          RMININET INTERNATIONAL MESSAGE EXCHANGE USER'S GUIDE
                          Revised 30-09-2007

                            INTRODUCTION

This guide deals with how you, as a [the] user, can realize the most from the
RMININET network and, hopefully answer your questions on how to use the network
to your best advantage.

As you read this guide please remember that if there is a subject you do
not understand, the NEW USERS and COMMON conferences are always available
for all questions.  Never be embarrassed to ask a question on this
network.  We were all new users once too.  No question is ever considered
inappropriate. We are friendly and helpful within this network.

A conference is grouping of messages by subject.  RMINI provides user
support for a wide variety of special interest groups (conferences) and
product support for a wide variety of products.

This network of bulletin boards has one common goal: To provide a
environment for the friendly exchange of messages with others all over
the world.

RMINI is also a group of very committed professional
system operators/administrators (SYSOP's) who have made
the resources of an international BBS network available to you.
Each System or BBB (Bulletin Board System) has it's own rules
of operation, qualifications for membership, and services
being offered.  Those should be obtained from the SYSOP of your own
BBS, and are not dealt with, in this document.

                         WHAT IS RMININET?

RMINI is a private organization, for the purpose of worldwide and
independent electronic message exchange.  RMININET is made up of:

1)  A central body governed by a volunteer Administrative Council
(AC), and many others who assist them in various capacities.

2)  Independently owned and operated BBS's and Internet sites that
agree to carry the RMINI network.

3)  You the subscriber to those BBS's, who agree to abide by the
rules set by the (AC).

                         WHO IS Responsible?

The function of the (AC) is to establish and maintain the flow of
messages within the network,  maintain the NetHub (KOFO BBS, Broendy,
DK, EUR, and the Internet site at www.kofobbs.dk) and determine the various
methodologies of accomplishing this task.  In addition the (AC) will
determine the various message conference areas, grouped by subject
matter. The (AC) will establish rules for maintaining a
standard of "excellence of content" in those conferences. The (AC)
will assign one or more of RMININET's members as a Conference Host and
moderator in order to insure that those rules are being met.


                    RMININET ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL (RAC):

The RMINI Administrative Council and their RMININET BBS number, as of
08-16-200 consists of:

Chief Administrator                            - Gert Andersen
admin@rmininet.org
gert@kofo.org

Working Administrator
The host and some others

Internet Administrator
gert@kofo.org                                  - Gert Andersen
gert@rmininet.org

Conference Administrator                       - Gert Andersen
conf-admin@rmininet.org
gert@rmininet.org

Planning Administrator                         - Gert Andersen
gert@kofo.org


*ALL* Administrators perform various other duties as seen fit by the
Administrative Council collectively.

If you need to send them a message, you may leave your question in either
the COMMON or New User conference. If your question must be 'private'
then you may use their Internet address for correspondence.

Each member of the RAC, has specific responsibilities to meet the
everyday needs and resolve the problems of the network.

All RAC members may freely appoint other individuals to work on specific
tasks within their areas. However, Admin Team members remain responsible
for the actions of their respective appointees.

The  RAC reserves the right to establish specialized conferences, such as
vendor support conferences, announced through the  CA.

Removal of conferences. Conferences that do not meet established activity
criteria for that conference, will be subject to discontinuation by the
RAC collectively.

                    CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR:

The Chief Administrator is the ultimate authority within RMININET. The
responsibilities of the Chief Administrator are:

1)  Make final judgement over all rules, guidelines and policies  written
    within the network.

2)  Appoint and discharge Network Administrators.

3)  Appoint various network committees as seen fit for the network.

4)  Maintain the nodelist and subscription records.

5)  Approve all documents relating to RMiniNet

6)  Make admissions policy for the network.

7)  Ensure that all applicant systems applications are handled in a
    timely fashion.


                       WORKING ADMINISTRATORS:

The responsibilities of the First Administrator are:

1)  Assist in any area of the Network in which they are needed as
requested by the Chief Administrator.


                    CONFERENCE ADMINISTRATOR:

[xIn our Network, coordinating the conferences is a big job, and is
currently handled by several people.x] The responsibilities of the
Conference Administrator are:

1)  Assigning hosts to conferences and provide them with guidance
regarding the enforcement of the network rules, guidelines and
policies.

2)  Develop and oversee the RMINI Conference Host Guide, which includes
the rules for user disciplinary actions. Periodically  revise this
document as needed for the network.

3)  Develop and oversee the RMINI Conference descriptions list, which
includes the name of the host and co-host. Keep this document
current and available to include in the RMINI monthly documents.

4)  Monitor activity within the conferences. Intervene in a conference
when a situation occurs that would threaten the standards of the
network.

5)  Assign Coordinator['s] to work on varying needs within the Conference
 Administrator's realm.

6)  Work closely with the Scouting Coordinator.


                     INTERNET ADMINISTRATOR:

The responsibilities of the INTERNET Administrator are:

1)  Develop and oversee guidelines for BINKP/FTP/NNTP/SMTP/WWW transfers.

2)  Answer questions concerning Internet procedures and troubleshooting.

3)  Assign Internet sysops Internet access accounts on our various Internet
    sites.


                     PLANNING ADMINISTRATOR
1)  Develop and oversee all network rules, regulations, and bylaws related
    to the RMINI network.

2)  Assist in writing and administrating the rules of conduct for callers
    participating in RMININET conferences.

3)  Develop and oversee the list of Member systems, their locations, phone
    number and site numbers.

4)  Develop the list of Member systems that are telnettable, with their
    telnet address.

5)  Develop and oversee a separate listing of Gated conferences to be
    included with our RMINI monthly packet.

6)  Work with the RAC to obtain new member systems for the network.

7)  Work with Member system sysops in advertising RMINI on their system
    and attracting new member systems in their area.

8)  Contact sysops of possible New Member systems to invite them to join
    RMININET.

9)  Appoint and monitor volunteer committees to assist in getting new Member
    systems to join RMININET.

10) Develop a list of the names of all Admin team members, e-mail
    addresses, and phone numbers for emergencies.

11) Proofread documents within RMININET packets for discrepancies and
    alert the responsible person of the needed corrections.

12) Work with each Admin team member to include their responsibilities
    in the RMININET packet of information.

13) Write other documents that are not part of another person's
    responsibilities in RMININET as needed.



HOW DOES MY MAIL GET TO ME?

Think of the network as a solar system.  The NetHub is the sun, the HUBs
are planets, and the Nodes are moons.

Each day your local bulletin board calls its Hub, usually in the middle
of the night.  At that time, all new messages that users have entered on
the BBS are uploaded to the Hub. Then, that board downloads a packet
which contains all the public and routed messages from every other BBS on
the network.

The Hub takes this packet and adds it to packets from other boards
connected to it and creates larger, more complete packets. These packets
contain messages, files and requests from each board that calls the Hub.
At least once a day, usually two or three times, the Hub calls the
Super-Regional Hub, which, in turn, calls the NetHub.

The NetHub takes the incoming packet of hub mail and returns to the
Super-Regional Hub all the mail it received since that Hub last called.
The NetHub then adds the new mail it received to the waiting mail for all
other HUBs.  This is all done automatically.

Then you call your local board and either download the mail to read using
your off-line reader or read and reply to the new mail on the board.

Input via Internet clients such as News Readers is fed within minutes
to the Nethub and distributed to other downline feeds as well as
into the BBS system.

TYPES OF MESSAGES

All of Rime's messages are to be considered public, and readable
by everyone.

USING OFF-LINE READERS

Off-line readers are a method by which you may read messages from a BBS
while off-line (i.e. not logged on.)  You start by logging on to a
bulletin board, briefly, to download your messages. Then, by using one of
the off-line reader programs, you may spend all the time you need reading
messages, entering replies and any new messages you may come up with.
When you are finished, you log back on to the BBS, briefly, in order to
upload your replies and any new messages you may have created.

The process of uploading and downloading messages may be done in one
phone call.  Log on to the BBS, upload your new replies, download the new
messages that have been entered since the last time you were on, then log
off the BBS. Those of you who call long distance may prefer this
approach, as it helps to reduce long distance changes by doing the whole
process in one phone call.

The use of an off-line reader may save you telephone charges by also
shortening your daily total on-line time, and, at the same time, it
allows more users per day to access your local BBS.

USING NNTP READERS

All of RMININET is accessible via any Usenet News Reader.
There are some procedures that you will need to follow. They can be
found at http://www.kofobbs/rmininet/
         ftp://ftp.rmininet.org/

STARTING A NEW CONFERENCE

If you believe that you have an idea for a new conference within the RMININET
network, please send a message to RMINI ADMIN,
in the COMMON or CHOST conference.

1) The topic needs to be clearly defined.
2) There must be a suitable conference host that is available.
3) The topic must be approved by the Conference Administrator and the
   Scouting Coordinator.
4) The procedures in the SCOUTING.TXT file must be followed.

GENERAL CONFERENCE RULES:

Please refer to the companion to this document RMINICONF.RUL for the
current rules.  Conferences with special rules exist.  Those rules can be
obtained from the Conference Host of the conference.


CONFERENCE HOSTING

All conferences are hosted by volunteers. The following are the general
duties of a conference host. These may vary from conference to
conference. If you wish to become a host in a conference, read the
following general responsibilities and contact the Conference
Administrator.

-  Defining the operating rules of the conference.

-  Dealing with those users experiencing difficulty conforming to  the
   set rules.

-  Encouraging discussion by either responding to messages or  initiating
   pertinent topics for discussion.

-  Replying to ALL messages that, either explicitly or implicitly,  call
   for a reply from the host.

-  Convincing SYSOPs not currently carrying your conference to do so.

-  Getting people who are leaving messages in other conferences
   appropriate to yours to join the discussions  in your conference.

-  Coordinating with other conference hosts whose conference topics
   overlap with yours.

-  Conference Co-hosts can only be assigned with the advanced consent  of
   the Conference Administrator. Conference Hosts can recommend
   Co-hosts to the (CA).

USER COURTESIES

Did you know that if you use all upper case letters, that other users
think you are shouting at them?  Remember to turn off your CAPS LOCK key
when you go to enter a message.

Some users think that the way to get started is to answer every message
they see.  That sometimes works but often it serves to annoy the other
users who are already engaged in some kind of dialog in the conference.
When you enter a conference for the first time, feel free to say hello
and introduce yourself.  Then sit back and read a few days worth of mail.
In that time, you will probably discover the trends of the conference and
that you have something substantial to add to the discussion.

The conference host is a valuable asset in a conference.  The hosts run
the  conference, introduce topics of general interest to the conference
members to enlarge discussions, oversees that the messages stay on topic,
provides information and act as a liaison between users and the powers
that be above him/her.

When a CH (conference host) asks you to end a thread, or move the
discussion along, please be aware that they can enforce the conference
rules in their conference.  If you feel that you are being treated
unfairly, there are recourse open to you.  But these do not involve
public discussion in the conference itself.

While quote boxes can be nice looking, some computers cannot handle them,
special readers such as for the visually impaired often do not handle
them well, and they can lead to problems in general readers as well as
corrupt mail packets. We ask all users to reduce, if not eliminate, the
quote boxes in the interest of fairness to all the other users of the
network.

WHEN A PROBLEM ARISES

A problem arises?  You need some sort of help?  Here's how to get the
answers that solve your problem.

If it is a system problem or a general question, ask your SYSOP first!
Most times he/she will have the answer you need to solve your problem.
Leave them a Comment.  This is a private message to your SYSOP. If you
leave such a message in a relayed conference it will usually not be
transmitted across the network.  Your SYSOP may not read every conference
he relays, so leave him/her a comment on the Main Board.
Most SYSOPs read their own Main Board.

If it is a conference specific question leave a message to the conference
host of that particular conference.  If the conference appears to have no
host or you are unsure exactly who the host is, leave a message to Garry
Baker in the COMMON conference and ask him who the conference host is.

If you are experiencing a problem with a conference host, or feel that
the problem you have needs resolution at a higher level, leave a message
for [the Conference Administrator]Gert and [explain]tell him what your 
problem is and see if he can help you out.

If you still have a question and it has not been resolved by the steps
above, write a message to an RAC member and leave it in the COMMON
conference or if it is available on your BBS join the Relay Users
conference.  The RMINI Administrative Council can be found monitoring both
conferences for any questions that users might have. ALL DECISIONS OF THE
RMININET ADMINIDTRATIVE COUNCIL ARE FINAL.


THE RECENT ECPA RULINGS AND PRIVATE MAIL

There is always lively discussion surrounding the issue of private mail
on a BBS network.  Below is the RIME policy regarding private mail:


                    TO ALL USERS OF RMININET

Messages that are posted in any and all conferences on any BBS designated
as a member of PostLink, RMiniNt or RMINI are relayed ("echoed")
throughout the international network.

RMINI maintains the capability and capacity to send and receive
messages that are flagged as "Receiver-Only". However, messages so
flagged are NOT to be considered by any user as actual "private"
messages.

PURSUANT TO THE ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY ACT OF 1986, 18
USC 2510 et. seq., NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN TO ALL USERS OF THIS NETWORK
THAT THERE ARE NO FACILITIES PROVIDED BY THE RIME INTERNATIONAL NETWORK
FOR SENDING OR RECEIVING PRIVATE OR CONFIDENTIAL ELECTRONIC
COMMUNICATIONS. ALL MESSAGES POSTED IN RELAYED CONFERENCES SHALL BE
DEEMED TO BE READILY ACCESSIBLE TO ALL NETWORK HUBS, NODES, SYSOPS AND
USERS.

Do NOT use RMINI conferences for any communication for which you intend
only yourself and one or more specific recipients to read. Consider that
all node SYSOPs have the capability, capacity and potential to read all
mail posted in this network, and, as a result, to post said messages as
public messages on their boards. SYSOPs that do so are considered
blameless as there is no guarantee of privacy on this network.

All participating Network Bulletin Board Systems shall deem all messages
posted within the RMINI conferences to be readily accessible to the
general public at all times.

If you post a message within any RMINI conference, your acceptance of this
policy is heretofore implied. The RMINI International Network and any
participating bulletin board system assumes absolutely no accountability
or liability whatsoever for any violations of this policy by any and all
users of this network.

To reiterate: This network provides the capability and capacity to flag
messages as R/O.  However, messages so flagged will not and cannot be
considered or defined as "private communications" between two or more
people.


GENERAL DISCLAIMERS - LEGAL AND MEDICAL:

Neither medical nor legal advice may be officially given by any user, CH
or Administrator on this network.

Because we cross state and national boundaries, pertinent legal advice
varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.  RMINI could not guarantee that
any advice tendered is correct for your jurisdiction nor that anyone
claiming to be a lawyer, is in fact,
a lawyer.  We ask that you not use this network to obtain legal advice or
that you imagine that anything said to you on this network constitutes
valid legal direction. Proper legal advice can only be obtained from an
attorney licensed to practice
in your jurisdiction who is competent in the specialized area of the law
that you have questions in, whom you consult and hire, and who then
assumes the obligation to protect your rights and explain your
responsibilities.

Adequate medical diagnosis and treatment is dependent not only on history
talking but on a physical examination and pertinent laboratory tests.
RMININET could not guarantee that any medical advice tendered would be
correct for your situation nor that anyone claiming to be a physician, is
in fact, a licensed practicing physician.  We ask that you not use this
network to obtain medical diagnosis or treatment or that you imagine that
anything said to you on this network constitutes valid medical diagnosis
or treatment.  Proper medical care can only be obtained from a physician
licensed to practice in your state or country, whom you consult in
person, and who has the ability to perform the proper medical
examinations related to your difficulties and then render proper medical
treatment with correct follow up care.


TERMINOLOGY:

CONFERENCE: A conference is a message area that is specific to one
particular topic of interest.  There are many conferences currently
defined in RMINI.  Your BBS may not all of the conferences as the disk
space required for this may be high.

CONFERENCE HOST:  A conference host is in charge of a particular
conference, assisting the RIME Administrative Council who is in charge of
the network.

HUB:  A bulletin board system (BBS) that calls a higher level Hub to
transfer mail, and is called by one or more nodes to transfer mail.

ID CODE:  A two to twelve character string which contains letters or
numbers. Each node has a unique IDCODE which is used to identify that
node in the network.  The IDCODE appears at the bottom of every message
that is "relayed" throughout the network.

NETHUB: The "home" of RMINI, operated in New York by Don Barba. All  SUPER
REGIONAL HUBs call the NetHub for their mail packets.

NODE: A bulletin board system (BBS) that calls another bulletin board
system (called a Hub) in order to  transfer mail.  A node does not
receive mail directly from any other BBS. (that is, no one calls it to
transfer mail.)

SITE:  A site is the same as a NODE, a BBS. Each site is designated by
its own unique site number.  The site number appears in the tagline area
of every message that is exported from a board.

SITE NUMBER: The number of each individual site.  The site number is the
most convenient way to route to a particular board in the network.

SUPER-REGIONAL HUB:  BBSs are called by other HUBS
-------------------------- End -------------------------------------------
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