1. Since we are a public community, anyone who obtains a free MSN Passport may join.

2. New members are urged to read our Community Description carefully (see the Home Page). Statements or actions inconsistent with that Description, derogating from it, or otherwise running counter to it, may result in a member's being conditionally excluded from the Community or banned outright from it. Moreover, anyone that consistently bring bashing and proselytizing and no follow what the welcome states, this also may result in a member's being conditionally excluded from the Community or banned outright from it. Questions about this policy should be directed to the management via e-mail.

3. If a member has joined the Community under more than one Passport identity, any or all of that member's identities may be excluded or banned by management without prejudice or notice. Alternate personae facilitate an "echo effect" whereby a thread on the Message Board can be made to seem more controversial than it really is by one or two people pretending to be many. It is best to minimize confusion about who is addressing themselves to whom. And the deceptions arising from alternate personae in chat needs no elaboration.

4. Members who have not included in their Member Profile a valid, useable e-mail address belonging to them are subject to exclusion by management without prejudice or notice. Any member thus excluded who wishes to re-enter the Community should do so only while including such an address. Re-entering the Community without providing such an address may result in the member's being banned outright.

5. Members who violate the policies set forth below are subject to admonishment, exclusion, or banning at the discretion of management. This holds especially for harassment of members in any form, public or private.

This is the most active area of the Community and the hardest to regulate. Constructive suggestions are welcome via e-mail to the managers.

1. Members are encouraged to post about topics of interest to Catholics as such, and are urged to post under a specific "Topic" as far as possible. A list of available topics is given by the yellow drop-down menu at the top of the Message Board, and in the green column on the left of your screen under the Message Board link. It can be augmented at any time by management, which encourages members to suggest topics. The purpose of the Topic List is to facilitate use of the Message Board by enabling members to locate and post topical messages without their browsers having to load the entire board. Please be considerate to other members and use this feature.

2. Messages subject to deletion by management include, but are not limited to, the following:

(a) exact duplicates of an already posted message, or otherwise redundant messages. This is the most frequent ground for deletion and almost always results from reposting when the server is slow to respond.

(d) messages that, in the judgment of a Manager or Assistant Manager, personally attack, insult, or defame a member. (All this is covered by the aforementioned MSN documents, but experience shows that it needs restatement and refinement for the purposes of particular communities.) To some extent, the categories of "attack" and "insult" are clear to everyone and thus are objectively applicable; but also to some extent, what counts as an attack or insult is contextual and subjective. (The same goes for such concepts as baldness or elegance.) That's why these matters shall be left to the judgment of a Manager or Assistant Manager with due regard for the reasoned input of other members. The same holds a fortiori for defamation, which includes both detraction and calumny. For our purposes, detraction is defined as publicly asserting or implying, without any moral or legal obligation to do so, something derogatory about a member's character in such a way or context that one could reasonably expect that member's good reputation in the community (or elsewhere) to be harmed thereby. For our purposes, calumny is defined as detraction in which the derogatory assertion or implication is false. Which messages are defamatory in either of those senses, and how serious a given instance of defamation is, are questions that management must ultimately decide using the definitions given and their prudent judgment in applying them.

3. Messages advertising other sites or communities are generally acceptable, but are subject to deletion upon discovery if:

(a) they violate the MSN.COM Terms of Service or the MSN Web Communities Code of Conduct

(b) in the judgment of the Manager or an Assistant Manager, they have no religious value or interest to our membership

(c) they violate any other regulation set forth on this page.

4. Use of non-original material.

(a) Posts consisting of or containing material published elsewhere (either on the Internet or in print form) must respect all copyright conditions set by the copyright holders. When in doubt, the best thing to do is post the relevant URL accompanied by a short summary or quotation. If the material in question has a copyright notice appended at its source, then one should assume it may not be legally reproduced on our Message Board without explicit permission of the copyright holder. In particular, if the notice says "all rights reserved," or if it explicitly forbids republication without written permission, then posting it on our Message Board is illegal. If management discovers a copyright violation in a post, that post will be deleted immediately and without warning.

(b) Non-original material posted to the Message Board must not only respect copyright conditions but must also be accompanied by some indication of the source. If the material was copied from a Web site, the full URL must be given; if the material comes from a book, periodical, or other print medium, the title, publisher, and date of publication must ordinarily be given (unless the source is a standard reference, such as the Bible or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.) In all cases except that of such reference works, the original author(s)/editor(s) of the material must be named.

5. Management reserves the right to delete any message if it deems that action necessary or prudent. This right shall rarely be exercised apart from the conditions listed.

Some veteran cybercitizens describe chat rooms as "the trailer parks of the Internet," but we firmly believe that chat shouldn't and needn't be that way. Our Chat Room can only be used by members and is regulated as follows.

1. Where applicable, Chat Room policies and norms are the same as those in paragraphs 2 and 3 in the Message Board section of this page. Action to be taken in response to violations is specified in paragraph 3 of this section.

2. The chat room shall be hosted by members at least at times specified in our Chat Room Schedule page (see left for the link to the schedule). Because of software limitations, hosts do not carry "gavels" or have special tools. But hosts are formally authorized by management to host during the specified times; members thus authorized are those named in the Chat Room Schedule. Any Manager or Assistant Manager, and anyone authorized by management to host the Chat Room, count as hosts whenever they are in the room.

3. Hosts are authorized to set discussion topics, moderate the discussion, and maintain decorum in the room. Members who fail to respect the directives of hosts may be excluded or banned from the community on the spot if a Manager or Assistant Manager is hosting the room. Hosts who do not belong to management must report misconduct by chatters promptly by e-mail to a Manager or Assistant Manager for appropriate action. In such an event, hosts shall copy and paste the offending text and include it in the e-mail along with a description of the circumstances. Chatters thus reported may be admonished, excluded from the community, or banned therefrom at the discretion of management with advice from the reporting host.

Under the hyperlink "Recommendations" in the left-hand column of your screen are really four pages: Books, Videos, Music, and Links. As the boilerplate introduction implies, members shall be given a great deal of latitude in recommending said items.

1. On each of the first three aforenamed pages, members may contribute recommendations without informing or consulting with management. At the same time, management reserves the right to modify or delete recommendations it deems either deceptive or otherwise inappropriate according to the criteria set forth in the Community Description, applicable MSN policies, and other applicable policies on this page.

2. Only the Manager and Assistant Managers are able to contribute items to the Links section. Other members are strongly encouraged to submit their recommendations to the management using either the Message Board or e-mail. Such recommendations are usually accepted, but any submission may be rejected if management deems it to be either deceptive or otherwise inappropriate according to the criteria set forth in the Community Description, applicable MSN policies, and other applicable policies on this page.

This area affords a great opportunity for members to make themselves known to the Community and to make their favorite images available to the Community. Members may contribute photos or images without informing or consulting with management. The Manager and Assistant Managers reserve the right to modify or delete items they deem to be either deceptive or otherwise inappropriate according to the criteria set forth in the Community Description, applicable MSN policies, and other applicable policies set forth on this page.

So far, we have considered only those areas of this Web site that constitutes standard features of MSN Web Communities. From time to time, management adds new areas or pages at its discretion, such as this one. These additional features of the Community are modified on an ongoing basis. Members are encouraged to suggest additions or other changes via either the Message Board or e-mail to management.