"Charter" is an umbrella term for the rules, policies and conventions that online communities follow. Other possible words include "constitution" and "policy", but I like charter.

Charters can be explicit and written down, or implicit, unwritten, or not decided yet.

Charters can be forced by the law of the land, or 
imposed by the whim a local GodKing, or voted on democratically by the community itself.

Charters can be enforced by physics or mathematics, by TechnologySolutions, by a local PoliceForce, or by PeerPressure.

Charters can include policies on commercial advertising, subjects to be discussed, copyright, use of cookies, anonymity, obscene language, editing rights.

Charters vary from one community to another, and perhaps within subcommunities.
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See also MeatballMission; MeatballWikiCopyright; FidonetPolicyFour.

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(This is intended to be an index page, but it isn't there yet. I think each paragraph needs to be a page, eg EnforcingCharters, with links to PoliceForce etc on that page.)