CZ:Management Council Motions Passed

All motions passed in 2010 are in CZ:Management Council Motions Passed/Archive 2010.

Motions passed in the year 2011

2011-001, 4 January 2011:
The MC authorizes technical staff to transition to a 3 server configuration at Steadfast Networks and to work to complete a migration of all CZ applications by 22 January 2011.

2011-002, 18 January 2011:
The MC approved the minutes for October found at http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Management_Council/Minutes/October_2010

2011-003, 28 January 2011:
The constables may delete all personal comments that are derogatory to named individuals who are not public figures. Offenders shall be warned. Offenders who exhibit a pattern of personal attacks will be banned. This rule shall apply to all applications at citizendium.org.

2011-004, 2 February 2011:
The contact for image issues shall be replaced in all existing image files, the Template:Image_Details and wherever else needed with the email list cz- image-questions@citizendium.org, and the email list members shall be the members of the Management Council as well as the Chief Constable.

2011-005, 2 February 2011:
The MC directs technical staff to change the logo appearing on the live wiki to one that does not contain the words "beta".

2011-006, 2 February 2011:
Recognizing that one purpose of Citizendium is to establish knowledge through expert guidance, pseudonyms undermine the principle of expertise by the anonymity of authors; however pseudonyms may be granted only on a case-by-case basis by special resolution of the Management Council. Pseudonyms may be granted in cases only when the identity of an author may endanger the life, person [i.e. bodily harm], or property of the author. Pseudonyms will not be granted in cases where the reputation of the author may be damaged by the writings of the author. Authors must be responsible for what they write.

2011-007, 11 February 2011:
Any policy page officially approved by the MC will be protected. Any future edits to the page (excluding spelling and grammar edits) will require a vote from the MC.

2011-008, 11 February 2011:
Citizens who wish to leave Citizendium may email constables@citizendium.org to formally resign from the project. The Constabulary will block that user's account from editing, place a notice at the top of their user page stating "This user has resigned from Citizendium" and protect their user page. From that point the user will no longer be considered a Citizen and therefore no longer be subject to rules applying to Citizens nor have the rights conferred to Citizens.

Any user who has resigned and wishes to rejoin the project may email constables@citizendium.org to formally request reinstatement. This request will be passed to the Management Council who will consider the request. Should the request be granted the user account will be unblocked, the user page unprotected and the user will be once again considered a Citizen.

2011-009, 11 February 2011:
The MC officially approves the user page rules contained in revision http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=CZ:User_pages&oldid=100754848.

2011-010, 12 February 2011:
The Tech staff shall be instructed to remove the Image:Beenverifiedlogo.png from the Special:RequestAccount page. The Tech staff shall also be instructed to revise the sentence that now reads This could include a link to your (optional) BeenVerified™ page; credible webpages listing your (free) e-mail address, names of persons that we can look up online to aid in confirming your identity, current members you know, etc. so as to read 'This could include links to credible webpages listing your (free) e-mail address, names of persons that we can look up online to aid in confirming your identity, current members you know, etc.

2011-011, 4 March 2011:
Until resolved, the top-priority issue for the Management Council is finding a long-term funding solution for Citizendium. Activity addressing this issue will take precedence over that addressing any other issue.

2011-012, 6 March 2011:

(1) Create a Wiki page called Management Council Passed Motions which would list, date and number each passed motion as Year - XXX, date and then the motion itself where: the Year is 2010, 2011, etc., the XXX is the number from 000 to 999, the date is the numerical date followed by the spelled out month and followed by the numerical year as per this example:

2011-006, 2 February 2011: Recognizing that one purpose of Citizendium is to establish knowledge through expert guidance, pseudonyms undermine the principle of expertise by the anonymity of authors; however pseudonyms may be granted only on a case-by-case basis by special resolution of the Management Council. Pseudonyms may be granted in cases only when the identity of an author may endanger the life, person [i.e. bodily harm], or property of the author. Pseudonyms will not be granted in cases where the reputation of the author may be damaged by the writings of the author. Authors must be responsible for what they write.

(2) Place a link, in the Management section of the left-hand navigation column of each CZ page, entitled "MC motions passed" which would take readers directly to the Wiki page called Management Council Passed Motions.

2011-013, 10 March 2011:

The Constabulary is the line organization entrusted to enforce Citizendium policy. Its decisions are authoritative and must be followed by all citizens. Failure to do so is an infraction of Citizendium rules of behavior, which may lead to disciplinary action, including banning. If a citizen believes a Constabulary decision violates Citizendium policy, he/she may appeal this decision to the Management Council. The Management Council will then consider the case and render a judgment. This judgment may confirm that the Constabulary decision implements current policy or indicate where it does not and direct the Constabulary to correct the problem. As a subcategory of the first outcome, the Management Council may decide the appeal is frivolous and quickly confirm the Constable decision without further comment.

When the Constabulary declines to take an action requested by a citizen, this decision may be appealed to the Management Council.

2011-014, 15 March 2011:

The MC shall instruct the Chief Constable to unblock David Finn on a probationary basis until the MC has established an appeals process and is ready to consider his appeal. By probationary, it is meant that the Chief Constable may re-activate the block if David Finn's subsequent behavior makes that necessary again.

The MC shall inform the Chief Constable that the reasons for the probationary unblocking of David Finn are: (a) the MC has been remiss in not yet having considered David Finn's appeal against having been blocked, (b) the MC has not yet established an appeals process and (c) that it may yet be another month or more before the MC has an established appeals process.

The MC shall also instruct the Chief Constable to inform David Finn of the above reasons for removing his block on a probationary basis.

2011-015, 22 March 2011:

The following guidelines control appeals made to the MC in regards to constable decisions:

An appellant must have standing in the dispute. Standing means the decision under appeal directly involves him or her. An appeal by someone without standing will be dismissed.

Both the involved constable(s) and the appellant must provide their analysis why the decision under dispute either satisfies or contravenes CZ policy, the latter to include a constable decision based on non-existent policy. The Ombudsman will collect the relevant information for the appeal and present it on either the MC private communications board (for appeals the appellant or involved constables request remain private) or on a public board that only the MC and Ombudsman may modify.

The MC may request the Ombudsman to collect further information from the disputants and present it as part of the appeal process. The presentation of appeal evidence is a matter for the Ombudsman and not for the disputants. The Ombudsman is required to present all evidence provided to him by the disputants, but disputants are not parties to the discussions of this evidence by the Management Council. The Ombudsman may provide his views on the merits of the case, but does not have a vote on the disposition of the appeal.

Appeals will be based on the policy that existed at the time of the appealed decision. Appeal judgments by the Management Council will not include the provision of new policy. If an appeal identifies conditions requiring new policy, the Management Council will establish this policy in a separate administrative action.

The Management Council has complete flexibility in the judgments rendered for a particular appeal case. However, some common outcomes are: 1) denying the appeal without comment (for appeals the MC judges to be frivolous), 2) denying the appeal with comment, 3) confirming the appeal, and 4) acknowledging part of the appeal as meritorious. In the first two cases, the constable decision stands. In case 3 the decision is reversed. In case 4, the Management Council will specify how the decision should be modified to conform to CZ policy.

2011-016, 06 April 2011:

After deliberation, the Management Council has decided to set David Finn's probationary period to one month. That means, assuming he does not violate Citizendium professionalism provisions during the intervening period, the probationary status of his reinstatement will end on April 15, 2011. At that point in time his appeal will be moot and therefore its final disposition will be: dismissed without prejudice. Once again, the Managment Council apologizes to David for not acting on his appeal more expeditiously.