0) Appropriate content guidelines: Posts may not contain content that is: Vulgar or offensive; Inflammatory; Excessively outside of the scope of the current topic; Directed at specific individuals in an inappropriate manner; Commercial in nature; and/or Incomprehensible or extremely lengthly.  SCIY Administrators are the sole arbiters and enforcers of these guidelines.

1) SCIY's Founders, Administrators, and Editors: Click here for info re SCIY's core personnel and their powers and responsibilities.

2) SCIY is a continually updated free webzine: No registration or login is required unless you wish to comment on our articles and/or receive email notification of new articles and comments. New articles are displayed on this SCIY title page, called the 'Main Page' or 'Home'. Scroll down the page to see short excerpts of the latest 10 days of articles, listed in reverse chronological order. (Italicized excerpts are quoted from the article, non-italicized are introductory comments by the poster.) Click on the "more »" links to continue reading articles that interest you. (Tip: Click on the titles in the "Recent Articles" list in the right-hand column to view the 15 most recent articles or in the "Recent Comments" list for the 10 most recent comments.)

3) Use Firefox as your browser: SCIY is best viewed using the latest version of Firefox, the superb open-source web browser. You can download a free copy of the latest version here. We've optimized SCIY for Firefox's default preferences, but check your settings by opening Firebox's 'Preferences' panel, and looking at your 'Fonts & Colors/Advanced' panel (under the 'Content' tab). Please make sure the:

   a) "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above" option is checked
   b) "Minimum font size" is set for 11, and
   c) "Default Character Encoding" is set for 'Unicode (UTF-8)'.

4) Commenting: Only registered "Readers" can post comments in response to articles, or reply to comments posted by others. To register, click the "Create Reader Account" link located below the Login frame in the upper left column. Don't worry, it's free, and entails no obligations on your part. (Tip: Readers can also choose to get free email Notifications of newly posted articles & comments. See Items 5 & 6 below.)

5) If you prefer not to register: Most of the areas of SCIY are available immediately for viewing -- no signup is necessary if you don't want to post comments or receive email notifications.

6) Categories: All of SCIY's articles & comments are organized into categories & subcategories. Scroll down the Main Page till you can see the entire "Category Folders" frame in the left column. To see subcategories, click on the folder names that interest you. To return to the Main Page, use your browser's back arrow, or click on the path links located at the top of each page. (Tip: You can also search all of SCIY's hundreds of articles and comments by entering text into the "Search" field in the left column of the Main Page.)
 
7) Why do we ask you to signup to make comments? Because allowing anonymous comments tends to attract undesirable spam, which becomes a hassle for all of us. This problem is minimized by authenticating your real email address during the signup process. We promise not to provide it to anyone else and not to send you any email other than what you request.

8) Email notifications: When you register for a Reader Account, you'll notice that you have the additional option of becoming a "Subscriber." This is also free and gives you the added advantage of receiving email notifications of new postings or comments to specific Categories or Subcategories that interest you. You can do this at the same time that you sign up for your Reader Account, or wait till later and then click the white "My Preferences" link located in the lower left corner of the Main Page. (The downside of using this type of notification is that you'll receive a separate email for each new article or comment posted in the Categories you've selected, which on some days can be quite a few emails. To receive just one email per day, use the FeedBlitz option listed in Item 7 below.)

9) FeedBlitz email notifications: If you'd like to limit the email notifications you receive each day to just a single email which lists all of the new articles posted that day, you can choose SCIY's free "FeedBlitz" option. Scroll to the top of SCIY's Main Page. In the top corner of the left-hand blue column, note the phrase: "Subscribe to daily SCIY update by entering your email here:"

Enter your email address into the indicated space, and then click on the "Click to subscribe via FeedBlitz" button. You'll be taken to the FeedBlitz website where you verify your subscription. You will then begin receiving a single email early each day listing the new articles posted on the previous day, including the short excerpts of each article that are also posted on SCIY's Main Page. (Note that FeedBlitz doesn't include notification of newly posted comments. If you want them, you'll have to register and ask to be notified for comments.)

10) Changing your email notification options: If at any time you'd like to change your email notification options, login to SCIY, and then click the white "My Preferences" link located in the lower left corner of the Main Page. This will take you to your "My Preferences" page, where you can edit your email notifications preferences. For example, if you've chosen to use the FeedBlitz option outlined in Item 7 above, you might want to cancel all your article email notices, while retaining your comment email notices, since FeedBlitz doesn't provide these.

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This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues of environmental and humanitarian significance. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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In the next article, we'll take a closer look at how SCIY is organized into Categories and Subcategories. Click the following link to view it:

SCIY's Category Structure