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From: vietnam-request@panix.com (SHWV Moderating Team)
Newsgroups: soc.history.war.vietnam,soc.answers,news.answers
Subject: soc.history.war.vietnam FAQ: Admin Info and Posting Guidelines
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Date: 6 Jan 1998 07:51:29 -0500
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Summary: This FAQ contains administrative information on    
     soc.history.war.vietnam, the location of the archives, the moderators
     names and address, and the posting guidelines as well as the appeal
     process for the newsgroup.  It also contains a listing of other SHWV
     FAQs and bibliographic files as well as the charter. All documents and
     resources mentioned in this FAQ are available in the archives and on the
     web at http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwvhome.html
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu soc.history.war.vietnam:14064 soc.answers:9158 news.answers:120471

Archive-Name: vietnam/info-and-guidelines
Last-modified: 1997/12/05
Posting-Frequency: monthly (1st)

This announcement supersedes any previous ones.


General Information, Posting Guidelines and Charter

Welcome.  If you're reading this, it's fair to guess that you have
some interest in the Vietnam / Indochina Wars and their aftermath.
This document has been prepared to give you some idea of what
soc.history.war.vietnam is all about, how to post to the newsgroup,
and what resources are currently available.  For more information and
links to all the resources listed here, please visit one of our
websites.

Enjoy!
The SHWV Moderating Team


Table of Contents

1. What Is soc.history.war.vietnam and How It Came to Be.
2. SHWV Resources.
   2a. Newsgroup FAQs.
   2b. Vietnam Related Bibliographies
   2c. SHWV Newsgroup Archives
   2d. Website
     2d1. Image Library
     2d2. POW/MIA Information
     2d3. Article Resources
     2d4. Memoirs and Personal Narratives
     2d5. Document Resources
     2d6. Subject Index, including hyperlinks to other sites
     2d7. SHWV Book Exchange
3. Administrative Information
4. Posting Guidelines.
5. The Charter


Section 1. What Is soc.history.war.vietnam and How It Came to Be

In the middle of 1994, after lengthy discussion and debate within the
newsgroup alt.war.vietnam, it was decided to form a new newsgroup
dedicated to the discussion of the Vietnam War.  Alt.war.vietnam,
being an unmoderated newsgroup was subject to considerable chaos
caused by innumerable flame wars, shouting and slinging matches and
outright mayhem,  with the result that those who were coming to the
Usenet for some healing and understanding of the events as well as
those who where interested in the study of wars in Indochina were
getting disgusted, or worse, hurt by what was occurring.

The first thought had been to moderate the existing newsgroup,
alt.war.vietnam, but that was met almost universally with a negative
response.  The second idea was to create a new newsgroup, and in the
process put it on the mainstream hierarchy.  So began the process by
which this newsgroup came into being in the first half of 1995.

Soc.History.War.Vietnam (SHWV) was created to provide an open forum
for the objective discussion of the Vietnam and Indochinese wars,
their causes, aftermath, and effect on the people and societies which
took part in them.  The use of a moderator was intended to provide an
environment that is conducive to this discussion, and open to all
categories of potential readers/ contributors without regard to
ideological or political positions.  All this is laid out in the 
Charter of the newsgroup.


Section 2.  SHWV Resources

2a. Newsgroup FAQs

Part of the charter has also been the call for the creation of
Frequently Asked Questions FAQ papers to answer the more commonly
asked questions which continually crop up within the newsgroup about
aspects of the Vietnam War. These FAQs are posted to both
soc.history.war.vietnam and news.answers monthly. Current FAQs cover
topics such as: Vietnam Related Internet Resources; the SHWV
Recommended Reading List;  the Tonkin Gulf Incident; Use of Armoured
Vehicles in the Vietnam War; USAF gunships; and aspects of the
Australian involvement in Vietnam.

The process of developing FAQs is ongoing.  Others on people, places
and events of the various Indochina Wars are being worked on, and will
be posted as available.

The moderators of the newsgroup, in accordance with the Charter, have
the sole responsibility for the development and content of any
newsgroup FAQs. Any person who believes that they have specialized
in-depth knowledge of a topic that wishes to submit a FAQ for review
is encouraged to do so by sending it to vietnam-request@panix.com.<P>

FAQs will be posted for comment on the newsgroup for a period of at
least one month.  More time maybe allocated at the discretion of the
moderators.  During this period, the designation [RFD] will precede
the subject in the header.  FAQs will be submitted to news.answers and
soc.answers upon completion of this process.

All FAQs are available at the www Home Pages, and archived at the
newgroup's ftp archive sites (see below).


2b.  Vietnam Related Bibliographies

In addition to FAQs, a number of bibiographies have been posted to
SHWV, devoted to both general and special interest subjects concerning
the Vietnam War. In addition, the SHWV Recommended Reading List
highlights what we consider to be a core set of readings, designed to
provide background to the issues surrounding the war and its
aftermath. All bibliographies posted to the newsgroup are easily
available both at the newsgroup's websites and in the archives.

The bibliographic resources currently available include: a massive
general bibliography by co-moderator, Prof Edwin Moise; Prof. Lydia M.
Fish's Folklore bibliography; Brian Ross's Australian Involvement
bibliography; a short bibliography on the My Lai massacre; and a short
specialized bibliography on US Veterans Post-service Mortality.


2c.  SHWV Newsgroup Archives

All articles posted to soc.history.war.vietnam are regularly archived
in log files. However, to save storage space, monthly FAQs postings
will only be archived when a change occurs. These are available at the
SHWV Website at:
     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/arch-top.html

In addition, FAQs are also available by anonymous ftp at:
rtfm.mit.edu in the directory pub/usenet/soc.history.war.vietnam 


2d. Website

The SHWV moderators maintain a website at the Lyndon Baines Johnson
Library, University of Texas, 

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwvhome.html

The SHWV Webpage offers many features that are not available directly
through the newsgroup.  These include:

2d1. The Image Library

The soc.history.war.vietnam website contains a substantial image
library, including most of those previous housed at the Byrd Archives,
and a large collection of armor photos. The Image Library may be
accessed from the homepage, or directly at:

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/imagetop.html

Individuals with images that they would like to see appropriately
posted on the web are urged to post such images to the newsgroup (in
uuencoded form) if they are small, or to send them directly to the
newsgroup's information address (vietnam-request@panix.com) for
placement on the website.  Please include as full a description of the
image, including date and location, as is possible.


2d2.  POW-MIA Information Pages

<P> There is also a page dealing with U.S. POW-MIA issues including
the full text of the Report of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA
Affairs and the American Legion Report on the SSC, both provided by
Larry Jewell. The POW-MIA page may be accessed from the homepage, or
directly at:

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/pow-top.html


2d3.  Articles Resource Pages

A number of articles have been posted to SHWV.  To ensure easy
accessibility of these pieces, they are archived not only within the
logfiles but separately on the websites.  Articles of all types and
from all aspects of the debate on the Indochina Wars are welcome.  If
you have an article that you wish to add, please submit it for posting
on the newsgroup. Articles may be accessed from the homepage,
or directly at:

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/art-top.html


2d4. Memoirs and Personal Narrative Pages

Over time, the archives of the newsgroup have become a valuable
reference resource in terms of the discussion about the contested
nature of the issues surrounding the war and in the oral history
included in the articles labeled "PER NAR". They are included in the
logfile archives of the newsgroup.  We are now also archiving them in
a separate section on the SHWV homepage so that they may be more
readily accessible as a resource. This section may be accessed from
the homepage, or directly at:

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/pnar-top.html


2d5. Document Resources

A long term project by the moderators of SHWV, documents relating to
the Indochina Wars are being placed on the web.  New documents will be
added frequently. This section may be accessed from the homepage, or
directly at:

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/doc-top.html


2d6. Resource Index, including hyperlinks to other sites

As noted above, the Vietnam Related Internet Resources FAQ lists
hundreds of World Wide Web sites that pertain to the newsgroup's
focus.  All of these sites are accessible by links from the SHWV
websites.  These links are organized by topic, and by author.

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/topictop.html


2d7. SHWV Book Exchange Pages

The Book Exchange pages on the SHWV website allow readers of the
newsgroup and others to place ads to either buy or sell books related
to the Indochina Wars.  Check the webpages for instructions on how to
do this, and for sample ads.  There are also hyperlinks provided to
book sellers that either specialized or carry substanial stocks of
books related to the newsgroups topics.  The Book Exchange may be
accessed from the homepage, or directly at:

     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/book-top.html


Section 3. Administrative Information

The moderated newsgroup soc.history.war.vietnam is dedicated to the
discussion of the Vietnam / Indochina wars, their antecedents and
their aftermath.  All points of view and disciplines are welcome.  It
is our hope to create a "flame-free" environment in which discourse is
possible, and perhaps even some healing and understanding.

Articles may be submitted in two ways. You can use normal newsreaders
to post to the list.  These will then forward your article to the
submission address for approval.  Or you may send e-mail directly to
the submission address: vietnam@panix.com. The second way actually
should be faster.

The current moderators for soc.history.war.vietnam are:

Alan Dawson: Media Advisor

Ted Gittinger: Newsgroup Archivist

Edwin E. Moise: History/Faq Advisor

Brian Ross: Appeals Referee

John Tegtmeier: Webmaster, FAQ Coordinator, Posting Team

Craig Thompson: Veterans Contact, Posting Team

Frank Vaughan: Active Moderator, Posting Team

Requests for information concerning the newsgroup should be addressed
at to the contact address, not to the individual moderators, at
vietnam-request@panix.com

Please feel free to contact us with any question or suggestion. We
hope that you all will enjoy and profit from the newsgroup.


Section 4. Posting Guidelines.

The criteria for postings are contained in the Charter.  To assist
those who wish to post articles to the newsgroup, the posting
guidelines below were developed. The expressed goal of the newsgroup -
to develop a flame-free environment for discussion of all aspects of
the Indochina War - is the overarching principle in all posting
guidelines.

The submission of an article to this newsgroup implicitly gives
permission for that article to be archived for distribution, and for
quotation of that article within this newsgroup for the purpose of
discussion.  All other rights are assumed to remain with the
contributor under the Berne convention.

Postings are to be done in plain ASCII test.  Postings using other
character sets that result in non-standard characters appearing may,
at the discretion of the moderator, be returned to the poster with
instructions to resubmit using ASCII text.  The moderator may manually
change the nonstandard characters into Ascii, at his or her
discretion.

Please remember that this is a moderated newsgroup.  We are not
on-line all day long (this is all volunteer work) so there may be some
delay from the time you post to the time your article appears on the
newsgroup.  We will try to get articles up as soon as is possible,
normally within a 24 hour time frame.

1. Topics.

The charter requires that postings deal with the Indochina Wars, their
antecedents and their aftermath.  This is to include political
philosophy and social factors.  This also means the mind set of all
the participants at the time, and in the present to the extent that
this reflects on the aftermath of the wars.  It was made clear from
the outset that this was a multi-discipline newsgroup, not just
history.  It is set up as such in the charter.

Posters should restrict their comments to the above.  Posts    
containing ANY material not included within the scope of the  
newsgroup, or legitimate rebuttal to material already posted, will be
returned.  

A word about current event postings - these articles need to conform
to the topic guideline.  That is, the submission must directly link to
the Indochina Wars and their aftermath.  Such topics might include:
POW/MIAs, refugee issues, drug trade, prostitution, environment issues
arising from herbicides, old ordinance, etc.  This does not include
the current policies of the Hanoi government, economic trade (except
as it is tied to a war related issue) or similiar topics.  Such
article are more properly included in bit.listserv.seasia-l or one of
the soc.culture.x groups.

The decision as to an article being admissible resides with
the moderators, who were named as part of the voting process for the
newsgroup, and their successors, as provided in the charter.  Further
comments on the propriety of material shall be deemed as flames, and
rejected.


2.  Personal Attacks.

Articles must be free of personal attacks on individuals in the
readership on the newsgroup.  Since the exact readership of
soc.history.war.vietnam is unknown at any given time, this requirement
may be extented, at the discretion of the moderators, to include any
personal attack.  The determination for this will be context
sensitive. The public acts of public figures are, of course, open to
critique, but only these public acts. The same is true of
organizations which similiarly are also open to a higher level of
critique.  Posters should restrict their comments to the material and
the discourse surrounding the material.  ANY COMMENTS OF A PERSONAL
NATURE REGARDING ANOTHER POSTERS INTENTIONS, MOTIVES, BELIEFS, ETC.
SHALL BE DEEMED A PERSONAL ATTACK, AND REJECTED.  The moderating team
reserves the right to examine the body of a poster's submission in
order to determine if an implicit pattern of harassment exists, and to
use this determination as part of the criteria in evaluating
submissions.

Characterizations of another individual's beliefs or views as
"ridiculous", "stupid", "lies" or any similar label may be deemed,
depending upon the context, not as a critique of the material but as
personal attack, and therefore rejected. Posters will restrict
themselves to a rebuttal of the material and issues raised in an
article without including derogatory or condescending insults.

The moderators may, at their descretion, remove a single line or
sentence of text containing a personal attack if, in the judgement of
the moderator, that single line would result in the posting being
returned to the author, and that there is sufficient value and
timeliness in the posting that such a delay might render the posting
moot. Any poster may request that this not be done.

3.  The Goal of the Newsgroup

The goal of this newsgroup, as outlined at the time of the voting for
its creation, was to promote a flame-free environment for discourse
and to provide a forum in which various sides of the debate, coming
from differing backgrounds, could exchange ideas.  Posters are asked
to bear this in mind.  Posts seeking to restrict this open
availability to all sides of the debate shall be considered flames,
and will be rejected.


4. Commercial 

No articles of a commercial nature will be posted, with the exception
of informational sources of not-for-profit groups which, at the
discretion of the moderators, offer important benefits.  Announcements
of forthcoming or recent publications in the field will also be
allowed on a informational basis.  Any articles containing advertising
of any services for fee must conform to the above to be eligible for
posting.


5. Copyright

Please be aware of the copyright laws as they pertain to your
submissions. They are a lot stricter than you may think.  Under the
Berne convention, just about everything is presumed to be protected,
even if not expressly stated.  The rule of thumb is simply that unless
the person has expressly put the material in the public domain, it
should be treated as protected. As stated above, articles posted to
soc.history.war.vietnam may be quoted for the purpose of discussion on
this newsgroup. If you need more complete information, please look at
the copyright myth FAQ on the news.answers newsgroup.

Quotations from published sources for the purposes of discussion or
illumination are acceptable, as long as those quotations fall within
the fair use provisions of the copyright laws. 


6.  Net etiquette

Posters are asked to voluntarily adhere to common practice in regard
to net etiquette and the posting of articles.  Quotes from prior posts
should not be more than 50% of a posting, and those sections quoted
should have a direct bearing on the commentary in the new article. 
Signature files should be restricted to 4 lines.  The expansion of the
number of Usenet newsgroups, as well as the number of sites getting
news feeds, have increased dramatically, taxing the net's ability to
carry the load.  Quoting a forty line article to say "I agree" is
selfish.  Please use the editing features of your newsreaders and     
stick to the essentials.  The moderators reserve the right to edit
excessive quotation from submitted articles.

7. Personal Narratives

It has been our policy for quite some time to treat personal
narratives - articles marked "PER NAR" in the subject header - as oral
history.

Respondents may ask appropriate questions, but the content of the
articles is considered privileged, and may not be attacked.  This
holds true not only for vets, but for those who were active in the
anti-war movement.

The rationale behind this is simple - it is more beneficial to the
newsgroup to have oral history posted than it is for potential posters
to refrain for fear of confrontation and critique of their actions
years ago.  This will include public figures.


8. Cross-posting Articles.

Request to cross-post articles will be honored with the following
exceptions:

A. Other Moderated Newsgroups. You should submit those individually to
each moderator.

B. alt.war.vietnam.  The moderators may not honor requests to cross-
post to alt.war.vietnam if such cross-posting could cause excessive
burden on the newsgroup.  The reasons behind this lie in the confusion
some readers are having concerning which newsgroup they are posting
to, and consequently, the allowable language in those articles.  This
has resulted in an excessive number of rejected articles, and delays
in posting for those only wishing to post to awv.

Posters who are replying to articles posted on other newsgroups must
cross-post the original article to soc.history.war.vietnam, and post
their replies to all original newsgroups named in the article to which
they are responding.  This is to insure that articles are not taken
out of context, and that the author of the original article has an
opportunity to respond.

In the event postings are crossposted to unmoderated newsgroups, the
moderators may, at their discretion, add a header similar to the
following:

X-Warning: Posters who reply to this article from cross-posted
newsgroups should note that it is posted to a moderated newsgroup, and
as such, will be subjected to the moderating process of
soc.history.war.vietnam.


9.  Relay posting

In the event a a relay posting (one author, a different poster) the
moderators may, at their discretion, add a suitable advisory at the
beginning of the posting, clarifying that the SHWV moderating team
cannot vouch for the accuracy of the material in question. The
moderators may use, but are not required to use, the following
advisory:

[Moderator disclaimer: the posting below is authored by one party and
posted by another. As a matter of policy, the SHWV moderating team
does not make any judgement on the authenticity of the material, nor
on its original authorship.]


10. Quoted material

It is the policy of the newsgroup that quoted material must be
presented verbatim, although it should be trimmed to a manageable
length. If quoted material is changed in a manner that, in the
judgement of the moderators, changes the original author's meaning or
intent then the moderators may either restore the original quoted
material, and post a notice that they have done so, or return the
posting to the author with instructions to restore the quote and
resubmit.

The moderators may also trim excessive quotation of old material, or,
at their discretion, return it to the poster in accordance with
netiquette and accepted practice on the usenet. In the event
moderators trim excessively quoted material, they may, but are not
required to, add an advisory to the message similar to: 

[Excessively quoted material trimmed by the moderator.]

The moderator's will honor any poster's request to have articles
returned rather than trimmed.


11. Typographical Errors

1.  Spelling: The moderators may, at their discretion, correct obvious
spelling errors in postings.

2.  Capitalization: The moderators may, at their discretion, correct
obvious capitalization errors. The moderators may, at their
discretion, return postings for correction by their original author
that do not use reasonably standard capitalization. The moderators are
the sole judge of "reasonably standard capitalization." 


12. Format For Posting

This newsgroup, and its moderating process, are conducted in English.
Articles in other languages related to the newsgroup, such as
Vietnamese, Lao, French, etc., will be accepted for posting only if
accompanied by a full English translation.

Small binary image files (25K or less) may be posted, but only in
uuencoded form. Large images may be submitted, but they will be placed
in the image library of the website.  The article posting to the
newsgroup will only refer to the url of the image.  No other form of
binaries are acceptable.

All articles should be submitted in plain US ASCII text. Postings in
HTML will be returned to the author.


13. Appeal Process

There is an appeal process if you believe that your article was
unfairly rejection.  Please refer to the Charter for full information.
Essentially, all that is required to appeal is to send an e-mail reply
of the rejection notice to all moderators by replying to the
newsgroup's contact address, vietnam-request@panix.com, with the word
APPEAL in the Subject: line.  Posters appealing moderating decisions
should outline the reasons why they believe the submission should be
posted.  All appeals will be run by the Appeals Referee, who will not
be part of the regular Posting Team.


Section 5. The Charter

CHARTER

1. Aim & Purpose of Soc.History.War.Vietnam

This newsgroup will provide an open forum for the objective discussion
of the Vietnam and Indochinese wars, their causes, aftermath, and
effect on the people and societies which took part in them.  The use
of a moderator is intended to provide an environment that is conducive
to this discussion, and open to all categories of potential readers/
contributors - academics, veterans, members of the anti-war movement,
students, and anyone else with an interest - without regard to
ideological or political positions.

The wars in Vietnam and Indochina in the middle of the twentieth
century not only bred armed conflict between combatants, but also
divisiveness and social conflict within the societies of some of the
participicants in the conflicts.  In the United States, some believe
that the war has transcended its historical moment to become a culture
icon for the turbulence of the sixties.  At any rate, there still
exists a great desparity in the understandings of the social,
political and historic circumstances of the war, and its continued
influence on various societies.  Soc.history.war.vietnam will seek to
promote a discourse which will allow these positions to be explored.
Perhaps, in this way, the newsgroup may be instrumental in achieving a
better understanding of the events, and may even assist in the process
of healing.

2. The Function of the Moderators

This newsgroup shall have an active moderator, and at least two
co-moderators.  It shall be the responsibility of the active moderator
to screen postings to the newsgroup, and elimante those which are: a.
flames, insults and attacks directed at a person rather than a
position; b. flames that use derogatory labels to depict whole
categories of people, such as veterans or members of the anti-war 
movement, etc.; c. articles that have no connection to the Vietnam or
Indochina wars, their causes, effects or aftermath; and d. any message
of a commercial nature.  The active moderator may not screen postings
for merit of argument, nor for their political or ideological content.
All articles that are rejected will be sent back to the contributor
with a short message explaning the reason for rejection.  Such
rejections may be appealed as outlined below.

The co-moderators serve in a back-up capacity, so as to insure
continuity during either a temporary or permanent change in the status
of the active moderator.  In addition, the co-moderators will have the
responsibility, along with the active moderator, for voting on appeals
of rejected posts, the appointment of new moderators, and the possible
removal of a current moderator as outlined below.

3.  Appeal of Rejection of Posts

If a contributor whose post has been rejected wishes to appeal this
action, the current active moderator will forward this request and the
post in question to all co-moderators for a vote.  If the majority of
all moderators votes to overrule the rejection, the article will be
sent to the newsgroup.  If the post is rejected, the person appealling
the rejection will be sent a summary of the votes by the moderators.

4.  Appointment of New Moderators

New co-moderators will be appointed as necessary through the
nomination of an individual by the other moderators. The appointment
will require a unanimous vote of the current moderators to pass. The
new co-moderator's name will then be submitted to the newsgroup for a
five day discussion period.  During these five days, any of the 
current moderators may change their vote in response to this
discussion.  At the end of the five days, if all the moderators are
still in agreement, the nominee becomes a co-moderator.

5.  Removal of a Moderator

A moderator may be removed for the following causes: a. failure to
perform the outlined duties of the position, 2. a pattern of biased or
discriminatory rejections of postings.  Such removal will be made by
the formal vote of all current moderators. A 2/3rds vote in favor of
such action will be required for removal. The reasons for, and results
of, all such votes will be posted to the newsgroup.

6. FAQ

The moderators, as a group, will be responsible for the development
and posting of a frequently asked question (FAQ) file for this
newsgroup.

7.  Posting of Charter and Moderators List

This charter will be reposted, along with the list of current
moderators to the newsgroup every month.
