Hello,

it appears to be necessary that we clarify the following:

If you want to publicize stuff you find here - even excerpts - you must get the written permission of the web site owner who can be contacted at moonblog@foreignlands.org.

Exceptions are brief quotations for reviews. In that case it is necessary that you enclose the excerpt / quotation in parentheses and give the location where you found it. You must not add the name of an author if the article doesn’t specify one. If you have information concerning the author, you need the permission from the author. Under no circumstances can you assume that it’s okay to ignore these rule.

These rules are actually quite common place and common sense.

That said, here are the rules of engagement - for those that want to contribute:

Rules Of Engagement

Here are some guidelines for writing for this site:

• Avoid use of unsubstantiated opinion. Seek to ground ideas in experience or by reference to accepted authorities or published research;
• Minimize the use of description in favor of development of analysis and argument;
• Display thoroughness and rigor in the development of an argument;
• Structure your article and present it according to the needs of the anticipated audience¹;
• Give references to third parties like other authors

That’s a tall order. These points are usually applied to academic writing. The nature of this site allows a relaxed approach towards these points but they do have a lot going for them and you shouldn’t disregard them entirely.

Another approach would be to tell of personal experiences. But even then adherence to the guidelines above will help to maximize the impact of your writing. For example if you refer to the pope, Madonna, George Bush or other public figures you may very well consider these ‘authorities’. However, a reference to a broad set of common sense and/or other supportive sources will still be helpful for making a lasting impression on the reader.

These are things that will prevent you from being published here:

Use of antagonizing, derogatory speech. A high percentage of terms like  moron, zombie, cockroach, idiot unless required by the topic - you get the idea.

One word that might get by the firing squad is the term ‘Moonie’. However, the term is quite ambiguous. Most members of the management team, for example, use it as a friendly label for “members of the Unification Movement that are uncommonly uncritical, unrealistic, overly trusting -  especially towards things printed on Unification paper”. Hard-core opponents of the movement, on the other hand, use it as a belittling, derogatory term for everybody associated with the movement - similar to the use of cockroach, moron etc.

This type of thing always gets longer than anticipated. But let’s go on with a few necessities.

Copyright issues et. al.

At this point this is a non-commercial site. That means we don’t ask for money, don’t make any money and don’t pay any money - except for the webspace. So, you should not expect to be paid for contribution. (Sorry.)

On the other hand, you retain all the intellectual rights on your submission - with one exception: By submitting a piece you allow us to publish it on the site without further negotiation (unless stated otherwise with your submission) and you can never withdraw the right from us to publish it here or on related sites. We may edit your submission for length.

You don’t have to disclose your name. You can disclose it to us but instruct us to use a pseudonym to publish. If you withhold your identity from us completely, make triple sure that statements of facts are verifiable.

Disclaimer

We frequently link to other sites. None of these sites are under our control, not even remotely. We cannot and will not and don’t have to take responsibility for their contents. However, if you find that this site is linked to one with questionable content, please let us know and we will the action that we consider appropriate.

And: the contents of the articles on this site not necessarily reflects the opinion of the majority, minority or even a single member of the management.

Wouldn’t be much fun otherwise.

¹ We mentioned the term ‘anticipated audience’. Hard to say what can be anticipated, of course. But the readership currently includes members who like the approach, members who don’t like the approach but want to watch where this goes, non-members who don’t like that it’s not anti-Moon, non-members that are suspicious, while keeping an open mind. We know at least one person of each of these groups. Then there is a - slowly - growing number of people that come here via search engines in response to queries for chung pyung, strawberry, cheon il guk, unification movement, confucius, subject object relationship, authoritative leader, stories cain & abel, koreans tradition, sin - just to mention a few. Hope this helps. (back)