Proposed Social Media Act

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Coop
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Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Coop »

Social Media Administration Act

There have been many new internet applications designed and put to use since the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS)’ inception. These applications are designed to make communication faster, simpler, and easier for the users or subscribers.
This Bill is to address management of such new or existing applications; this Bill does not apply to the CDS Website or the CDS Forums, which are covered by separate legislation.

Definitions:

Social media: Broadly defined as computer mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.

Social media sites: CDS Facebook Page, Google+, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, CDS Wiki, and any other unnamed existing or future internet applications that incorporate ‘Confederation of Democratic Simulators’ or ‘CDS’ in their name, created with the intention of promoting the CDS.

Administration

All social media applications created for use by the CDS, and using the term ‘CDS’ or ‘Confederation of Democratic Simulators’ are administered by the Chancellor and his or her designated PIO. The Chancellor may authorize citizens to administer specific types of social media,where their skills and interests make this practical or desirable. Any citizen authorized in this way is considered to be acting as a member of the Executive team, under the direction of the Chancellor.

Where social media accounts are secured by only a password, the outgoing Chancellor will provide the incoming Chancellor with a list of all current accounts and passwords. The incoming Chancellor will change the passwords, and inform the Dean of the SC and the LRA of the new passwords. The Dean and LRA hold these passwords as a protection against loss of the account; they will not use these passwords to access and use social media accounts unless authorized by the Chancellor.

Where social media accounts have various levels of access, along with or in place of a password, the outgoing Chancellor will ensure that the incoming Chancellor is given the highest level of access. The Dean of the SC and the LRA will also be given the highest possible access. The Dean and LRA have this access as a protection against loss of the account; they will not use these passwords to access and use social media accounts unless authorized by the Chancellor.

In the event that a Chancellor is unreachable for an extended period, or resigns unexpectedly, the Dean of the SC will secure all accounts by changing passwords and access as necessary, and issuing the new access information to the LRA and any other authorized avatars.

Content
Only the Chancellor, his or her designated PIO and any other members of the Executive team authorized by the Chancellor, will post to social media as the ‘owner’, ‘ CDS ‘, or whatever other username, login name, or account name is displayed by the social media application.

Where additional levels of administrative access are possible (e.g. Facebook page Editor or other non-owner site management roles), the Chancellor may give this level of access to citizens at his or her discretion.

All citizens will be permitted to post, reply, or participate in whatever form of interaction allowed by each social media application, using their own personal accounts.

All content posted to any form of social media must conform to LL ToS; all Laws and the Constitution of the CDS; and may not contain pornographic material or inflammatory or libelous speech directed at any identifiable person or group. Any content posted that does not comply with these rules will be removed and the poster’s ability to participate on social media applications may be temporarily suspended. Any removal of ability to participate on social media applications will be reported to the Dean of the SC; the SC will review any such removal at their next regular meeting and uphold the suspension or reinstate the posting privileges.

I now lay down the command of my legions and retire to private life. Marcus Licinius Crassus
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Patroklus Murakami
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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Patroklus Murakami »

I understand that the RA members are discussing this proposal in a Google doc elsewhere.

Rosie: could you make the document public and post a link here so we can all see the discussion and participate if we want to?

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This looks like a pretty useful addition to our code of laws. Making all of this clear would have saved us truckloads of angst during the tenure of my predecessor and made the transfer from one Chancellor to another a bit smoother.

I do have a couple of issues with it as drafted though:
1. How do we define 'an extended period'? This is open to interpretation. You wouldn't want someone to invoke this when the Chancellor was on vacation for example. Similarly, if the Chancellor goes AWOL for three months and contacts no one you need to be able to step in. Maybe specify a time limit and no contact with the Dean and/or LRA as the trigger point?

2. What happens if a Chancellor resigns mid-term? I took over from two former Chancellors who did this and it makes continuity very difficult to achieve.

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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Widget Whiteberry »

1. How do we define 'an extended period'? This is open to interpretation. You wouldn't want someone to invoke this when the Chancellor was on vacation for example. Similarly, if the Chancellor goes AWOL for three months and contacts no one you need to be able to step in. Maybe specify a time limit and no contact with the Dean and/or LRA as the trigger point?

2. What happens if a Chancellor resigns mid-term? I took over from two former Chancellors who did this and it makes continuity very difficult to achieve.

Sensible suggestions

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Rosie Gray
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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Rosie Gray »

Currently the RA have found no wording they want to change on this proposed act.

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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Patroklus Murakami »

Rosie Gray wrote:

Currently the RA have found no wording they want to change on this proposed act.

Has the RA considered the point i made about needing to define "an extended period"? If you don't spell this out you could be storing up a problem for a future Dean. How are they to know when an extended period has been reached?

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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Felicia Fortune »

Rosie Gray wrote:
Currently the RA have found no wording they want to change on this proposed act.

I find this statement very troubling.
When did the RA meet to discuss this?
Were all RA members in the discussion?

Shouldn't this be discussed at a meeting, rather than with Google docs, email, etc.?

I would like to know who made this decision or if this is just one opinion as well as where the rest of the RA stand on this issue.

I agree with Pat on this, there should be some time stipulated like 30 days. To leave this undefined is legislative negligence, at best.

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Rosie Gray
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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Rosie Gray »

Patroklus Murakami wrote:
Rosie Gray wrote:

Currently the RA have found no wording they want to change on this proposed act.

Has the RA considered the point i made about needing to define "an extended period"? If you don't spell this out you could be storing up a problem for a future Dean. How are they to know when an extended period has been reached?

When I said there was no wording the RA wanted to change on the proposed act, it means there were no comments or additions that came out of reviewing the proposed act as it is posted. All I did was copy the proposed bill onto a google doc so that RA members could review and make comments there or proposed changes, for ease of administering the document 'if' there were any extensive changes to look at.

While I appreciate using these forums as a way for everyone to discuss ideas, it is not a very easy way to manage documents.

We can certainly discuss this point during the RA meeting.

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Rosie Gray
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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Rosie Gray »

Felicia Fortune wrote:

Rosie Gray wrote:
Currently the RA have found no wording they want to change on this proposed act.

I find this statement very troubling.
When did the RA meet to discuss this?
Were all RA members in the discussion?

Shouldn't this be discussed at a meeting, rather than with Google docs, email, etc.?

I would like to know who made this decision or if this is just one opinion as well as where the rest of the RA stand on this issue.

I agree with Pat on this, there should be some time stipulated like 30 days. To leave this undefined is legislative negligence, at best.

There's nothing secret going on here Felicia. The RA did not meet to discuss this, all they did was have a look at the google document - all were invited - nobody had any changes to make to it. We can discuss the idea of a defined time during the RA meeting, if anyone would like to.

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Patroklus Murakami
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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Patroklus Murakami »

Or we could discuss the point I raised now on the forums and identify a solution. That would be, in my view, a more efficient use of everyone's time. The RAs time is a limited and precious commodity and it's difficult to find good solutions to this sort of problem "on the fly" during a text-based discussion.

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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Rosie Gray »

Patroklus Murakami wrote:

Or we could discuss the point I raised now on the forums and identify a solution. That would be, in my view, a more efficient use of everyone's time. The RAs time is a limited and precious commodity and it's difficult to find good solutions to this sort of problem "on the fly" during a text-based discussion.

Why don't you propose a solution here, now, and we can discuss it at the RA meeting?

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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Josie Fotherington »

I think having a discussion about these bills during tomorrow's RA meeting would be a good thing. It would give the RA members an opportunity to speak about how and why they made the changes that they did. It would also give citizens the opportunity to voice their thoughts on the bills. Are they in agreement with the contents? Are they not? If not, why?

I don't like that so very few people review these bills in advance. People = both citizens and RA members. Unfortunately they don't, and while having the discussion during the meeting eats up all of the meeting time, at least the discussion is being had. The default in CDS seems to be that people only have the attention span and motivation to discuss these things in the moment and not in advance. I wish this were not the case, but it is what it is.

PS - Yes I am here posting. I am still a CDS citizen. I resigned, but I retained my land. I doubt I will be writing any treatises but I will pop in from time to time.

“And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
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Patroklus Murakami
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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Patroklus Murakami »

Rosie Gray wrote:
Patroklus Murakami wrote:

Or we could discuss the point I raised now on the forums and identify a solution. That would be, in my view, a more efficient use of everyone's time. The RAs time is a limited and precious commodity and it's difficult to find good solutions to this sort of problem "on the fly" during a text-based discussion.

Why don't you propose a solution here, now, and we can discuss it at the RA meeting?

I already did.

Maybe specify a time limit and no contact with the Dean and/or LRA as the trigger point?

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Re: Proposed Social Media Act

Post by Callipygian »

Patroklus Murakami wrote:
Rosie Gray wrote:
Patroklus Murakami wrote:

Or we could discuss the point I raised now on the forums and identify a solution. That would be, in my view, a more efficient use of everyone's time. The RAs time is a limited and precious commodity and it's difficult to find good solutions to this sort of problem "on the fly" during a text-based discussion.

Why don't you propose a solution here, now, and we can discuss it at the RA meeting?

I already did.

Maybe specify a time limit and no contact with the Dean and/or LRA as the trigger point?

This wording may be appropriate to replace

In the event that a Chancellor is unreachable for an extended period,

If the Chancellor has given no notice of an extended absence, and the Dean of the SC or the LRA are unable to contact the Chancellor for a period of 21 days or longer

Calli

People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote -- a very different thing.

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