Frambors and Framcom: Terms and Conditions

Frambors and Framcom are community e-mail lists open to anyone with a connection to Framingham, MA who wants to participate. These lists are intended to promote community awareness about issues and events and allow the civil exchange of opinions and advice. We require that subscribers:

• keep their posts appropriate and relevant to the list’s primary purpose,
• sign their real name, first and last,
• be civil and respectful,
• conform with special rules for elections, and
• ensure they are conforming to copyright and other applicable laws.

Details about these issues, potential consequences for failure to abide by them, and other restrictions and disclaimers are provided below. We require that all subscribers to the list abide by the following terms and conditions.

Keep Posts Relevant to the Primary Purpose of the List

By posting a message to Frambors or Framcom, you agree to make a good faith effort to post on relevant, appropriate topics.

Appropriate topics for Frambors include 1) matters in front of local governing bodies; 2) issues that someone believes should be addressed by the town government; 3) issues in front of community or neighborhood groups; and 4) stories and editorials in local newspapers, radio stations or other local media that relate to these issues.

Appropriate topics for Framcom include 1) topics that relate to Framingham but do not relate to town government, neighborhood groups or media of coverage of such topics, 2) community events announcements not related to town government, neighborhood groups or media of coverage of such topics, such as PTO events, non-profit fundraisers, and concerts., and 3) personal requests or announcements (recommendations, advice, yard sale or “for sale” announcements).

These kinds of posts are not appropriate for posting on either Frambors or Framcom:

1. Posts about issues that are being debated primarily at the state or national level, rather than the local level (e.g. immigration, income taxes, state and federal education policies, abortion, global warming, etc.)
2. Post that are not substantive in nature, like "thank yous," one-liners or jokes, satire, posts that, in effect, simply say "me too" or "I agree" without adding any additional commentary.
3. Links to a web page without explanation of what it is, how it relates to issues in Framingham and why you are sharing it with the list.
4. Frequent commercial postings.

The list moderators reserve the right to stop discussion about topics that lack sufficient relevance, and to place subscribers with difficulty posting appropriately (as defined above) in supervised mode.

Sign Your Full Name to All Posts

By posting a message to Frambors or Framcom, you agree to sign your postings with your real first and last name, and you represent and warrant that you are who you say you are, that you have not submitted fictitious, false or inaccurate information about yourself Messages must have your name in the body of the message. Your full name in the “From:” line is not enough because some people use mailers that do not display the full name.

The list owner would like you to provide your name, address and phone number for identity verification purposes and to make contact if there are problems with mail delivery. This information is not given out to list members. You do not have to provide your real name to subscribe to the list as long as you do not post. However, all posts from subscribers who have not provided identifying information to the satisfaction of the list owner will be blocked. The list’s privacy policy can be found here.

If you have a personal or business relationship with the subject of your post, please mention it so readers will know. On Frambors, we also ask that you identify your title if it is relevant to the discussion.

Post with Civility and Respect

By posting a message to Frambors or Framcom, you represent and warrant that the posted content does not contain any threatening, harassing, libelous, false, defamatory, offensive, obscene, or pornographic, material, or other material that would violate any other applicable law or regulation. It would be nice to be able to state simple definitions for civility and then let everyone exercise their common sense. Posters are expected to show basic respect for other list members in their posts. The list moderators will ultimately make the determination about violations of civility rules, as one person's opinion or description is another person's insult.

Issues, not people, are to be the subject of the debate. Personal attacks, including insults, name-calling and unfounded accusations (especially with respect to legal and ethical violations,) are not allowed on the list about anybody at any time. Posts should not attack or question the unstated motivations or character of another person. Insulting characterizations of groups of people are not permitted.

Sometimes the actions of a public official or representative of an organization can be a legitimate topic of conversation or criticism. It is important both the people be held accountable for their actions when they affect the general public, and that criticism not be discouraged. However, in this forum, the actions of the people and their impact should be the focus of discussion, not the character or motivation of those people.

Posts should not be harassing in nature, including demanding that another subscriber reply to a comment or story or repeated postings of a similar comment meant to antagonize or harass another subscriber. One exception to this rule is that it is allowable to ask a public official or candidate for office to reply to a comment or question; however, if a question is not answered, the same question may not be repeated within a short period of time.

Personal attacks are also not allowed off-list (aka flames) in response to a post. Contacting someone off-list about a post after they have made a personal request that you not contact them anymore, or contacting someone anonymously off-list is also prohibited, and may result in the termination of your subscription.

The list moderators reserve the right to place subscribers with difficulty complying with civility guidelines (as defined above) in supervised mode.

Avoid Campaigning and Endorsements on Frambors during an Election

These rules are intended to minimize the negative comments and mud slinging that often comes with hard fought political campaign, while still allowing list members to get key election information. All messages that refer to a candidate's name will trap for review by the moderating team when during campaign season. Such posts by and about candidates will be reviewed before going to the Frambors to ensure that they do not contain either campaigning or endorsements according to the following guidelines:

1. No direct campaigning is allowed, and all candidates' posts will be moderated to enforce this policy. During elections, candidates may discuss issues, answer questions, and announce campaign events. The list moderators reserve the right to decide whether or not posts comply with this rule.
2. No endorsements (or anti-endorsements) are allowed, and all posts that mention a candidate's name or e-mail address will be reviewed by the moderating team. You may discuss issues but anything that might be construed as favoring a particular candidate will be rejected. Likewise, anything that might be construed as a personal attack will be rejected. The list moderators reserve the right to decide whether or not posts comply with this rule. However, members may post a link to their endorsements, and use the Framingham Wiki to post their endorsements.

References to specific candidates, including references to candidates names, may only be made with respect to the following:

1. To ask a question of a candidate
2. To comment on a statement, position or action made by a candidate in a public context, such as in the newspaper, a public meeting, debate, website, or e-mail to this list.
3. To reference a public office held by the candidate,
4. To reference a public document, such as a newspaper article, town

report, or the SMOC lawsuit, that refers to the candidate.

If you are clearly referring to a specific candidate or candidates, even if you do not use the candidate’s name, you still must conform to the above rules. Civility guidelines will be strictly enforced with respect to posts about candidates.

Subscribers may ask questions of the candidates, and, of course, the candidates are allowed and encouraged to answer. If a question is not answered by a candidate, the same question may not be repeated. Candidates and the public are allowed to make political announcements. Examples of things that are of an announcement nature might be "I am running", "I am holding a fundraiser", or "I have a website to provide information". Whenever possible, the operator of Frambors will provide hosting for anyone's webpage if they do not have access to their own facilities.

Respect Copyright Laws and Use Appropriate Citations

Use your own words in your postings and attribute all information you get from other sources. If you want to tell others about an article found elsewhere on the web, please provide a link rather than copying and pasting the entire article into your post. You may not republish someone else's copyrighted material on Frambors or Framcom without permission of the copyright holder.

By posting to Frambors and Framcom, you represent and warrant that your post does not violate or constitute the infringement of any right of privacy, right of publicity, moral rights, or other intellectual property right of any person or entity, or breach any agreement with any other person or entity.

By subscribing to Frambors and Framcom, you agree not to publishing a list posting in a public location, such as a website or online forum, whether signed or unsigned, whether copied privately to you or not, without the author's permission or to repost to the list an e-mail you received privately, whether signed or unsigned, without the author's permission. For the purpose of this guideline, "private" means "not posted to these lists."

By posting a message to Frambors or Framcom, you retain your copyright, but grant the list moderators the right to edit of your post for spelling, punctuation, to add your name, or to remove or reduce quoted material from posts to which you are replying. Your post will never be edited as to content or substance without your permission. You agree to allow possible deletion of your entire comment if a portion breaks the rules. (The moderators encourage you to keep copies of your posts so you can submit a new, edited version if necessary.) We are willing will help you find a way to get your point across without violating the terms and conditions.

You also grant (1) a non-exclusive license to all list members to forward that message by e-mail to anyone, (2) a non-exclusive license to the list owner to maintain an archive, and (3) a non-exclusive license to the list owner to repost recommendations and information to the Framingham Wiki. These rights you grant by posting to the list constitute the only exceptions to the normal protection afforded by the copyright you retain to your words, so any other use of an e-mail you send to this list requires your prior permission. Any use of your posting without your permission, beyond the licenses and rights granted here, is a matter between you and the person who uses your posting improperly, and you agree to hold the list owner harmless. Your subscription information is destroyed when you leave the list. Archived messages previously posted by you are retained indefinitely and continue to be subject to the above policy.

FOR THE PRESS: If you write or publish news articles or editorials in the newspaper, we require that newspaper articles to provide the following URL when making reference to these lists so that more people can know to subscribe,

• "http://frambors.syslang.net";

• "frambors.syslang.net"

with preference to the first form.

Your cooperation is both expected and appreciated as a condition to your subscription.

Leave Site Policing to the List Moderators

It's not necessary for site users to police each other's comments by adding comments about other's use of the list. If you would like to report a possible violation of list policy, please email us at frambors-owner@syslang.net and refer us to the offending post. We'll take care of it so you don't have to. We reserve the right to disagree with you about whether or not a post conforms to list guidelines.

Limit Commercial Postings

You are allowed to make commercial postings to the Framcom list as long as they are relevant to Framingham and relatively infrequent. Commercial means that the primary purpose of your posting is to advertise something about your business or service -- advertising to sell your car, for example, doesn't fall under this guideline unless that's your business. Relevant to Framingham means that, for example, your business or service is located in Framingham, or you live in Framingham, or your posting is very likely to be of wide interest to Framingham residents. Relatively infrequent means that postings from your business or service should occur no more often than every twelve months or so.

Since one of the primary uses of the Framcom list is for residents to exchange recommendations for and against local businesses, you should expect that advertising your business may spark discussion, both pro and con, about the business. Civil criticism of or concerns raised about your business will not normally be considered a personal attack.

Disclaimers

Registering as a subscriber to Frambors or Framcom constitutes acceptance of this site's policies and agreement to abide by the terms and conditions of the site.

The list owner and moderators reserve the right to place subscribers into supervised mode (where an operator reviews the postings of an individual to confirm that it is in compliance) with or without their knowledge. (A goal of the Frambors list is to supervise the minimum number of people, and generally we provide notification if this occurs on Frambors.) If you wish to appeal a decision about a post or about being placed in supervised mode, you may request that the decision be reviewed by the list operators (i.e., the Frambors Moderators). Ultimately, the decision about posts or to place a subscriber in supervised mode is in the hands of the list moderators.

The list owners and moderators are not responsible for comments posted on Frambors, Framcom, or the Framingham Wiki. Information posted on the site is the responsibility of the individual posters, even if they are in supervised mode at the time their comments are posted. The list moderators have not and cannot review all material made available through websites linked or linking to any part of this site or posts. No such linking implies in any way that the list owner or list moderators endorse or are affiliated with any third-party website. You agree that they bear no responsibility or liability for any content accessed or harm caused from any third-party website.

The list owner and moderators reserve the right to refuse publication of any post for any reason, and to ban or suspend any user at any time, with or without warning, for activities that put the site at risk.

In posting to Frambors and Framcom, you agree to indemnify and hold the list owner and list moderators harmless from any claim or demand made by any third party due to or arising out of you use of the Frambors or Framcom, your violation of these Terms and Conditions, or the infringement by them or made under their account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

Failure of the list moderators to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms and Conditions shall not be deemed a waiver of such right or provision in that or any other instance.

These policies may be updated at any time.