Subject: soc.history.war.vietnam FAQ: Admin Info and Posting Guidelines

All FAQs in Directory: vietnam
All FAQs posted in: soc.history.war.vietnam
Source: Usenet Version

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
Organization: SHWV

Archive-Name: vietnam/info-and-guidelines
Last-modified: 1999/05/01
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. Soc.history.war.vietnam and How It Came to Be. 
     2. SHWV Resources.
     2a. Newsgroup FAQs.
     2b. SHWV Newsgroup Archives
     2c. Vietnam War Internet Project Website
     2c1. Image Library
     2c2. Article Resources
     2c3. Memoirs and Personal Narratives
     2c4. Document Resources
     2c5. Resource / Topical Index
     2c6. Oral History Project
     3. Administrative Information
     4. Posting Guidelines.
     5. The Charter 

Section 1. 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, mud-slinging matches 
and outright mayhem. As a result, 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 on a regular basis. 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@home.net. 

     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 Vietnam War Internet 
Project website at:     

http://www.vwip.org/vwiphome.html 

     In addition, FAQs are also available by anonymous ftp 
at: 

rtfm.mit.edu/ub/usenet/soc.history.war.vietnam 

2b. 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. 

2c. Vietnam War Internet Project Website 

     The SHWV archives are now part of, and affiliated 
with, the Vietnam War Internet Project (VWIP). Articles and 
bibliographies that have been posted to SHWV and other 
related material are maintained at the VWIP website at the 
Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidental Library located at the 
University of Texas in Austin at: 

http://www.vwip.org/vwiphome.html

     This website offers many features that are not 
available directly through the newsgroup. These include: 

1. The Image Library 

     The Vietnam War Internet Project website contains a 
substantial image library, including most of those previous 
housed at the Byrd Archives, and a large collection of 
armor and gunship photos. The Image Library may be accessed 
from the homepage.

     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@home.net) for 
placement on the website. Please include as full a 
description of the image, including date and location, as 
is possible. 

2. 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. SHWV articles, as well as others not 
posted to the     newsgroup, are available at the VWIP 
through the homepage 

3. 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. They are also available as part 
of the Memoirs and Personal Narrative section of the 
VWIP website. so that they may be more readily 
accessible as a resource. This section may be accessed from 
the VWIP homepage.

4. Document Resources 

     A long term project by the Vietnam War Internet 
Project, 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 VWIP homepage. 

5. Resource / Topical Index 

     The Vietnam War Internet Project offers topical 
indexes both by subject and by author. As part of an 
ongoing project, topics will have a short descriptive 
entry, validated and recommended web sites, bibliographical 
information and lists of related topics. As part of this 
project, SHWV moderator Ted Gittinger is working on a 
full topical index of the soc.history.war.vietnam 
newsgroup which will be a stand-alone entity as well as 
being integrated into the VWIP index. 

6. Oral History Project 

     The Vietnam War Internet Project is also engaged in an 
ongoing project to bring to the web existing oral history 
collections, such as the one at the LBJ Library, and will 
be collecting its own series of interviews with "street 
level" folks - regular soldiers, sailors, anti-war 
activists, etc. This section is due to open by June 2002. 

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. 

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

     Joe Carwithen: Appeals Referee 

     Alan Dawson: Media Advisor 

     Ted Gittinger: Newsgroup Indexer 

     Edwin E. Moise: History/FAQ Advisor 

     Brian Ross: Moderator Emeritus 

     John Tegtmeier: Webmaster, FAQ Coordinator 

     Frank Vaughan: Active Moderator 

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

     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 (see 
Below concerning current events). 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 articles 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 extended, 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 similarly 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 history 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 discretion, remove a 
single line or sentence of text containing a personal 
attack if, in the judgment 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 but runs 
the risk that their entire posting may be returned. 

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 not be honored. 

     Posters who are replying to articles posted on other 
newsgroups must include the entire original article within 
their to soc.history.war.vietnam posting. 

     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. 

9. Relay posting 

     In the event 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 judgment 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, but are under 
no obligation to do so. 

     2. Capitalization: The moderators may, at their 
discretion, correct obvious capitalization errors, but are 
under no obligation to do so. 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. 

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

     No binary files will be posted. Binaries may be 
submitted, but they will be placed on the Vietnam War 
Internet Project website (if relevant). The article posting 
to the newsgroup will only refer to the url of the binary 
file (image, audio, etc). In no case are executable files 
acceptable. 

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@home.net, 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 explaining 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 
appealing 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.