I. - Purpose and Goals of this Document

• To make people aware of the existence and purpose of this channel.
  
• To codify administrative procedures for #cydonia, for determining operator status and kicks and bans
  
• To let newcomers know what is appropriate behavior on #cydonia.
  
• To serve as a general guideline for topics to be discussed on #cydonia.
  

In short, this document was drafted with the goal of providing #cydonia with a sense of order and direction and to reduce ambiguities concerning #cydonia policies. The contents of this document are not set in stone but rather, are malleable and will change whenever a meetings on policies is to be called. Everyone (myself included) is expected to follow the guidelines outlined in this document on and following the day it is agreed upon.

II. - What is #cydonia?

#cydonia is an IRC channel located on the Undernet. It serves as a forum for the discussion and exchange of ideas concerning the artificial structures found at Cydonia, Mars and Richard Hoagland's further discoveries. Anyone who is interested in these topics is invited to come and participate or even lurk. Participants on #cydonia range from newage-like believers to hardline skeptics to just plain curious and all are welcomed to come and discuss their ideas. Topics on #cydonia include:

• The "Face" on Mars
• The Cydonia Mensae region structures (including the "city", "tholus", "crater pyramid", etc)
• Other unusual structures on Mars (and its moons, Phobos and Deimos)
• Glass structures and other anomalies on the surface of our own moon
• Hyperdimensional physics/tetrahedral energy and their implications
• Richard Hoagland and the Enterprise Mission
• Anything else that may be related to the above topics (e.g. further discoveries by Hoagland, etc)

Topic discussions need not however revolve around the above subjects. There is no policy of excluding any topic from consideration. More often than not, discussions will usually involve friendly and informal chat. Casual chat is perfectly agreeable on #cydonia, but please keep chat down to a minimum during meetings featuring guest speakers. Priority, however, will be given to "Hoagland" topics (enforced by current ops).

III. - Netiquette on #cydonia

Basically, the rules for behavior on #cydonia are simple and straightforward.

• Please treat others with respect and courtesy.
  
• Disagreements are inevitable and are not to be taken to a personal level. That is, please keep derogative remarks and remarks against a person's character to a minimum. Statements against a person's sex, race, or creed will not be tolerated and is grounds for kicking. Repeated offenses shows disregard for the goals of #cydonia and disrespect for others, resulting in a kick or possibly a ban. Mere disagreement however is not a basis for kicking someone.
  
• Flooding, name calling and other disruptive behavior are not allowed. Profane language is tolerated but please keep in mind that such language will often be offensive to some and should be stopped at the request of others. Repeated use of profane language despite other's request to stop will result in a kick. If kicking is not enough to deter someone repeatedly joining the channel and being offensive, then ops should kick and ban that person without further warning
  
• This channel should serve as a platform for IRCers to exchange openly their thoughts and ideas in a free and comfortable environment. Cooperation is emphasized.
  

IV. - Operator Guidelines

All administrative policies on #cydonia are to be deliberated and voted on by current Undernet #cydonia operators.

1) Granting Op Privileges

Temporary ops are NOT to be allowed. That is, please do not op someone who is not on W's list of ops. Temporary ops are decided to be a threat to the security of the #cydonia channel and should not be given out on any condition. If you are not sure whether someone is a permanent op, please do a "/msg W access #UFO [nick]" where [nick] is the name of the individual in question or his/her irc address.

For the granting of permanent ops, a minimum of 6 permanent ops needs to agree to allow the person in question to gain permanent ops. Those ops with less than 400 access level should either contact a 400 or higher op via IRC or email. Any new ops should be reported to me, the channel manager.

Ops should be recommended on the basis of :

• The frequency of the person on the channel
• The knowledgeability of the person on the subject
• The person's mannerisms (i.e. netiquette)

2) Suspension or Removal of Op Privileges

If an op abuses his/her power (such as kicking/banning users without reason) or allows gross misbehaviour to occur on the channel while he/she is on #cydonia, without doing anything about it are grounds for the suspension or removal of Op Privileges. At least 3 ops should contact me with the information/evidence of abuse of op power (having a log file of what occurred is considered evidence). The op in question shall be removed from W's list of ops. To have op status returned, the person will have to mend his/her ways and follow the guidelines in "Granting Op Privileges" above.

3) Channel MODE Settings

The normal default settings for #cydonia are flags "+tn". "+t" restricts topic settings to ops only and "+n" prevents any messages from those outside the channel (usually someone who is banned) from being sent to the channel via a channel query. The flags +s (secret), +l (limit number of people on channel), +i (invite only), and +k (password) should not be used since I feel they are too restricting.

4) Kicking and Banning

If an op feels that a kick is necessary, please inform the channel publicly that the person in question is disruptive and is about to be kicked. Private warnings are ok but follow it up with a public warning to dispell any ambiguities. Bans should be performed only after the person proves him/herself to be repeatedly disruptive after a kick has been attempted. Please however do not kick or ban on the basis of disagreement alone.

5) Guest Speaker Procedures

At the beginning of a meeting featuring a guest speaker, ops should decide on two or possibly even three ops who should moderate the talk depending on the size of the group. The load may be too great for one op to handle the whole talk and would most likely swamp the op with requests to speak. I propose that after two ops have been decided on, the guest should be given a voice (+v) or op status and a public announcement be given to put in effect the +m setting. At that time, all other ops should relinquish their op status for the duration of the meeting (opless permanent ops are still considered ops and still retain their right to be consulted on matters of kicking/banning/etc).

The channel should be set +t and a note of the presence of a guest speaker should be set as the topic. The topic should also include info on who to /msg in order to gain a +v (voice) mode. One op will handle requests for voices and give out +v's while another will take away +v's when the person is done asking his/her question.

V. - Document Jurisdiction

The current #cydonia Guidelines are expected to be binding only after an op meeting has been called and ops have agreed to its conditions. #cydonia Guidelines are to be in effect up until the time a new draft has been drawn from a meeting, afterwards the new draft will take precedence. Ops not present during a policy making meeting will be briefed later by other ops. It is regrettable that ops who are not present during a policy making meeting will not be able to vote on the issues of that particular meeting. If you have concerns about a particular policy and have missed that respective op meeting, then please bring up that issue on the following op meeting. Again, no policy is set in stone and everyone's input is greatly appreciated.