Omnes (and my, since this is my editorial) view, and part of our justification for sponsoring these web sites (without detailing costs, suffice to say that this is roughly equivalent to a healthy donation to each of the choruses displayed), is that choral groups err on the side of caution, mostly just by nature of those interested in choral singing historically. Given a need to interest and involve younger people in this quest for the ultimate sound and group feeling, we believe that we need to err a little closer to the middle of the open versus closed information model. Since I will continually push to the open side, I trust that the social pressures of the choruses will balance my desires and we will come out about right.
What does this mean for the future of this site? Mainly, it means that we should expect to see more areas on the site where anyone (normally choral members) can post mail that might be of some use to others in the site. It will not be moderated and hence we DO NOT take any responsibility for the views and expressed information found therein, but we will take on a responsibility to clean out inappropriate information on a very informal time basis. Like a community bulletin board, this implies that something said in an unpleasant mood or due to other motivations may be found in one of these areas. If notified, we will do our best to removed the information that clearly goes over our acceptance line (wherever that is deemed to be at that moment). The goal is that the amount of useful and/or friendly information is encouraged to grow fast enough such that the small amount of un-removed questionable information not caught can be taken with a grain of salt and patience.
If this policy offends, or causes you concern that reading information in this site could offend, then we would suggest reading in more controlled sites that will not allow such information to end up on the site.
The courts are getting involved in stating how much responsibility a site can/will have for the information found on the site. In today's moods, this could end up preventing the free flow of information from normal people - a goal that may fit with some political parties. As our legal requirements become clear, we may have to change the above policies to fit (I/we cannot afford to be the subject of some long lawsuit on the topic).
If you are one of the information suppliers (official or casual), please keep the above in mind. And, please do not be offended if something that you submitted is removed - it may not have anything to do with the language or the tone, but it may just not be the appropriate topic for this web area, or it may have been dropped due to one of our unpaid errors. If you believe that it was removed by some mistake, please feel free to submit the information again - we will contact you if there really is a problem.
This can be done in one of the following ways (or other if you can convince me):
I intend to add more to this editorial/guide soon. Meanwhile, if you have more information to add, let me know electronically (or by snail mail if that is what you have).
Ian Fetterley
Omnes Web Information Manager
713-513-3265
5599 San Felipe - Suite 400
Houston Tx 77056
