George MacDonald

The Wingfold Charter

1. The primary focus of this list is the life, work and thought of George MacDonald.

2. New subscribers are encouraged to post a brief introduction to the list.

3. All comments or questions, relating to George MacDonald, from experts or novices are welcome.

4. Everybody is to be listened to with respect.

5. This list is not here to promote any one specific religious or theological agenda, but comments on George MacDonald's theology are welcome.

6. Comments putting an opposing viewpoint to someone else's posting are also welcome provided they are courteous and do not stray too far from the point.

7. From time to time it will be appropriate for us to explore tangential issues on the list. We all have a responsibility, however, to ensure that these do not dominate our discussions to the exclusion of on-topic posts. As a rule of thumb if, at any time, the former exceed 50% we have a problem which will need to be addressed.

8. Where a message has no George MacDonald content please indicate this clearly in the subject header (Non GM). This is more than mere politeness, for some list members, such as the visually impaired, it can be the difference between participating or not.

9. When hitting the 'reply button' please take care to delete the previous message apart from those quotations to which you are replying directly. Failure to do so is not only impolite to others (particularly those on the digest version) on the list, it obscures the very point you are trying to make!

10. There is a natural tendency for some readers to 'skip' apparently lengthy or obscure posts. If you want your ideas to be appreciated try to aim for clarity and conciseness. More is often less!

11. Prolonged exchanges between two individuals, which are unrelated to George MacDonald, can best be conducted off-list.

12. Short, funny comments add to the fun.

13. Sectarian political views should be avoided. They have no relevance here.

14. If you are in doubt, post privately and not to the list!

15. It should be appreciated that, while this is primarily a list for adults, there are no age restrictions and teens or children are welcome to listen in and participate, on the understanding that they are guests. Since posts go to the list unmoderated there needs to be an appreciation that some material may be difficult or even shocking to younger readers. Parents should be aware of this and we also need to bear it in mind in our discussions.

16. All postings to the list are unmoderated at present and it is the intention that they should continue to be so, however, we do have the option of ensuring that posts are approved by the list moderator, before forwarding on to the group, should this be felt to become necessary at any time.

Useful Tip

Most competent email programmes (such as Eudora and Outlook Express) make it very easy to set up mailfilters that will automatically place mail from an address you select (for instance from wingfold@associate.com) into a separate directory thus making it easier to manage.