Global Village BBS Laws and Policy

No judiciary system is perfect. There is room for errors, improvements and there are loopholes waiting to be exploited. These errors must be corrected and the loopholes closed, while avoiding endless discussions. And all that must be done in a impartial way considering human rights and real laws.

Clearly, writing an extensive law book is not the way to follow on Global. This is a place for fun and friends in the first place and it is simply not possible to write a foolproof policy. However, we also learn from our mistakes so we leave room to improve what we have created.

To provide a way for this Global has an institution called the Arbitration Board. This board is the very highest instance of power in conflicts. While the Supervisors have the ultimate power, under certain circumstances they can be overruled. Compare this to the parliament in a democratic country, they create the law and control the police force and judicial system. But every individual has the right to call upon a judge to check the validity of a decision by the parliament. And often the judge grants this call.

We aim to have the same impartial system on Global. When you would call upon the board for arbitration, be aware of what you ask for. The board checks if decisions that were taken by the admin team are impartial, fair, honest, in line with earlier decisions and according to the rules that were in place at the time.

The arbitration panel consists of a pool of 8 to 10 users. These users are suggested by all Sysops and SV's. Depending on the number of suggestions (and of course willingness of the suggested users) the actual members are appointed by the Supervisors considering the relative userbase sizes of the different language areas. If possible a user for each language area should be in the pool for translation issues.

For each case 5 members of the pool who are randomly selected by the Supervisors form the actual board, where friends of the user(s) partial in the case or possible biased members have to refrain from taking place in this case. When there is a case against the Supervisors, the random selection will be performed by the Sysops. The board then is free to take a decision as they see fit, having access (on request) to logs. To 'force' a decision only an uneven number of people can form the actual board for a case. The members of the actual board must elect a speaker prior to any other activity whose task is the announcement of the decisions the board has come up with and the communication with the parties involved in the case and the members of the administration.

The term which members can be in the pool is 2 years. After 2 years have passed, 1/3 of the members of the board have to step down and will be replaced by new members. These members will be randomly selected by the Supervisors. The remaining members are free to step down as well or make known they are willing to stay member.

If the number of people in the pool of members drops below 8 users, the Supervisors must appoint new members as soon as possible, following the same criteria as in the initial selection procedure, until the number of pool members is within 8 and 10 again.

Potential members of the board must comply to the following requirements

Have a clean record of behaviour
Must reasonably speak English
Has at least 1 year and preferably more years of BBS experience
May not have been a member of the admin team on Global Village BBS in the last half year (Sysop or Supervisor)
Must have time available on a adhoc basis

Procedure

Case Judged by

Small violation of room rules (by anyone) Roomaides

Repeated OR severe violation of room rules (by users) (Pink) Room Sysops

Violation of other rules (by users) (Blue) User Sysops

Repeated OR severe violation of other rules by users or any violation of rules by Sysops Supervisors. User may call the arbitration panel if he suspects unfair treatment.

Repeated severe violations
a) Supervisors make a decision; if the user feels treated in an unfair way, he may call the arbitration panel who judges the admin's decision

b) Supervisors do not make a decision but pass the case directly to the arbitration panel who must make the final 'verdict' + 'penalty'.

Users complain about unfair treatment by Roomaides (Pink) Room Sysops. Case ends.

Users complain about unfair treatment by Room Sysops (Blue) User Sysops. Case ends.

Users complain about unfair treatment by User Sysops Supervisors. Case may be decided (a) or passed to the panel without decision (b), following the procedure as above.

Users or Sysops complain about unfair treatment by Supervisors Arbitration panel. Case ends.

Case	Judged by
Small violation of room rules (by anyone)	Roomaides
Repeated OR severe violation of room rules (by users)	(Pink) Room Sysops
Violation of other rules (by users)	(Blue) User Sysops
Repeated OR severe violation of other rules by users or any violation of rules by Sysops	Supervisors. User may call the arbitration panel if he suspects unfair treatment.
Repeated severe violations	a) Supervisors make a decision; if the user feels treated in an unfair way, he may call the arbitration panel who judges the admin's decision b) Supervisors do not make a decision but pass the case directly to the arbitration panel who must make the final 'verdict' + 'penalty'.
Users complain about unfair treatment by Roomaides	(Pink) Room Sysops. Case ends.
Users complain about unfair treatment by Room Sysops	(Blue) User Sysops. Case ends.
Users complain about unfair treatment by User Sysops	Supervisors. Case may be decided (a) or passed to the panel without decision (b), following the procedure as above.
Users or Sysops complain about unfair treatment by Supervisors	Arbitration panel. Case ends.

IMPORTANT NOTES

The boards decision is final and thus the members may overrule the Supervisors.
The board may decline to judge a case only when called by users, not when called by the Supervisors.
The board never initiates actions by itself, it must always be called by either party.

While the Board is free to decide and speak on each case there are restrictions. The Board is not a law providing, but purely a judging authority. It can only speak on the case which it was called for and nothing else. Also the Board can only speak within the scope of Global and it's law. For example, it can never speak on an offence that is a violation of Austrian law.

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