15 July 2003
The Constitution of Big Eight
1) International Big Eight hierarchies (comp.*, humanities.*, misc.*,
news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.* and talk.*) are democratic hierarchies;
sovereignty belongs to users who shall exercise it in the forms
and within the limits written in the Constitution.
2) All Big Eight users have the same rights without distinction of sex,
race, nationality, religious creed, political ideologies or personal
and social status.
3) In Big Eight hierarchies every citizen of the world is free to
express his or her opinions while respecting the freedom and ideas
of others.
4) Each year Big Eight users shall elect the members of the parliament.
5) The parliament of Big Eight shall be comprised of sixty-five members
divided into four committees of sixteen members (plus three
reserves for each committee); the committee members shall elect
their own spokesperson and the president of the parliament.
Committees:
a) CREATION (naming, charters, deletion, old charters, renaming,
reorganization, splits, votetakers, voting)
b) INFORMATION (announcements, archives, FAQs, guidelines, help, ISPs,
netiquette, news servers, RFCs, statistics)
c) MODERATION (demoderation, moderators, policies, replacements,
retromoderation, robomoderation)
d) NET-ABUSE (censorship, copyrights, licenses, privacy, publicity,
security, spam, UDPs)
6) Each user may stand for one single committee and vote for one single
member. Candidatures shall be received by the votetaker for
official posting seven days prior to the start of voting. The voting
period to elect the members shall last for seven days.
7) In the case of a tie for the last seats or for reserves in a
committee, three days after the results have been posted the already
elected members of the parliament shall vote, over a period of three
days, to assign these places.
8) Seven days after assignment of the seats the members shall elect the
president of the parliament and the spokespersons of the committees,
with a simply majority vote. Candidatures shall be received by the
votetaker for official posting three days prior to the start of
voting. The voting period to elect the president and spokespersons
shall last for three days.
9) Should a quorum not be reached for the election of the president and
spokespersons, three days after the results have been posted a
ballot shall be held, to last for a period of three days, between
the two most voted candidates; the one who receives most votes shall
be elected. In the event of a tie between the two candidates, the
candidate who obtained the greater number of votes in the election
for membership shall be elected.
10) Should the president also be elected as a spokesperson, the
candidate who came second shall become a spokesperson and the seat
left vacant by the president shall be occupied by the first of the
reserves.
11) A two-thirds majority of the parliament/committee is required to
substitute the president/spokesperson.
12) A motion of no confidence in the president/spokesperson may be
submitted by any member (of the same committee in the case of a
spokesperson) no earlier than three months from any previous
motion or from the date of the elections.
13) The outgoing president, spokespersons and members may stand for
re-election.
14) Any user may propose that a new rule be discussed. Should the
spokesperson note interest among the committee members, he may
propose to the president that it be put to the vote.
15) The president is empowered to decide whether a new rule should be
voted by a single committee or by the whole parliament.
16) A new rule shall pass with a simple majority vote of the
parliament/committee. The voting period for the approval of a new
rule shall last fourteen days.
17) The president and spokespersons shall not be entitled to vote.
18) The spokespersons must always indicate how the members have voted.
19) If in a committee, on account of resignations, it were not possible
to reach the legal number (sixteen members), the voting procedures
regarding that committee shall be handled by the entire
parliament.
20) A two-thirds majority of the parliament may change, eliminate or
write new rules for the Constitution.
Proponent: Giovanni Greco
https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/news.groups/c/fZstMPxmS7k/m/OT41GO1_mmYJ