This group currently has only a few guidelines by which we ask everyone to abide. Our email list and forums are visible to the public. We must therefore make a conscious effort to consider how what we post may be perceived by others, how it may affect our reputation, and how productive it is overall.

For this reason, we do not entertain any discussion of government involvement in the events of 9/11. If you are someone who believes the government was involved in those events in some way, please do not post about it on the site either through the email list or the files tab. We also avoid discussion of President Obama's nationality. We prefer to focus on issues and initiatives on which we can make a measurable impact. If these two guideline is violated, one warning will be given. If the guideline is violated a second time, you will be removed from the membership list.

In addition, we avoid the automatic forwarding of ANYTHING that has come from outside email distribution lists.

If you receive an email that you feel is worthy of discussion, we ask that you engage the following protocol:

1) Check to see that the material the email contains is actually accurate/legitimate. There are a number of ways to do so. Several sites, such as Snopes and FactCheck, provide a great way to verify if circulating material is legitimate and comes from a reputable source. If the material is a newspaper article or column, verify the actual author and publication that printed or posted it. Also make sure the article has not been altered in any way from its original form.

2) If the material is accurate/legitimate, RATHER THAN FORWARDING THE EMAIL, please do your best to provide a link or links to the original articles or studies from which the data in the email was pulled or compiled. Make sure you also provide DATES for the material so people can make a determination about how CURRENT the information is.

3) If you cannot access original material but have verified its accuracy and still feel the email contains content that the group see, please CUT AND PASTE ONLY THE RELEVANT PORTIONS INTO A NEW EMAIL, eliminating anything extraneous--including exhortations to forward the material, commentary by others who received the email first, and the string of email addresses through which the material has already passed. Doing so will protect the privacy of others and will also assist in keeping any tracked emails off our list.

4) If you forward material as per the guidelines above, make sure you PROVIDE A QUESTION OR BRIEF CONTEXT so the group understands your reasons for bringing the material to their attention. For instance, if it's statistics about other countries, the context can be as simple as, "I verified that the following information is true by checking it at both Snopes and FactCheck. I couldn't find an original study, but I believe we're heading in this direction. Does anyone have a sense of what thresholds we'd still need to cross to arrive there? Or does anyone know of an in-depth source on economic trends in countries that have implemented a VAT tax on top of an income tax?"

5) If you simply cannot verify one way or another whether the information in an email is true or false but feel it may be important, cut and paste the relevant data into an email, send it to ME. I will see who in our group may be able to help either to verify or disprove the information.

6) If you receive links to video content, the rules are the same. Go straight to the video material, cut and paste the link into a new email to the group, and provide a question or some basic context. Al did a nice job, for example, of explaining the other day why he had shared a video, noting that it seemed to fit with our values and message as we approach November elections. That's great, succinct context. People can then agree or disagree with his premise based on what they find when they watch the video.

If we can abide by these basic guidelines, I'm pretty confident we'll have a list we can all respect and feel good about. And I'll have to play bad cop a lot less. Which will make me--and, I'm sure, everyone else--really happy. If I see violations, I will continue to do my best politely to warn folks. However, while I hate to be a hard nose, more than three violations will be grounds for removal from the list.

Thanks for your gracious help with maintaining the integrity of our email list.

Kirsten