Hi. I'm hoping that someone might be able to help me with some problems on
my list.

I've been running a list for the past six months (I'm also the site
manager) for people with a chronic illness. I thought I had been through
everything -- the usual bickering and flaming (which seems to go in
cycles), the usual set of people of can't handle the list commands, and
that kind of stuff. But the latest round is from a group of people (about
15) who seem to think that the First Amendment extends to my list and that
they can post anything they want to the list about anything -- the most
recent being that the formed a "church" on my list and have been
essentially spamming the list with prayers. I suspended posting privileges
but others come along and post the messages for those people and add
personal attacks against me. There are about 225 other people who are not
involved in this.

Yesterday someone posted this message to the list
> This is an open forum.  Everyone who posts to this list server (as of
> this date anyway, the topic is under discussion by interested parties)
> is covered by his or her First Amendment Rights of the United States
> Constitution!

I understood that I'd have some problems to deal with when I started the
list and I think I've done reasonably well with them until now, but I'm
looking for some suggestions on how I an tell the people on the list that
there are no First Amendment privileges on my list because it is a
privately run and privately funded enterprise without alienating the people
that I want to keep on the list.

Also, I am interested in what posting policies that others have developed
for their lists in regards to flaming, prayer, copyrighted materials, etc.
and I'd really like to read the guidelines that others post to their lists.

Thanks very much for the help,
Karen Strauss
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