Message-ID: <3f053620>
From: Chris Ho-Stuart
Subject: Re: Finding a sane Christian newsgroup
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian,aus.religion

[Material quoted from previous articles has been omitted at the
author's request. The topic was on whether or not it was appropriate
for an atheist to participate in these religious groups.]

The charter for aus.religion.christian and aus.religion can
be found here:
<http://danny.oz.au/communities/aus.religion/Charter.html>

Here is the introduction:

This charter covers both aus.religion and
aus.religion.christian (henceforth AR and ARC). It is
normative, but should be seen as offering guidelines rather
than hard-and-fast rules.

First of all, note that the dividing line between the two
groups has nothing to do with the beliefs of the poster --
atheists, Jews, Buddhists, etc. are welcome in ARC and
Christians in AR. The division between the two is solely
on content, and is fairly simple: anything whose primary
subject is Christianity or some aspect of Christianity
belongs in ARC; anything else to do with religion or
religions belongs in AR.

There is more material in the charter as well. Note that it
explicitly requests people NOT to cross post from these
Australian groups to wider discussion forums. Also, there is
a request for people not to post "flame-bait". Gratuitous
insults to Christians, or unbelievers, or any particular
doctrinal position, would be better elsewhere. This group
aims to be an friendly and open forum.

We don't always acheive that; but there is a kind of central
core of regulars who have maintained high standards of mutual
respect throughout the group's long history.

I have contributed here for more than ten years. I believe I
generally maintained a high standard of constructive engagement.
I think any of the other long time regulars would confirm that;
even colleagues with whom I have had some major disagreements.

At its best, this group has been able to set a very high standard
for mutually respectful and substantive engagement across a range
of views. At its worst, the problem has often been blow-ins from
other groups, or inappropriate crossposting.

If anyone takes the time to learn about the charter of the
group, and the people who contribute, it may help them to join
in the kind of open accepting and constructive multi-viewpoint
community that we can be.

The newsgroup also has a FAQ, which is now badly out of date,
unfortunately. It is at present found here:
<http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/8898.htm>
because the sites where it used to be maintained is no longer
available.

From that FAQ, here are the official set of posting guidelines
for the group.

Subject: 5. Posting guidelines

Aus.religion is first and foremost a discussion group. It
is home to many people of extremely diverse beliefs. Please
respect this.

This is not to say that you shouldn't criticise people's
beliefs --- on the contrary, most people enjoy having their
beliefs challenged. However resorting to personal abuse
is the surest sign that you have lost your argument. If
in doubt, always remember: The thing that you believe in
most dearly is nonsense to someone else.

Oh, and one more thing: Please PLEASE don't cross-post to
other news groups, especially American ones. Aus.religion
prides itself on its relatively high signal-to-noise
ratio. If you must cross-post (for example, many religious
groups hold political beliefs, so a cross-posting to
aus.politics is conceivable) please include a Followups-to
line in your message so that the resulting discussion is
limited to one of the groups. Also mention this for the
benefit of anyone who may wish to follow the discussion.

As of mid-1996, articles posted to aus.religion.christian
which are cross-posted to more than one non-aus.* group
are cancelled by an automatic script. See the question
below on why this measure was taken.

Unfortunately, the last paragraph no longer applies, since for
technical reasons the moderation script does not have a home.

But generally, the other points remain as they have always been.

(1) You are all welcome to join in, regardless of beliefs.
(2) Please respect others of different beliefs.
(3) Please do not engage in personal abuse of others.
(4) Please do not cross post; or if you really must, then
please use a followup line so that subsequent discussion is
in one group only.

This is the long standing ideal of aus.religion.christian. Of
course, there are also other ways to do things, and other places
where they are done differently.

But HERE, the aspirations are as set out above.

Please respect this group, for what it is. If you would like
to join in and share in this style of open and accepting forum,
be very welcome. If you would prefer something else, then you'll
certainly find it available somewhere. Drop back here anytime,
but don't try and just run roughshed of the group, and its
aspirations, and people who have been posting here for years.

Best wishes -- Chris