This page is still very much under construction and it always will be. Are the rules all up? No, and they can't ever really be, because two rules that any viable forum has to embrace are : 1. use your common sense and 2. it is the spirit of the rules that count far more than the letter. Try to make do without these understandings and what you end up with is an endless line of trolls playing lawyer and an endless line of me-toos screaming about their oppression when the game playing doesn't get rewarded.

What you should be asking, then, is not "what are the rules", but "what is expected of me". What is expected of you is that you should stay on-topic. You can speak in support of Burning Man. You can speak against Burning Man. But in one way or another, you have to be speaking ABOUT Burning Man, or some other festival seriously akin to Burning Man. Raves don't count. No, I don't care how oppressed you feel by that remark. A rave is not a burn. A burn is a participatory arts festival in which community is created as a collective performance piece in a noncommercial setting through the active, creative sharing of interests, and no, "bouncing spastically to taped music" doesn't count. Neither does spinning records of music recorded by others. The rave scene was on its way out when Burning Man first started gaining widespread attention, and deservedly so - it never had much to offer. I seriously resent the way in which an event that arose as an alternative to urban anomie has been coopted in order to slow the inevitable demise of a soulless subculture, reducing it to being a high priced concentrated offering of that which it used to be an alternative to.

You should not use this group to promote your political causes, your business, or your religion, or anything else that is out of place at an event that is about having spontaneous, interactive, nonpassive fun. Did that cover everything? I'm sure it didn't, but that's where your common sense comes in - extrapolate, kids, and take a chance on your own good judgement and common decency. Before you post, knowing what you already do of why it is that this online community is even bring brought into existence, ask yourself "is my post contributing to the building of this community, or am I just using this community for my own ends?". After all, if you really feel the need to tell your side of a story that's been circulating, somebody has set up a board for that kind of thing, and a a board for those who burners who wish to market their goods and services to other burners. At the time of this writing (late September, 2006), neither board has seen much use, while ePlaya (which has stated policies against commercial posting) has been repeatedly spammed. So what is one to make of that? How about that some people only seem to want to play to a caaptive audience? We don't have to argue about whether or not that's wrong, because as much as some of us may try to posture on this subject, we almost all really do know better.

What SHOULD you post about? Announcements of burns are good (announcements of raves are not). Fund raisers are not good - your event should not turn a profit, and no, "it's for a good cause" is not a good excuse for ignoring that rule. (Yet another reason why raves are out). Interactive art in all of its forms is a good topic. Are you trying to get a camp together that would be apropo to the kind of event described above (eg. NOT a dance camp, or just a residential facility), but something that would creatively engage member and visitor alike, making all of them participants in a real sense? Then this is a good place to get that started. Would you like to talk about your art installation or project - one that doesn't center around spinning records or having group hugs in the desert or otherwise living up to the hippie stereotype of burners? Then this is the place for that. In general, this is intended to be a place for burners, not burnies - Google that last word, and you'll understand this place a lot better.

That's all. You can find the googlegroup by clicking here and going to the new window which will open up. When you wish to continue on to another site on this ring, you can just go to it from this page, in this window, or (if you've inadvertantly closed this window) by clicking on "about this group" while over at Googlegroups, where you'll find a link back to this page.