are distributed to the list as soon as possible.
• As time allows, the I.F. Moderator may take the following actions, among others:
  1. Return a message to the poster with an explanation regarding why it is not being submitted to the list;
  2. Include an introductory comment at the beginning of a post, such as a request that responses should be submitted directly to the poster and not to the list as a whole;
  3. Rewrite or edit the "Subject" line of a post.
  4. If a member of I.F. submits a message that is refused by the Moderator, he or she may request an appeal to the I.F. Review Committee. The Review Committee is in effect a sub-committee of the Advisory Board and has the authority to overrule the Moderator on a case-by-case basis.

SIGNING POSTS

• Messages submitted for distribution to I.F. must be signed with the full (first and last), true name of the poster (not an alias) and should include a return e-mail address for the poster.

RESPONDING TO A POST

• When responding to a message posted to I.F., include only that part of the original post as is necessary to make your response understandable.

CIVILITY

• I.F. is a scholarly discussion group, and members are expected to act in a professional and courteous manner at all times.
• It is inappropriate to question the credentials or character of another member of I.F.

NO ADVERTISEMENTS

• Do not use I.F. as a medium to disseminate commercial advertisements of any variety.
• Authors and readers are encouraged to submit messages apprising I.F. members about new books on intelligence topics, however such posts should not include information on how to order the item in question.

NO PROFANITY

• Do not use profanity when posting messages to I.F.

REMOVAL FROM I.F.

• If any member of I.F. persistently submits inappropriate messages or consistently engages in personal attacks ("flaming"), they will be removed from the list by the Director after due notice has been given.

ARCHIVES

• I.F. discussion threads are archived on the web at http://archives.his.com/intelforum/

JOINING/RESIGNING FROM I.F.

• To join Intelligence Forum, send an E-mail (no aliases) to majordomo@his.com and put "subscribe intelforum" in the message body.
• To sign-off/leave Intelligence Forum, send an Email to majordomo@his.com and put "unsubscribe intelforum" in the message body.