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Internet forum

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes publicly visible.

Forums have a specific set of jargon associated with them; for example, a single conversation is called a "thread", or topic.

A discussion forum is hierarchical or tree-like in structure; a forum can contain a number of subforums, each of which may have several topics. Within a forum's topic, each new discussion started is called a thread and can be replied to by as many people as they so wish.

Depending on the forum's settings, users can be anonymous or have to register with the forum and then subsequently log in to post messages. On most forums, users do not have to log in to read existing messages.

History
The modern forum originated from bulletin boards and so-called computer conferencing systems, which are a technological evolution of the dial-up bulletin board system (BBS). From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications that manage user-generated content.

Early Internet forums could be described as a web version of an electronic mailing list or newsgroup (such as those that exist on Usenet), allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages. Later developments emulated the different newsgroups or individual lists, providing more than one forum dedicated to a particular topic.

Internet forums are prevalent in several developed countries. Japan posts the most, with over two million per day on their largest forum, 2channel. China also has millions of posts on forums such as Tianya Club.

Some of the first forum systems were the Planet-Forum system, developed at the beginning of the 1970s; the EIES system, first operational in 1976; and the KOM system, first operational in 1977.

One of the first forum sites (which is still active today) is Delphi Forums, once called Delphi. The service, with four million members, dates to 1983.

Forums perform a function similar to that of dial-up bulletin board systems and Usenet networks that were first created in the late 1970s. Early web-based forums date back as far as 1994, with the WIT project from the W3 Consortium, and starting at this time, many alternatives were created. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, video games, sports, music, fashion, religion, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of topics. Internet slang and image macros popular across the Internet are abundant and widely used in Internet forums.

Forum software packages are widely available on the Internet and are written in a variety of programming languages, such as PHP, Perl, Java, and ASP. The configuration and records of posts can be stored in text files or in a database. Each package offers different features, from the most basic, providing text-only postings, to more advanced packages, offering multimedia support and formatting code (usually known as BBCode). Many packages can be integrated easily into an existing website to allow visitors to post comments on articles.

Several other web applications, such as blog software, also incorporate forum features. WordPress comments at the bottom of a blog post allow for a single-threaded discussion of any given blog post. Slashcode, on the other hand, is far more complicated, allowing fully threaded discussions and incorporating a robust moderation and meta-moderation system as well as many of the profile features available to forum users.

Some stand-alone threads on forums have reached fame and notability, such as the "I am lonely will anyone speak to me" thread on MovieCodec.com's forums, which was described as the "web's top hangout for lonely folk" by Wired magazine.

Structure
A forum consists of a tree-like directory structure. The top end is "Categories". A forum can be divided into categories for the relevant discussions. Under the categories are sub-forums, and these sub-forums can further have more sub-forums. The topics (commonly called threads) come under the lowest level of sub-forums, and these are the places under which members can start their discussions or posts. Logically, forums are organized into a finite set of generic topics (usually with one main topic), driven and updated by a group known as members, and governed by a group known as moderators. It can also have a graph structure. All message boards will use one of three possible display formats. Each of the three basic message board display formats: Non-Threaded/Semi-Threaded/Fully Threaded, has its own advantages and disadvantages. If messages are not related to one another at all, a Non-Threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and multiple replies to that message topic, a semi-threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and replies to that message topic and responds to replies, then a fully threaded format is best.

User groups
Internally, Western-style forums organize visitors and logged-in members into user groups. Privileges and rights are given based on these groups. A user of the forum can automatically be promoted to a more privileged user group based on criteria set by the administrator. A person viewing a closed thread as a member will see a box saying he does not have the right to submit messages there, but a moderator will likely see the same box, granting him access to more than just posting messages.

An unregistered user of the site is commonly known as a guest or visitor. Guests are typically granted access to all functions that do not require database alterations or breach privacy. A guest can usually view the contents of the forum or use such features as read marking, but occasionally an administrator will disallow visitors to read their forum as an incentive to become a registered member. A person who is a very frequent visitor of the forum, a section, or even a thread is referred to as a lurker, and the habit is referred to as lurking. Registered members often will refer to themselves as lurking in a particular location, which is to say they have no intention of participating in that section but enjoy reading the contributions to it.

Moderators
The moderators (short singular form: "mod") are users (or employees) of the forum who are granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderating discussion (similar to arbitration) and also keeping the forum clean (neutralizing spam and spambots, etc.). Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum and general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads, locking, renaming, and stickying of threads; banning, unbanning, suspending, unsuspending, warning the members; or adding, editing, and removing the polls of threads. "Junior modding", "backseat modding", or "forum copping" can refer negatively to the behavior of ordinary users who take a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members.

Essentially, it is the duty of the moderator to manage the day-to-day affairs of a forum or board as it applies to the stream of user contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this user management directly impacts the quality of a forum in general, its appeal, and its usefulness as a community of interrelated users.

Moderators act as unpaid volunteers on many websites, which has sparked controversies and community tensions. On Reddit, some moderators have prominently expressed dissatisfaction with their unpaid labor being underappreciated, while other site users have accused moderators of abusing special access privileges to act as a "cabal" of "petty tyrants". On 4chan, moderators are subject to notable levels of mockery and contempt. There, they are often referred to as janitors (or, more pejoratively, "jannies" ) given their job, which is tantamount to cleaning up the imageboards' infamous shitposting.

Administrators
The administrators (short form: "admin") manage the technical details required for running the site. As such, they have the authority to appoint and revoke members as moderators, manage the rules, create sections and sub-sections, as well as perform any database operations (database backup, etc.). Administrators often also act as moderators. Administrators may also make forum-wide announcements or change the appearance (known as the skin) of a forum. There are also many forums where administrators share their knowledge.

Post
A post is a user-submitted message enclosed in a block containing the user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as blocks one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post or respond to other replies; it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed.

On Western forums, the classic way to show a member's own details (such as name and avatar) has been on the left side of the post, in a narrow column of fixed width, with the post controls located on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In more recent forum software implementations, the Asian style of displaying the members' details above the post has been copied.

Posts have an internal limit, usually measured in characters. Often, one is required to have a message with a minimum length of 10 characters. There is always an upper limit, but it is rarely reached – most boards have it at either 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000 characters.

Most forums keep track of a user's postcount. The postcount is a measurement of how many posts a certain user has made. Users with higher postcounts are often considered more reputable than users with lower postcounts, but not always. For instance, some forums have disabled postcounts with the hopes that doing so will emphasize the quality of information over quantity.

Thread
A thread (sometimes called a topic) is a collection of posts, usually displayed from oldest to latest, although this is typically configurable: Options for newest to oldest and for a threaded view (a tree-like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available. A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviation OP, which can also be used to refer to the original poster), which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wishes. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.

Bumping
A thread is contained in a forum and may have an associated date that is taken as the date of the last post (options to order threads by other criteria are generally available). When a member posts in a thread, it will jump to the top since it is the latest updated thread. Similarly, other threads will jump in front of it when they receive posts. When a member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go to the top, it is referred to as a bump or bumping. It has been suggested that "bump" is an acronym of "bring up my post"; however, this is almost certainly a backronym, and the usage is entirely consistent with the verb "bump" which means "to knock to a new position".

On some messageboards, users can choose to sage (correctly pronounced though often confused as ) a post if they wish to make a post but not "bump" it. The word "sage" derives from the 2channel terminology 下げる sageru, meaning "to lower".

Stickying
Threads that are important but rarely receive posts are stickied (or, in some software, "pinned"). A sticky thread will always appear in front of normal threads, often in its own section. A "threaded discussion group" is simply any group of individuals who use a forum for threaded, or asynchronous, discussion purposes. The group may or may not be the only users of the forum.

A thread's popularity is measured on forums in reply (total posts minus one, the opening post, in most default forum settings) counts. Some forums also track page views. Threads meeting a set number of posts or a set number of views may receive a designation such as "hot thread" and be displayed with a different icon compared to other threads. This icon may stand out more to emphasize the thread. If the forum's users have lost interest in a particular thread, it becomes a dead thread.

Discussion
Forums prefer the premise of open and free discussion and often adopt de facto standards. The most common topics on forums include questions, comparisons, polls of opinion, and debates. It is not uncommon for nonsense or unsocial behavior to sprout as people lose their temper, especially if the topic is controversial. Poor understanding of the differences in values among the participants is a common problem on forums. Because replies to a topic are often worded to target someone's point of view, discussion will usually go slightly off in several directions as people question each other's validity, sources, and so on. Circular discussion and ambiguity in replies can extend for several tens of posts in a thread, eventually ending when everyone gives up or attention spans waver and a more interesting subject takes over. It is not uncommon for debate to end in ad hominem attacks.

Liabilities of owners and moderators
Several lawsuits have been brought against the forums and moderators, claiming libel and damage. A recent case is the Scubaboard lawsuit, where a business in the Maldives filed a suit against Scubaboard for libel and defamation in January 2010.

For the most part, though, forum owners and moderators in the United States are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states that "[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

In 2019, Facebook was faced with a class action lawsuit set forth by moderators diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. It was settled for $52 million the following year.

Common features
By default, to be an Internet forum, the web application needs the ability to submit threads and replies. Typically, threads are in a newer to older view, and replies are in an older to newer view.

Tripcodes and capcodes
Most imageboards and 2channel-style discussion boards allow (and encourage) anonymous posting and use a system of tripcodes instead of registration. A tripcode is the hashed result of a password that allows one's identity to be recognized without storing any data about the user.

In a tripcode system, a secret password is added to the user's name following a separator character (often a number sign). This password, or tripcode, is hashed into a special key, or trip, distinguishable from the name by HTML styles. Tripcodes cannot be faked, but on some types of forum software, they are insecure and can be guessed. On other types, they can be brute-forced with software designed to search for tripcodes, such as Tripcode Explorer.

Moderators and administrators will frequently assign themselves capcodes or tripcodes where the guessable trip is replaced with a special notice (such as "# Administrator") or cap.

Private message
A private message, or PM for short, is a message sent in private from a member to one or more other members. The ability to send so-called blind carbon copies is sometimes available. When sending a blind carbon copy (bcc), the users to whom the message is sent directly will not be aware of the recipients of the blind carbon copy or even if one was sent in the first place.

Private messages are generally used for personal conversations. They can also be used with tripcodes—a message is addressed to a public trip and can be picked up by typing in the tripcode.

Attachment
An attachment can be almost any file. When someone attaches a file to a person's post, they are uploading that particular file to the forum's server. Forums usually have very strict limits on what can be attached and what cannot (among which is the size of the files in question). Attachments can be part of a thread, a social group, etc.

BBCode and HTML
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is sometimes allowed, but usually its use is discouraged or, when allowed, extensively filtered. Modern bulletin board systems often have it disabled altogether or allow only administrators to use it, as allowing it at any normal user level is considered a security risk due to the high rate of XSS vulnerabilities. When HTML is disabled, Bulletin Board Code (BBCode) is the most common preferred alternative. BBCode usually consists of a tag, similar to HTML, but instead of  and , the tagname is enclosed within square brackets (meaning:   and  ). Commonly,  is used for italic type,   is used for bold,   for underline,   for color, and   for lists, as well as   for images and   for links.

The following example BBCode:. When the post is viewed, the code is rendered to HTML and will appear as: This is clever text.

Many forum packages offer a way to create Custom BBCodes, or BBcodes that are not built into the package, where the administrator of the board can create complex BBCodes to allow the use of JavaScript or iframe functions in posts, for example, embedding a YouTube or Google Video complete with viewer directly into a post.

Emoticon
An emoticon, or smiley, is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. Forums implement a system through which some of the text representations of emoticons (e.g.,,  ) are rendered as a small image. Depending on what part of the world the forum's topic originates from (since most forums are international), smilies can be replaced by other forms of similar graphics; an example would be kaoani (e.g.,,  ), or even text between special symbols (e.g., :blink:, :idea:).

Poll
Most forums implement an opinion poll system for threads. Most implementations allow for single-choice or multi-choice (sometimes limited to a certain number) when selecting options, as well as private or public display of voters. Polls can be set to expire after a certain date or, in some cases, after a number of days from their creation. Members vote in a poll, and a statistic is displayed graphically.

RSS and ATOM
RSS and ATOM feeds allow a minimalistic means of subscribing to the forum. Common implementations allow RSS feeds to list only the last few threads updated for the forum index and the last posts in a thread.

Other features
An ignore list allows members to hide posts of other members that they do not want to see or have a problem with. In most implementations, they are referred to as foe list or ignore list. The posts are usually not hidden but minimized, with only a small bar indicating a post from the user on the ignore list is there. Almost all Internet forums include a member list, which allows the display of all forum members with an integrated search feature. Some forums will not list members with zero posts, even if they have activated their accounts.

Many forums allow users to give themselves an avatar. An avatar is an image that appears beside all of a user's posts in order to make the user more recognizable. The user may upload the image to the forum database or provide a link to an image on a separate website. Each forum has limits on the height, width, and data size of avatars that may be used; if the user tries to use an avatar that is too big, it may be scaled down or rejected.

Similarly, most forums allow users to define a signature (sometimes called a sig), which is a block of text, possibly with BBCode, that appears at the bottom of all of the user's posts. There is a character limit on signatures, though it may be so high that it is rarely hit. Often, the forum's moderators impose manual rules on signatures to prevent them from being obnoxious (for example, being extremely long or having flashing images) and issue warnings or bans to users who break these rules. Like avatars, signatures may improve the recognizability of a poster. They may also allow the user to attach information to all of their posts, such as proclaiming support for a cause, noting facts about themselves, or quoting humorous things that have previously been said on the forum.

A subscription is a form of automated notification integrated into the software of most forums. It usually notifies the member either by email or on the site when the member returns. The option to subscribe is available for every thread while logged in. Subscriptions work with read marking, namely the property of unread, which is given to the content never served to the user by the software.

Recent developments in some popular implementations of forum software have brought social network features and functionality. Such features include personal galleries and pages, as well as social networks like chat systems. Most forum software is now fully customizable, with "hacks" or "modifications" readily available to customize a person's forum to theirs and their members' needs.

Often forums use "cookies", or information about the user's behavior on the site sent to a user's browser and used upon re-entry into the site. This is done to facilitate automatic login and to show a user whether a thread or forum has received new posts since his or her last visit. These may be disabled or cleared at any time.

Rules and policies
Forums are governed by a set of individuals, collectively referred to as staff, made up of administrators and moderators, which are responsible for the forums' conception, technical maintenance, and policies (creation and enforcing). Most forums have a list of rules detailing the wishes, aim, and guidelines of the forums' creators. There is usually also a FAQ section containing basic information for new members and people not yet familiar with the use and principles of a forum (generally tailored for specific forum software).

Rules on forums usually apply to the entire user body and often have preset exceptions, most commonly designating a section as an exception. For example, in an IT forum any discussion regarding anything but computer programming languages may be against the rules, with the exception of a general chat section.

Forum rules are maintained and enforced by the moderation team, but users are allowed to help out via what is known as a report system. Most Western forum platforms automatically provide such a system. It consists of a small function applicable to each post (including one's own). Using it will notify all currently available moderators of its location, and subsequent action or judgment can be carried out immediately, which is particularly desirable in large or very developed boards. Generally, moderators encourage members to also use the private message system if they wish to report behavior. Moderators will generally frown upon attempts of moderation by non-moderators, especially when the would-be moderators do not even issue a report. Messages from non-moderators acting as moderators generally declare a post as against the rules or predict punishment. While not harmful, statements that attempt to enforce the rules are discouraged.

When rules are broken several steps are commonly taken. First, a warning is usually given; this is commonly in the form of a private message but recent development has made it possible for it to be integrated into the software. Subsequent to this, if the act is ignored and warnings do not work, the member is – usually – first exiled from the forum for a number of days. Denying someone access to the site is called a ban. Bans can mean the person can no longer log in or even view the site anymore. If the offender, after the warning sentence, repeats the offense, another ban is given, usually this time a longer one. Continuous harassment of the site eventually leads to a permanent ban. In most cases, this means simply that the account is locked. In extreme cases where the offender – after being permanently banned – creates another account and continues to harass the site, administrators will apply an IP address ban or block (this can also be applied at the server level): If the IP address is static, the machine of the offender is prevented from accessing the site. In some extreme circumstances, IP address range bans or country bans can be applied; this is usually for political, licensing, or other reasons. See also: Block (Internet), IP address blocking, and Internet censorship.

Offending content is usually deleted. Sometimes if the topic is considered the source of the problem, it is locked; often a poster may request a topic expected to draw problems to be locked as well, although the moderators decide whether to grant it. In a locked thread, members cannot post anymore. In cases where the topic is considered a breach of rules it – with all of its posts – may be deleted.

Troll
Forum trolls are users that repeatedly and deliberately breach the netiquette of an established online community, posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to bait or excite users into responding or to test the forum rules and policies, and with that the patience of the forum staff. Their provocative behavior may potentially start flame wars (see below) or other disturbances. Responding to a troll's provocations is commonly known as 'feeding the troll' and is generally discouraged, as it can encourage their disruptive behavior.

Sock puppet
The term sock puppet refers to multiple pseudonyms in use by the same person on a particular message board or forum. The analogy of a sock puppet is of a puppeteer holding up both hands and supplying dialogue to both puppets simultaneously. A typical use of a sockpuppet account is to agree with or debate another sockpuppet account belonging to the same person, for the purposes of reinforcing the puppeteer's position in an argument. Sock puppets are usually found when an IP address check is done on the accounts in forums.

Spamming
Forum spamming is a breach of netiquette where users repeat the same word or phrase over and over, but differs from multiple posting in that spamming is usually a willful act that sometimes has malicious intent. This is a common trolling technique. It can also be traditional spam, unpaid advertisements that are in breach of the forum's rules. Spammers utilize a number of illicit techniques to post their spam, including the use of botnets.

Some forums consider concise, comment-oriented posts spam, for example Thank you, Cool or I love it.

Double posting
One common faux pas on Internet forums is to post the same message twice. Users sometimes post versions of a message that are only slightly different, especially in forums where they are not allowed to edit their earlier posts. Multiple posting instead of editing prior posts can artificially inflate a user's post count. Multiple posting can be unintentional; a user's browser might display an error message even though the post has been transmitted or a user of a slow forum might become impatient and repeatedly hit the submit button. An offline editor may post the same message twice. Multiple posting can also be used as a method of trolling or spreading forum spam. A user may also send the same post to several forums, which is termed crossposting. The term derives from Usenet, where crossposting was an accepted practice but causes problems in web forums, which lack the ability to link such posts so replies in one forum are not visible to people reading the post in other forums.

Necroposting
A necropost is a message that revives (as in necromancy) an arbitrarily old thread, causing it to appear above newer and more active threads. This practice is generally seen as a breach of netiquette on most forums. Because old threads are not usually locked from further posting, necroposting is common for newer users and in cases where the date of previous posts is not apparent.

Word censor
A word censoring system is commonly included in the forum software package. The system will pick up words in the body of the post or some other user-editable forum element (like user titles), and if they partially match a certain keyword (commonly no case sensitivity) they will be censored. The most common censoring is letter replacement with an asterisk character. For example, in the user title, it is deemed inappropriate for users to use words such as "admin", "moderator", "leader" and so on. If the censoring system is implemented, a title such as "forum leader" may be filtered to "forum ******". Rude or vulgar words are common targets for the censoring system. But such auto-censors can make mistakes, for example censoring "wristwatch" to "wris****ch" and "Scunthorpe" to "S****horpe."

Flame wars
When a thread—or in some cases, an entire forum—becomes unstable, the result is usually uncontrolled spam in the form of one-line complaints, image macros, or abuse of the report system. When the discussion becomes heated and sides do nothing more than complain and not accept each other's differences in point of view, the discussion degenerates into what is called a flame war. To flame someone means to go off-topic and attack the person rather than their opinion. Likely candidates for flame wars are usually religion and socio-political topics, or topics that discuss pre-existing rivalries outside the forum (e.g., rivalry between games, console systems, car manufacturers, nationalities, etc.).

When a topic that has degenerated into a flame war is considered akin to that of the forum (be it a section or the entire board), spam and flames have a chance of spreading outside the topic and causing trouble, usually in the form of vandalism. Some forums (commonly game forums) have suffered from forum-wide flame wars almost immediately after their conception, because of a pre-existing flame war element in the online community. Many forums have created devoted areas strictly for discussion of potential flame war topics that are moderated like normal.

Registration or anonymity
Many Internet forums require registration to post. Registered users of the site are referred to as members and are allowed to submit or send electronic messages through the web application. The process of registration involves verification of one's age (typically age 13 and over is required so as to meet COPPA requirements of American forum software) followed by a declaration of the terms of service (other documents may also be present) and a request for agreement to said terms. Subsequently, if all goes well, the candidate is presented with a web form to fill requesting at the very least a username (an alias), password, email and validation of a CAPTCHA code.

While simply completing the registration web form is in general enough to generate an account, the status label Inactive is commonly provided by default until the registered user confirms the email address given while registering indeed belongs to the user. Until that time, the registered user can log into the new account but may not post, reply, or send private messages in the forum.

Sometimes a referrer system is implemented. A referrer is someone who introduced or otherwise "helped someone" with the decision to join the site (likewise, how a HTTP referrer is the site who linked one to another site). Usually, referrers are other forum members and members are usually rewarded for referrals. The referrer system is also sometimes implemented so that, if a visitor visits the forum through a link such as, the user with the id number (in this example, 300) would receive referral credit if the visitor registers. The purpose is commonly just to give credit (sometimes rewards are implied) to those who help the community grow.

In areas such as Japan, registration is frequently optional and anonymity is sometimes even encouraged. On these forums, a tripcode system may be used to allow verification of an identity without the need for formal registration. People who regularly read the forum discussions but do not register or do not post are often referred to as "lurkers".

Comparison with other web applications
Electronic mailing lists: The main difference between forums and electronic mailing lists is that mailing lists automatically deliver new messages to the subscriber, while forums require the reader to visit the website and check for new posts. Because members may miss replies in threads they are interested in, many modern forums offer an "e-mail notification" feature, whereby members can choose to be notified of new posts in a thread, and web feeds that allow members to see a summary of the new posts using aggregator software. There are also software products that combine forum and mailing list features, i.e. posting and reading via email as well as the browser depending on the member's choice.

Newsreader: The main difference between newsgroups and forums is that additional software, a News client, is required to participate in newsgroups whereas using a forum requires no additional software beyond the web browser.

Shoutboxes: Unlike Internet forums, most shoutboxes do not require registration, only requiring an email address from the user. Additionally, shoutboxes are not heavily moderated, unlike most message boards.

Wiki: Unlike conventional forums, the original wikis allowed all users to edit all content (including each other's messages). This level of content manipulation is reserved for moderators or administrators on most forums. Wikis also allow the creation of other content outside the talk pages. On the other hand, weblogs and generic content management systems tend to be locked down to the point where only a few select users can post blog entries, although many allow other users to comment upon them. The Wiki hosting site known as Wikia has two features in operation, known as the Forum and Message Wall. The forum is used solely for discussion and works through editing, while the message wall works through posted messages more similar to a traditional forum.

Chat rooms and instant messaging: Forums differ from chats and instant messaging in that forum participants do not have to be online simultaneously to receive or send messages. Messages posted to a forum are publicly available for some time even if the forum or thread is closed, which is uncommon in chat rooms that maintain frequent activity.

One rarity among forums is the ability to create a picture album. Forum participants may upload personal pictures onto the site and add descriptions to the pictures. Pictures may be in the same format as posting threads, and contain the same options such as "Report Post" and "Reply to Post".

Resources

 * Active Directory (Microsoft-proprietary single sign-on, access, remote and domain control service)
 * Open directory project (multi-platform ontology-based open-standard content directory
 * phpBB (open-source code copyrighted platform)

title: Internet forum


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Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse is an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization that provides aid to people in physical need as a key part of its Christian missionary work. The organization's president is Franklin Graham, son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham. The name of the organization is derived from the New Testament Parable of the Good Samaritan. With international headquarters in Boone, North Carolina, the organization also maintains warehouse and aviation facilities in nearby North Wilkesboro and Greensboro, North Carolina.

History
Samaritan's Purse was founded in 1970 by Baptist pastor Robert Pierce (Bob), the founder of World Vision International, in Boone, North Carolina.

Franklin Graham met Pierce in 1973, and they made several trips together to visit relief projects and missionary partners in Asia and elsewhere. Graham became president of Samaritan's Purse in 1979 following Pierce's death in 1978.

By 2022, Samaritan's Purse had offices in the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom; the organization provides assistance in more than 100 countries. It operates worldwide as Samaritan's Purse, Ippan Shadan Houjin in Japan and as the Emmanuel Group, a wholly owned aircraft title holding corporation formed in 2004.

Programs
Samaritan's Purse includes several ongoing ministries.

 * Disaster Relief responds to emergency situations.
 * World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan's Purse, was founded in 1977 by brothers Dr. Richard Furman and Dr. Lowell Furman to enable doctors to serve short-term assignments at overwhelmed missionary hospitals.
 * Children's Heart Project provides surgery for children born with heart defects in countries where proper care is not available.
 * Turn on the Tap is a campaign to provide safe drinking water in the developing world.
 * Operation Heal Our Patriots provides lodging and outdoor activities in Alaska for wounded veterans and their spouses.

Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child was created in 1990 by Dave Cooke and his wife Gill for children in Romania. Each November thousands of churches, schools, groups and individual donors prepare and collect shoeboxes filled with toys, school supplies, personal items, and other small gifts. A booklet of Bible stories is often distributed alongside the shoebox gifts which are given to children based on need alone, regardless of their faith. These boxes are then distributed overseas by volunteers. , over 124 million boxes had been delivered.

The program uses "follow-up" evangelism  with pamphlets of Bible stories that are given to families that receive the boxes, and an organizer for Operation Christmas Child says his goal every day is to "expand [God's] kingdom through Operation Christmas Child."

The follow-up evangelism program of Operation Christmas Child is called "The Greatest Journey". It is a 12-week discipleship program for children who receive shoebox gifts.

Emergency aid
The organization's medical mission in Liberia, West Africa, was one of only two medical NGOs active in Liberia during the beginning of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Samaritan's Purse and SIM USA both have been actively engaged in treating the outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Liberia. On August 1, 2014, the organization announced that it was evacuating 60 nonessential personnel from Liberia. Dr. Kent Brantly, a Texas-based doctor working for the organization, was the first U.S. citizen to contract the Ebola virus in Liberia while treating the disease. He arrived in the United States on Saturday, August 2, and was treated and subsequently released after nearly three weeks in a special isolation unit of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. The organization recorded their mission in Liberia in the documentary Facing Darkness. Samaritan's Purse has a fleet of 21 planes and 2 helicopters for the emergency transport of basic necessities and aid workers.

Ukraine aid
The organization stepped efforts to aid Ukraine in the midst of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2022. The organization donated various supplies especially for the youth in schools such as medication, food, supplies, blankets, tarps, and bags. The donations were made through various methods of transportation such as semi trucks being loaded with roughly 80,000 donation goods, being transferred at Piedmont Triad International Airport on the DC-8 airplane, and then being air lifted to Poland where the goods are transported across the border to Ukraine. The organization accomplished its 30th airlift donation in the month of September having started in February, equating to roughly 4 airlifts per month. It is estimated that 5.5 million Ukrainians were aided due to the efforts with food, water, and supplies. Furthermore, the organization provided roughly 30 emergency field support hospitals in Lviv with the result of aiding nearly 18,000 patients.

Financials
The organization's 2021 financial statement listed just $758 million in cash donations and another $245 million in donated goods and services. 85% of its $676 million in expenses went ministry expenses with the largest share (42%) going to their Operation Christmas Child project and 17% to emergency relief and 7% to its medical missions. Most expenses come from direct costs in delivering emergency and medical relief and Operation Christmas Child (57%) along with staff salaries and other employment expenses (20%).

The organization has received a 4 star rating (out of 4 stars) from the monitoring organization Charity Navigator.

In 2020, Samaritan's Purse declined federal funding from the Trump administration originally withheld from the World Health Organization.

Facilities and fleets
Based in Boone, North Carolina, the organization also maintains warehouse and administrative facilities in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina including a 202000 sqft former bottling plant and newly constructed 47,000 sqft facility where its 5 custom tractor trailers used for distributing relief supplies are staged.

The organization also operates a fleet of 23 passenger, cargo, and executive aircraft positioned around the world, registered in the organizations name and to the Emmanuel Group, a holding company.

Operations focused at their maintenance facilities at the Piedmont Triad International Airport, along with additional hangar facilities at the Wilkes County Airport. A $1.5 million taxiway was built by the State of North Carolina 2019 to serve the organization's second hangar at that airport under construction at the time. Aircraft serve humanitarian relief missions as well as executive transportation.

 * Douglas DC-8-72-CF: configured to support up to 32 passengers and 10 cargo pallets. The aircraft was built in 1968 and began service for Finnair, then by the French Air Force beginning in 1985, then by charter airline Air Transport International before being registered to Samaritan's Purse in 2015. The aircraft recently flew missions an average of once per month.
 * Douglas DC-3 registered N467SP in 2010, based in Kenya.
 * Boeing 757-200, configured as a freighter. Built in 1985, began service as a passenger aircraft with Eastern Airlines then several British and Icelandic airlines. Converter to a freighter in 2006 where it flew for DHL and other airlines before being registered as N783SP in 2022.
 * Beech Super King B200 turboprop registered as N874SP in 2010.
 * Beech Super King B300 turboprop registered as N841KA in 2020
 * Two CASA 212-CC cargo aircraft designed for take off and landing from short runways. Registered as N831SP and N499SP in 2010.
 * Five Cessna 208 nine passenger aircraft
 * A Cessna 172 Skyhawk and a Cessna 182E Skylane 2 seat aircraft.
 * Cessna A185F six seat aircraft originally designed for agricultural use.
 * One de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter and two Quest Kodiak 100 turboprop bush planes for transportation around Alaska including to the organization's retreat in Port Alsworth, Alaska
 * Bell 206-L4 helicopter registered to Samaritan's Purse in 2016 as N146SP.
 * Gulfstream G550 19 passenger executive aircraft, registered as N521GV to Emmanuel Group.
 * Dassault Falcon 50 9 passenger executive aircraft, registered as N50FJ to Emmanuel Group.
 * Dassault Falcon 900EX 13 passenger executive aircraft, registered as N900FJ to Emmanuel Group.

Previous aircraft include a Mitsubishi MU 2 purchased in the mid-1990s and a Learjet 45 bought in 2020 and sold in 2021.

The organization donated two Beechcraft King Air B200 aircraft in 2011 to a similar Micronesia-based organization.

Controversy
The organization has been criticized for requiring volunteers to sign a controversial Statement of Faith which disavows homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The organization's board of directors, which includes his son, has also been criticized for the $661,000 yearly salary paid to Graham, which is 40–50% more than similar non-profit organizations.

In March 2001, The New York Times reported that Samaritan's Purse had "blurred the line between church and state" in the way it had distributed publicly funded aid to victims of the January 2001 and February 2001 El Salvador earthquakes. Residents from several villages stated they first had to sit through a half-hour prayer meeting before receiving assistance. In a statement, USAID said Samaritan's Purse had not violated federal guidelines, but emphasized the need for the organization to "maintain adequate and sufficient separation" between prayer sessions and publicly funded activities.

In 2003, Islamic leaders criticized Samaritan's Purse within the United Kingdom after its president, Franklin Graham, called Islam a "very evil and wicked religion", leading to opposition campaigns by the Islamic leaders. Samaritan's Purse responded to accusations of being anti-Islamic by highlighting their long history of non-denominational co-operation and charity work in Baghdad without attempting to preach or proselytize.

The Operation Christmas Child project has been criticized in several countries, most notably in the UK, but also in Ireland, India and Canada. In the United States, Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has stated that such religion-and-relief groups are "using their position of power to try to persuade people to leave their faith." In 2003, The British supermarket chain Co-op and South Wales Fire Service both suspended their support for the project after numerous complaints about its religious connections. Samaritan's Purse responded by stating that Christian literature was only handed out where its staff "deemed it appropriate".

Franklin Graham drew scrutiny in 2009 for drawing a full-time salary from Samaritan's Purse, while at the same time receiving a full-time salary from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). This was called into question after his 2008 compensation from both organizations totaled $1.2 million. (Most of this was the result of a new IRS rule that required him to re-report deferred retirement contributions that had already been reported over the previous three years. ) Some experts on non-profits have questioned whether one person can perform two full-time jobs leading organizations that employ hundreds and spend hundreds of millions around the world. In response to the questions about his compensation, Graham decided to give up his salary from BGEA, stating his calling to the ministry "was never based on compensation." He also had contributions to his retirement plans suspended until the economy bounced back. However, Graham was again criticized in 2015 when it was revealed he had again taken up his salary from BGEA, and that his annual compensation was significantly higher than that of the CEO's of similar but much larger non-profit organisations.

In 2010, an American woman and two Sudanese men were kidnapped while working for Samaritan's Purse in Sudan. The two men were released promptly, but the woman was held for three months. Upon her return to the US, she sued Samaritan's Purse and their security contractor, Clayton Consultants, a hostage negotiation consultancy owned by Triple Canopy, accusing the organization "of failing to train its security personnel adequately and of willfully ignoring warning signs that abductions were a threat to foreigners." The organization settled out of court in March 2012.

In May 2013 Franklin Graham wrote a letter to President Obama stating his concern that the IRS targeted Samaritan's Purse prior to the 2012 United States presidential election with a partisan audit.

In August 2013, Thankyou Group announced that it would no longer support Samaritan's Purse because it is not a signatory to the code of conduct run by the Australian Council for International Development, which bans aid as a vehicle for promoting religion or political groups.

In October 2014, Samaritan's Purse threatened legal action in the UK against the posters of online comments on the discussion forum Mumsnet. The resultant letters prompted one of the busiest discussions on the site's "Am I being Unreasonable ?" forum.

Italy
On March 17, 2020, Samaritan's Purse dispatched over 60 disaster response specialists, 20 tons of medical equipment and a field hospital to Cremona, Italy which started operations on March 20, 2020.

Alaska
Samaritans' Purse airlifted 8 tons of medical supplies to Alaska on April 7, 2020, to help provide supplies to remote communities.

New York
In cooperation with New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital, Samaritan's Purse constructed a 14 tent, 68-bed field hospital in Central Park on March 29, 2020, to increase Mount Sinai's surge capacity. Through April, over 190 people were treated there. By early May, all patients had been discharged, and there were plans to dismantle the tents.

Criticism
Before the field hospital opened, journalists, politicians and LGBTQ activists raised concerns that it was only recruiting Christian medical staff and that it would provide inadequate and discriminatory care. Volunteers are required to adhere to a statement of faith, agreeing to a definition of marriage as "exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female" and acknowledging that "[God] will banish the unrighteous to everlasting punishment in hell." New York Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that the presence of Samaritan's Purse was "very troubling," while New York State Senator Brad Hoylman told NBC News that he considered it "a shame that the federal government has left us in the position of having to accept charity from such bigots". Franklin Graham later responded to Hoylman's request for public reassurance by stating: "We do not make distinctions about an individual's religion, race, sexual orientation, or economic status. We certainly do not discriminate, and we have a decades-long track record that confirms just that." New York City's Commission on Human Rights closed an investigation into the hospital after finding no evidence it had discriminated against patients. The group's departure was hailed as a victory by LGBTQ rights activists.

Joint plans between Mount Sinai Hospital, Samaritan's Purse and the Episcopal Diocese of New York to convert the Cathedral of St. John the Divine into a 200-bed hospital were shelved on April 9, 2020. Although this decision was attributed at least in part to the assessment that virus-related hospitalizations had already plateaued, Bishop Andrew M.L. Dietsche of the Episcopal Diocese of New York later said that Graham's "exclusionary" and "narrow" attitude about Christianity was central to the decision. Specifically, the Samaritan's Purse requires its employees and volunteers to oppose gay marriage, which, in Dietsche's words, was incompatible with the work the New York Diocese had done "around the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people."

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Samaritan's Purse


text:
Talk:1728

[Untitled]
The Grand Orient de France is not the oldiest Masonic Body in France: the Grand Orient was only constituted in 1773. The first organised masonry in France was the Grande Loge Anglaise (1730) wich became the first Grande Loge de France in 1738 and counted 8 lodges. Suspended by Police order in 1769, they restarted in 1771, a year later they split into the GL dite de Clermont and a Grande Loge nationale de France (1772)which became in 1773 the Grand Orient de France under the duke de Chartres. In 1799 the Grande Loge de France and the Grand Orient were forced to join together until 1805. They split again into The Grand Orient and the Rite Ecossais (with a Supreme Council 1804)- the latter retoke in 1895 the name of Grande Loge de France and was rejoined in 1896 by the Grande loge Symbolique de France founded in 1880 under the name of Grande Loge Symbolique Ecossaise and renamed in 1890).

years page layout
I have made some year layout proposals which would affect a significant proportion of the year pages: an example of proposed style is 1850. It is detailed on my talk page. However pre 1800 the change is largely cosmetic.

If no-one flags where I have put the discussion on my talk page that they object in a month I will start making everything consistent. It may take some time... --(talk)BozMo 16:32, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

I was wondering if someone would be kind to at the very least put who succedded Catherine I as Tsar/Tsarnia of all the Russias?

title: Talk:1728


text:
Talk:Lactose intolerance

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2018 and 7 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Rachelv37, Jamieeliseodom.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 02:06, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Lactose malabsorption/maldigestion
In the terminology section: “ "Lactose malabsorption" refers to the physiological concomitant of lactase deficiency (i.e., the body does not have sufficient lactase capacity to digest the amount of lactose ingested).”, shouldn’t “maldigestion” be added; i.e. : “ "Lactose malabsorption" or “lactose maldigestion” refer to the physiological concomitant of lactase deficiency…”. Lactose is not directly absorbed; it is first digested into glucose and galactose, that are then absorbed. Lactose intolerance is due to lactose “maldigestion” into glucose and galactose, not to lactose “malabsorption”. For example, it is correct to say “fructose malabsorption”, or “glucose-galactose malabsorption”, but somehow incorrect to say “lactose malabsorption”. Lactose "maldigestion" and "malabsorption" are both used in literature ("malabsorption" being more common…)Gregopim (talk) 16:30, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Bad map
Im suspicious of the map showing the distribution of lactose intolerance. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Worldwide_prevalence_of_lactose_intolerance_in_recent_populations.jpg

Why would populations in Iceland and Greenland have 80-100% lactose intolerant, while the rest of Scandanavia is 0-15%?

The areas don't follow political boundaries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aero13792468 (talk • contribs) 07:27, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

 * Yes it's pretty bad. According to the original source the percentage was calculated per country, so it's strange that it doesn't align with political boundaries, but they don't cite the sources for their data so it's impossible to investigate why. We talked about replacing it a few years ago, which led to the second, more accurate, map being added, but it didn't have the western hemisphere so we kept both. Maybe now there's enough data available to produce a good map of the whole world?
 * Greenland does make sense though. Its population is 90% ethnically Inuit and has very high rates of lactose intolerance. – Joe (talk) 07:14, 19 April 2022 (UTC)
 * The current map is very inaccurate. Another obvious error is that it seemingly implies that lactose intolerance in Italy is lower than in Spain, when the opposite is true (72% of the population might be lactose intolerant in Italy, compared to 29% in Spain. I've seen many sources supporting this. https://milk.procon.org/lactose-intolerance-by-country/). I've seen  I remember seeing another map in this article some time ago that was much better -- it only showed Europe, though. I don't know what happened to this other map. Schweinchen (talk) 22:39, 12 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, map is terrible. I think it's more likely to be made on stereotypes and prejudices than on real estimations. As an example, Uruguay and Argentina are 28th and 33rd in milk consumption per capita rankings. While there isn't official data, academic researchers estimate Uruguay's lactose intolerance to be at 40%. I haven't found a similar estimate for Argentina. In this map, they both appear on the range of 80-100%. Halvenvideo (talk) 19:28, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:07, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Global-lactose-intolerance-by-country-2017-1.jpg

title: Talk:Lactose intolerance


text:
Talk:Red Bull Flugtag

UK
I'm sure they used to regularly do this kind of thing off some pier in the UK, but I can't for the life of me remember where it was. Mintguy 15:30, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

 * Found it, it's Bognor Regis http://www.birdman.org.uk/main.html Mintguy 15:33, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Citation for environmental statement
Can someone provide a reference from a non-Wikipedia mirror site documenting the statement about environmental concerns? Thanks. Captainktainer * Talk 20:36, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I don't see the environmental concerns part in the article as it is now. The entry form (not available online AFAIK) includes the following condition on a checklist: "Environmentally friendly materials".  It doesn't seem to be in the Terms and Conditions (http://www.redbullflugtag.com.au/showTermsAndCondition.action). - Zak

Flugtag is too generic a title for this entry
This entry should be retitled to Redbull Flutag or something identifying it as the specific Flugtag competition rather than the generic "Flugtag" which is German for airshow. Ekilfoil 18:41, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

 * I agree with Ekilfoil, Redbull Flugtag would be a more appropriate name for this article. PhilipDSullivan 03:38, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Additional articles
I don't see why we shouldn't create articles for the different events that have been held by Red Bull around the world. Each event is special and has a certain notoriety for the hundreds and thousands of people who show up to them. This would also provide room for detailed descriptions of memorable flying crafts created, which in turn would give the reader of the main article an oppurtunity to have a more complex view of the Flugtag experience. PhilipDSullivan 03:51, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Sections for each country
Someone from the United Arab Emirates has popped in the details of their details - I think we should have a whole section, subdivided into countries, where each place could put info on it's flugtag comps. Surroundsound5000 11:21, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

The UK section is missing too --89.240.252.48 (talk) 18:30, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

 * does the UK have wildly different ELIGIBILITY specs? article says most countries have weight limits around 150kg/330lbs, but the PHOTO there shows 4 adult males(?) atop a solid-looking craft.  that's gotta be like 300kg/660lbs, minimum.
 * or are there "non-eligible" crafts that are just in it for the "show" part of the event. i.e., not even competing? 209.172.23.106 (talk) 18:26, 21 August 2016 (UTC)

Woman injured in Bucharest
A woman apparently broke her back in the BUcharest event: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c47_1285621785  I haven't posted this in the article yet because I can't confirm if the text from that page is accurate, but obviously something happened. --Howdybob (talk) 08:33, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

title: Talk:Red Bull Flugtag


text:
Mike Leavitt

Michael Okerlund Leavitt (born February 11, 1951) is an American Republican Party politician who served as the 14th governor of Utah from 1993 to 2003, and in the George W. Bush administration as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2003 to 2005 and as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2005 to 2009.

Leavitt started his career in 1972 and worked in the insurance and risk management industry until 1992. From 1984 until his election as Governor of Utah in 1992, he was the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Leavitt Group. As governor, Leavitt worked to establish Western Governors University and the first charter schools in Utah, led the state's preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, was a leader in the implementation of a modernized system of sales tax on e-commerce throughout the United States, negotiated the largest land exchanges between a state and the federal government, initiated an engineering education initiative, worked on the devolution of welfare to the states, and established the Utah Centennial Highway Fund which featured design build highway construction.

Leavitt resigned as governor in 2003 after he was successfully nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the EPA; he was succeeded as governor by Olene Walker, his lieutenant governor. Leavitt was promoted to Secretary of Health and Human Services at the start of Bush's second term, serving until the conclusion of the Bush administration. As HHS Secretary, he oversaw the implementation of Medicare Part D, developed the National Pandemic Plan, promoted value-based health care, mitigated the effects of Hurricane Katrina, opened FDA offices in China, India, South America, and reauthorized SCHIP and TANF.

Leavitt now works as a health care advisor, investor, and independent corporate director. In August 2021, he became president of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.

Early life and education
Leavitt was born in Cedar City, Utah, the son of Phyllis Anne (Okerlund) and Dixie L. Leavitt. Leavitt graduated with a degree in business from Southern Utah University and married Jacalyn Smith. They have five children.

Leavitt is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He is a descendant of an old Massachusetts Puritan family, and a direct descendant of Dudley Leavitt, a Mormon pioneer.

Early career
Leavitt's business career started with his joining The Leavitt Group, a regional insurance company founded by his father. He rose to become the company's president and CEO and presided over a period of expansion. He was subsequently appointed to the boards of directors of numerous local and regional companies, including Utah Power and Light, as well as a member of the Utah State Board of Regents. As a regent, he helped oversee Utah's nine public colleges and universities. For four years, he was chair of Southern Utah University's (SUU) board of trustees.

In 1976, Leavitt assisted his father, then a Utah state senator, in an unsuccessful campaign for governor. He worked on a number of U.S. Senate campaigns through the 1980s for Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch.

Governor of Utah
Leavitt first ran for governor in 1992. He had tough competition in the Republican Party primary from Richard Eyre who had more delegates vote for him at the state Republican convention. He defeated Independent Party candidate Merrill Cook and Democratic nominee Stewart Hanson in the general election, becoming the 14th Governor of the State of Utah.

A holiday fire shortly before noon on December 15, 1993, destroyed much of the Utah Governor's Mansion, but spared the lives of the first family and staff (Jacalyn Leavitt and some members of the family and staff were in the home at the time of the fire).

Leavitt was re-elected in 1996 with the largest vote total in state history. While Governor, he and Roy Romer of Colorado were the two key founders of Western Governors University in 1997, one of the first exclusively online schools in the nation. In addition to Leavitt and Romer, 17 other governors signed legislation creating the school as a non-profit private university.

In 2000, Leavitt became only the second governor in Utah history to be re-elected to a third term. As governor, he held leadership positions in national and regional organizations, which included chairing the Republican Governors Association from 1994 to 1995, the Western Governors Association from 1995 to 1996, the Council of State Governments from 1996 to 1997, and the National Governors Association from 1999 to 2000.

EPA Administrator
On August 11, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Leavitt as Administrator of the EPA at a press conference in Aurora, Colorado. He was confirmed on October 28, 2003, by a vote of 88–8 in the United States Senate. On November 5, having resigned the governorship, Leavitt was sworn in as the 10th Administrator of the EPA.

At the EPA he implemented higher standards for ozone, diesel fuels and other air pollutants. He organized and managed a collaboration to develop a federal plan to clean up the Great Lakes. He is also the co-author of an environmental policy called Enlibra.

Secretary of Health and Human Services
On December 13, 2004, Leavitt was nominated by Bush to succeed Tommy Thompson as Secretary of HHS, and was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote on January 26, 2005. He was commonly known for his advocating that Medicare was drifting toward financial insolvency.

Secretary Leavitt cited the work of the World Health Organization's Michael McCoy as the most compelling scientific work into the avian flu threat. This encouraged Leavitt to mobilize the nation's pandemic preparedness and led to the reconfiguring of the nation's medical emergency plans.

Leavitt also served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. In August 2007, Leavitt became the first cabinet-level blogger in U.S. history.

Presidential transitions
During the 2012 presidential campaign, Leavitt was Chairman of the Transition Committee for Republican nominee Mitt Romney. This was the first time a Presidential transition had planned under the Presidential Transition Act of 2010. In August 2012, Politico reported Leavitt to be "creating a government-in-waiting plan for Mitt Romney" and "a lock for... White House chief of staff or Treasury secretary" in a potential Romney administration if he had won that year's presidential election against incumbent Barack Obama.

In 2014 and 2015, Leavitt advised Congress on how to improve the statutes governing presidential transitions. On December 18, 2015, the Edward "Ted" Kaufman and Michael Leavitt Presidential Transitions Improvements Act of 2015 was signed into law by President Barack Obama.

In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, Leavitt was part of a team organized by the Center for Public Service and the Center for Presidential Transition who advised both Republicans and Democrats' presidential campaigns on the development of effective transitions plans.

Electoral reform
In 2013, Leavitt partnered with former Utah First Lady Norma Matheson] and businesswoman Gail Miller to launch "Count My Vote", a bipartisan effort to push for state electoral reform. Together, they successfully lobbied for a new law allowing candidates access to the primary election ballot by gathering signatures in Utah.

Leavitt Partners
In 2009, Leavitt organized Leavitt Partners, a consulting firm to advise clients in health care policy matters. The firm evolved into a leading authority on value-based health care.

In April 2021, Leavitt Partners merged with Health Management Associates and Leavitt was appointed Co-Chairman of the combined firm.

Tabernacle Choir president
On August 6, 2021, Gérald Caussé, the LDS Church's presiding bishop, announced that Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square president Ron Jarrett was stepping down after nine years of service and that Leavitt would replace him in that role.

Philanthropy
Leavitt's family charitable foundation, the Dixie and Anne Leavitt Foundation, was established by the Leavitt family in 2000, and the family has donated nearly $9 million of assets to it since.

Electoral history

 * 1992 Race for Governor
 * Michael Leavitt (R), 42%
 * Merrill Cook (I), 34%
 * Stewart Hanson (D), 23%
 * 1996 Race for Governor
 * Michael Leavitt (R) (inc.), 75%
 * Jim Bradley (D), 23%
 * 2000 Race for Governor
 * Michael Leavitt (R) (inc.), 56%
 * Bill Orton (D), 42%

title: Mike Leavitt


text:
Legal positivism

Legal positivism is a modern intellectual tradition in the philosophy of law and jurisprudence that holds that law is a set of rules created by human beings who prescribe certain procedures for its enactment. This contrasts with natural law theory, which has ancient roots and holds that inherent moral principles provide a basis for the law, and that an immoral law is not a true law. Legal positivists oppose this view, maintaining that the validity of a law is determined by social facts such as enactment by a recognized authority following accepted procedures, rather than from any moral criterion.

Legal positivism was developed largely during the 18th and 19th centuries by legal philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Austin. Thomas Hobbes first explained law as anything commanded by the sovereign. Early positivists Bentham and John Austin developed this idea, with the validity of the law deriving from society's recognition of the sovereign's authority to declare law and enforce it. In the Germanic tradition, Hans Kelsen went a step further, divorcing law not only from morals, as the early positivists did, but also from facts, introducing instead the idea of a "norm" as something that "ought to be" in contrast to a fact, that merely "is", and imputing "law" to a legal norm based on the authority of another norm, where the ultimate authority resides not in the sovereign, but in a "basic norm". The most prominent legal positivists of the 20th century included Kelsen, H. L. A. Hart, and Joseph Raz.

Etymology and semantics
The term positivism in legal positivism is connected to the sense of the verb to posit rather than the sense of positive (as opposed to negative). In this sense, the term positivism is derived from Latin positus, the past participle of ponere, meaning "to place" or "to put". Legal positivism holds that laws are rules established (that is, "posited") by human beings, and that this act of positing the law makes it authoritative and binding.

Legal validity and the sources of law
In the positivist opinion, the source of a law is the establishment of that law by some legal authority that is recognised socially. The merits of a law are a separate issue: it may be a bad law by some standard, but if it was added to the system by a legitimate authority following accepted procedures, it is still a law.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy summarises the distinction between merit and source: "The fact that a policy would be just, wise, efficient, or prudent is never sufficient reason for thinking that it is actually the law, and the fact that it is unjust, unwise, inefficient or imprudent is never sufficient reason for doubting it. According to positivism, law is a matter of what has been posited (ordered, decided, practiced, tolerated, etc.); as we might say in a more modern idiom, positivism is the view that law is a social construction."

Legal positivism does not claim that the laws so identified should be obeyed, or that necessarily there is value in having clear, identifiable rules (although some positivists may also make these claims). Indeed, the laws of a legal system may be quite unjust, and the state may be quite illegitimate; as a result, there may be no obligation to obey them. Moreover, the fact that a law has been identified by a court as valid does not provide any guidance as to whether the court should apply it in a particular case. As John Gardner has said, legal positivism is "normatively inert"; it is a theory of law, not a theory of legal practice, adjudication, or political obligation. Legal positivists believe that intellectual clarity is best achieved by leaving these questions for separate investigation.

Antecedents
The main antecedent of legal positivism is empiricism, the thinkers of which range back as far as Sextus Empiricus, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and Auguste Comte. The main idea of empiricism is the claim that all knowledge of fact must be validated by sense experience or be inferred from propositions derived unambiguously from sense data. Further, empiricism is in opposition to metaphysics; for instance, Hume rejected metaphysics as mere speculation beyond what can be learnt from sense experience. The teachings of the empiricists preceded systemization of a positivist method for problems of comprehension and analysis, which was later represented by legal positivism.

Methodology
Traditionally, positivist theories of law have been developed by theorists applying the method of conceptual analysis to determine what is 'natural to say'. This approach assumes that legal concepts, being 'settled by the classificatory machinery of human thought', are 'amenable only to philosophical … reflection'. Recently, researchers in the emerging field of experimental jurisprudence have challenged this assumption by exploring the relation between law and morality through systematic, psychological investigations of folk legal concepts.

Legal positivism is related to empiricist and logical positivist theoretical traditions. Its methods include descriptive investigations of particular legal orders. Peter Curzon wrote that this approach "utilizes in its investigations the inductive method" which proceeds "from observation of particular facts to generalizations concerning all such facts." These investigations eschew assessments of ethics, social welfare, and morality. As Julius Stone wrote, legal positivist investigation is concerned primarily with "an analysis of legal terms, and an inquiry into the logical interrelations of legal propositions". Further, law and its authority are framed as source-based: the validity of a legal norm depends not on its moral value, but on the sources determined by a social community's rules and conventions. This source-based conception aligns with the logical positivism of Rudolf Carnap, who rejected metaphysical conjecture about the nature of reality beyond observable events.

Thomas Hobbes and Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes, in his seminal work Leviathan, offered the first detailed theory of law as based on sovereign power. As Hampton writes, "law is understood [by Hobbes] to depend on the sovereign's will. No matter what a law's content, no matter how unjust it seems, if it has been commanded by the sovereign, then and only then is it law." There is, however, debate surrounding Hobbes's status as a legal positivist.

Jeremy Bentham
The English jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham is arguably the greatest historical British legal positivist. In An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Bentham developed a theory of law as the expressed will of a sovereign. In 'A Fragment on Government', Bentham made a distinction between the following types of people: The philosophy of law, considered strictly, was to explain the real laws of the expositors, rather than the criticisms of the censors.
 * Expositors – those who explained what the law in practice was;
 * Censors – those who criticised the law in practice and compared it to their notions of what it ought to be.

Bentham is also noted for terming natural rights "nonsense upon stilts".

John Austin's command theory

John Austin partly emulated Bentham by writing The Province of jurisprudence Determined. However, Austin differed from Bentham in a number of ways, for example, by endorsing the common law.

Differences aside, Austin embraced Hobbes's and Bentham's conception of law as a sovereign command, whose authority is recognised by most members of a society; the authority of which is enforced by the use of sanctions, but which is not bound by any human superior. The criterion for validity of a legal rule in such a society is that it has the warrant of the sovereign and will be enforced by the sovereign power and its agents.

The three main tenets of Austin's command theory are:
 * laws are commands issued by the uncommanded commander, i.e. the sovereign;
 * such commands are enforced by sanctions;
 * a sovereign is one who is obeyed by the majority.

Austin considered law to be commands from a sovereign that are enforced by a threat of sanction. In determining 'a sovereign', Austin recognised it is one whom society obeys habitually. This sovereign can be a single person or a collective sovereign such as Parliament, with a number of individuals, with each having various authoritative powers. Austin's theory is also somewhat brief in his explanations of Constitutions, International Law, non-sanctioned rules, or law that gives rights. Insofar as non-sanctioned rules and laws that allow persons to do things, such as contract law, Austin said that failure to obey the rules does result in sanctions; however, such sanctions are in the form of "the sanction of nullity".

Hans Kelsen

The British legal positivism hitherto mentioned was founded on empiricism; by contrast, legal positivism was founded on the transcendental idealism of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Whereas British legal positivists regard law as distinct from morals, their Germanic counterparts regard law as separate from both fact and morals. The most famous proponent of Germanic legal positivism is Hans Kelsen, whose thesis of legal positivism is explained by Suri Ratnapala, who writes:

"The key elements of Kelsen's theory are these.... A norm, unlike a fact, is not about what there is but is about what ought to be done or not done. Whereas facts exist in the physical world, norms exist in the world of ideas. Facts are caused by other facts. Norms are imputed by other norms. The requirement that a person who commits theft ought to be punished is a norm. It does not cease being a norm because the thief is not punished. (He may not get caught.) The norm that the thief ought to be punished exists because another norm says so. Not all norms are laws. There are also moral norms. Legal norms are coercive; moral norms are not."

From this framework, Kelsen opined that the regression of validated norms cannot go on infinitely and must arrive at a first cause, which he called a basic norm (Grundnorm). The legal system is therefore a system of legal norms connected to one another by their common origin, like the branches and leaves of a tree.

For Kelsen, "sovereignty" was an arbitrary concept: "We can derive, however, from this concept of sovereignty only what we have purposely put into its definition". Kelsen attracted disciples among scholars of public law worldwide. These disciples developed schools of thought to extend his theories, such as the Vienna School in Austria and the Brno School in Czechoslovakia. In English-speaking countries, H. L. A. Hart and Joseph Raz are perhaps the best-known authors who were influenced by Kelsen, though both their legal philosophies differed from Kelsen's theories in several respects.

H. L. A. Hart

Hart liked Austin's theory of a sovereign, but claimed that Austin's command theory failed in several important respects. Among the ideas developed in Hart's book The Concept of Law (1961) are:
 * a critique of Austin's theory that a law is a command of the sovereign enforced by a threat of punishment;
 * a distinction between internal and external consideration of law and rules, influenced by Max Weber's distinction between legal and sociological perspectives on law;
 * a distinction between primary and secondary legal rules, such that a primary rule, such as a criminal law, governs conduct, and secondary rules provide methods by which primary rules are recognized, changed or judicially applied. Hart identifies three types of secondary rule:
 * a rule of recognition, a rule by which any member of society may check to discover what the primary rules of the society are;
 * a rule of change, by which existing primary rules might be created, altered or abolished;
 * a rule of adjudication, by which the society might determine when a rule has been violated and prescribe a remedy;
 * a late reply (1994 edition) to Ronald Dworkin, who criticized legal positivism in general and especially Hart's account of law in Taking Rights Seriously (1977), A Matter of Principle (1985) and Law's Empire (1986).

Five contentions
In 1958, Hart analyzed descriptions or definitions as given by different proponents of legal positivism as including one or more of these five contentions in different combinations: Historically, legal positivism is in opposition to natural law's theories of jurisprudence, with particular disagreement surrounding the natural lawyer's claim that there is a necessary connection between law and morality.
 * laws are commands of human beings;
 * there is not any necessary relation between law and morality, that is, between law as it is and as it ought to be;
 * analysis (or study of the meaning) of legal concepts is worthwhile and is to be distinguished from history or sociology of law, as well as from criticism or appraisal of law, for example with regard to its moral value or to its social aims or functions;
 * a legal system is a closed, logical system in which correct decisions can be deduced from predetermined legal rules without reference to social considerations (legal formalism);
 * moral judgments, unlike statements of fact, cannot be established or defended by rational argument, evidence, or proof ("noncognitivism" in ethics).

Joseph Raz
A pupil of Hart, Joseph Raz was important in continuing Hart's arguments of legal positivism since Hart's death. This included editing in 1994 a second edition of Hart's The Concept of Law, with an additional section including Hart's responses to other philosophers' criticisms of his work.

Raz also argued, contrary to Hart, that the validity of a law can never depend on its morality.

Compared to legal realism
Sometimes the term 'positivist' is used in a pejorative sense to condemn a doctrine according to which the law is always clear (legal formalism) and, however unjust, must be strictly enforced by officials and obeyed by subjects (so-called 'ideological positivism'). When identified with legal formalism, legal positivism is opposed to legal realism. Legal positivism, understood as formalism, believes that in most cases the law provides definite guidance to its subjects and to judges; legal realists, on the other hand, often embrace rule scepticism, claiming that legal rules are indeterminate and do not constrain judicial discretion. However, both legal positivism and legal realism believe that law is a human construct. Moreover, most realists adopted some version of the positivist doctrine of the separation of law and morality.

According to Brian Leiter, the view that positivism and realism are incompatible positions is probably largely due to Hart's critique of legal realism, but American legal realists were "tacit legal positivists" who acknowledged that all law stems from authoritative sources such as statutes and precedents. Most legal realists denied the existence of natural law, had a scientific approach to the law based on the distinction between describing and evaluating the law, and denied the existence of an objective (moral or political) obligation to obey the law; they therefore qualified as legal positivists.

Methodological, theoretical and ideological senses
In 1961 Norberto Bobbio argued that the phrase "legal positivism" is used with three different meanings, referring to different and largely independent doctrines, which he called "positivism as a way of approaching the study of law" (methodological legal positivism), "positivism as a theory or conception of law" (theoretical legal positivism) and "positivism as an ideology of justice" (Ideological legal positivism).

Methodological legal positivism is a value-free, scientific approach to the study of law and, at the same time, is a way of conceiving the object of legal knowledge. It is characterised by a sharp distinction between real law and ideal law (or "law as fact" and "law as value", "law as it is" and "law as it should be") and by the conviction that legal science should be concerned with the former. Theoretical legal positivism is a cluster of theories about the nature of law related to a "statalist" conception of law. They include the theory that the law is a set of commands issued by the sovereign authority, whose binding force is guaranteed by the threat of sanctions (coercitive imperativism); a theory of legal sources, in which statute law enjoys supremacy (legalism); a theory of the legal order, which is supposed to be a complete and coherent system of norms, free of gaps (lacunae) and contradictions (antinomies); and a theory legal interpretation, conceived of as a pure act of cognition: a mechanical and logical activity. Finally, ideological legal positivism is defined by Bobbio as the normative theory according to which positive law ought to be obeyed (ethical legalism).

Criticism
Legal positivism in Germany was famously rejected by Gustav Radbruch in 1946 where prosecution of Nazi supporters faced a challenge of assessing actions that had complied with Nazi law. In what has come to be known as the Radbruch formula, he argued that in general an unjust law must be recognised as law, "unless the conflict between statute and justice reaches such an intolerable degree that the statute, as 'flawed law', must yield to justice" or, more precisely: "Where there is not even an attempt at justice, where equality, the core of justice, is deliberately betrayed in the issuance of positive law, then the statute is not merely 'flawed law', it lacks completely the very nature of law."

title: Legal positivism


text:
NGA

NGA may refer to:

 * BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, a talent scheme run by BBC Radio 3
 * National Gallery of Art in the US
 * National Gallery of Australia
 * National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, an intelligence agency of the United States
 * National Giving Alliance (formerly Needlework Guild of America and NGA, Inc.), an American clothing donation charity
 * National Golf Association in the US
 * National Governors Association, a US-based organisation for State Governors
 * National Governors' Association (UK charity), an English charity relating to school governors
 * National Graphical Association, a British trade union
 * National Greyhound Association in the US
 * National Gym Association
 * Natural Gas Act of 1938
 * Next generation access, fibre optic broadband
 * Ngā, the (plural) definite article in the Māori language
 * Nga (god), a Siberian deity
 * Nga (Indic), a glyph in the Brahmic family of scripts
 * Nga (Javanese) (ꦔ), a letter in the Javanese script
 * Nga people, a tribal group of Arunachal Pradesh
 * Nigeria, by ISO 3166-1 three-letter (alpha-3) code
 * Young Airport, IATA airport code "NGA"

title: NGA


text:
Daniel Shays

Daniel Shays (August 1747 –  September 29, 1825) was an American soldier, revolutionary and farmer famous for allegedly leading Shays' Rebellion, a populist uprising against controversial debt collection and tax policies in Massachusetts in 1786–1787. The actual role played by Daniel Shays in Shays' Rebellion is disputed by scholars.

Early life
Daniel Ogden Shays was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, sometime between April and August 1747 to Irish immigrants Patrick Shays and Margaret Dempsey. Daniel was the second of seven siblings; his siblings were Margaret, James, Roger, Phebe, Mary, and Polly. He spent his early years as a landless farm laborer. In 1772, he married Abigail Gilbert, and they settled in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, where he owned a sixty-eight acre farm and they had six children.

Revolutionary War
Shays joined the militia immediately prior to the American Revolution and attained the rank of sergeant in the regiment commanded by Benjamin R. Woodbridge. The Battles of Lexington and Concord took place on April 19, 1775, and the next day Shays's unit was mobilized and marched to Boston. His company took part in the Boston campaign and Siege of Boston, and Shays fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Shortly after Bunker Hill, Shays was commissioned as a second lieutenant in recognition of the bravery and skill he demonstrated during the fighting. In late 1776, Shays joined Varnum's Regiment of the Continental Army, with which he served during fighting in New York and New Jersey. After performing temporary recruiting duty in Massachusetts during late 1776, on January 1, 1777, Shays was promoted to captain as commander of a company in the 5th Massachusetts Regiment. During 1777, Shays took part in several engagements in upstate New York, including the Battles of Saratoga.

After Saratoga, Shays continued to serve with the Continental Army in upstate New York. As commander of a company in the Corps of Light Infantry, which was commanded by Anthony Wayne, Shays took part in the July 1779 Battle of Stony Point. He subsequently served as commander of a company under the Marquis de Lafayette, which patrolled farmland on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River to prevent British troops from foraging. In 1780, Lafayette presented several officers, including Shays, with ornamental swords in honor of their military service. Shays sold his for cash to help pay off debts; he argued that there was nothing wrong with his action, because he already owned a sword, but his decision to sell his was frowned upon by his peers. After British officer John André was captured while collaborating with Continental officer Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British, Shays was assigned as one of the captains of the guard who oversaw André's imprisonment, a task for which Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington personally selected him. Shays was present when André was executed on October 2, 1780, and was probably the officer who escorted him to the gallows. Shays resigned soon afterwards, and was discharged from the army on October 14, 1780.

Debt and tax burdens
Upon returning home, Shays was summoned to court for unpaid debts, which he could not pay because he had not been paid in full for his military service. Shays was alarmed to discover that many of his fellow veterans and farmers were in the same financial situation. At commoners' meetings veterans asserted that they were treated unfairly upon release, and that businessmen were trying to squeeze money out of smallholders in order to pay their own debts to European war investors. Many Massachusetts rural communities first tried to petition the legislature in Boston, but the legislature did not respond substantively to those petitions.

The petitions and proposals often included a request to issue paper currency. Such inflationary issues would depreciate the currency, making it possible to meet obligations made at high values with lower-valued paper. Merchants, among them James Bowdoin, were opposed to these proposals because they were generally lenders who stood to lose. The proposals were repeatedly rejected. Governor John Hancock, accused by some of anticipating trouble, abruptly resigned in early 1785. When Bowdoin (a loser to Hancock in earlier elections) was elected governor that year, matters became more severe. Bowdoin stepped up civil actions to collect back taxes, and the legislature exacerbated the situation by levying an additional property tax to raise funds for the state's portion of foreign debt payments. Even comparatively conservative commentators like John Adams observed that these levies were "heavier than the People could bear".

Protests against the courts
Protests in rural Massachusetts turned into direct action in August 1786 after the state legislature adjourned without considering the many petitions that had been sent to Boston. On August 29, a well-organized force of protestors, Shays among them, marched on Northampton and successfully prevented the county court from sitting. The leaders of this and later forces proclaimed that they were seeking relief from the burdensome judicial processes that were depriving the people of their land and possessions. They called themselves Regulators, a reference to the Regulator movement of North Carolina that sought to reform corrupt practices in the late 1760s. On September 2, Governor Bowdoin issued a proclamation denouncing such mob action, but took no military measures in response beyond planning militia response to future actions.

When the court in Worcester was shut down by similar action on September 5, the county militia (composed mainly of men sympathetic to the protestors) refused to turn out, much to Bowdoin's amazement.

Shays, who had participated in the Northampton action, became involved in the uprising in November; though the precise role that Shays played is unclear and, as scholars have suggested, appears to have been exaggerated by contemporary elites. Historian Leonard Richards observes that "much of the backlash [against Shays and the protestors] was due to the Boston elite. Had they treated Daniel Shays as simply a small-town rebel leader, the aftermath might have been different. But they portrayed him instead as a major villain." On September 19, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts indicted eleven leaders of the rebellion as "disorderly, riotous, and seditious persons." When the supreme judicial court was next scheduled to meet in Springfield on September 26, Shays in Hampshire County and Luke Day in what is now Hampden County (but was then part of Hampshire County) organized an attempt to shut it down. They were anticipated by William Shepard, the local militia commander, who began gathering government-supporting militia the Saturday before the court was to sit. By the time the court was ready to open, Shepard had 300 men protecting the Springfield courthouse. Shays and Day were able to recruit a similar number, but chose only to demonstrate, exercising their troops outside Shepard's lines, rather than attempt to seize the building. The judges first postponed the hearings, and then adjourned on the 28th without hearing any cases. Shepard withdrew his force, which had grown to some 800 men (to the Regulators' 1,200), to the federal armory, which was then only rumored to be the target of seizure by the activists.

Plan to seize the Springfield Arsenal
On November 28, a posse of some 300 men rode to Groton to arrest Job Shattuck and other protest leaders in the area. Shattuck was chased down and arrested on the 30th, and was wounded by a sword slash in the process. This action and the arrest of other protest leaders in the eastern parts of the state radicalized those in the west, and they began to organize an overthrow of the state government. "The seeds of war are now sown", wrote one correspondent in Shrewsbury, and by mid-January rebel leaders spoke of smashing the "tyrannical government of Massachusetts."

While government forces organized in the east, Shays, Day, and other rebel leaders in the west organized their forces, establishing regional regimental organizations that were run by democratically elected committees. Their first major target was the federal armory in Springfield. General Shepard had, however, pursuant to orders from Governor Bowdoin, taken possession of the armory and used its arsenal to arm a force of some 1,200 militia.

Attack and collapse
The insurgents were organized into three major groups, and intended to surround and simultaneously attack the armory. Shays led one group east of Springfield near Palmer, Luke Day had a second force across the Connecticut River in West Springfield, and the third force, under Eli Parsons, was to the north at Chicopee. The rebels had planned their assault for January 25, but Luke Day changed this at the last minute, sending Shays a message indicating he would not be ready to attack until the 26th. Day's message was intercepted by Shepard's men, so the militia of Shays and Parsons, some 1,500 men, approached the armory on the 25th not knowing they would have no support from the west.

When Shays and his forces neared the armory, they found Shepard's militia waiting for them. Shepard first ordered warning shots fired over the approaching Shaysites' heads, and then ordered two cannons to fire grapeshot at Shays' men. Four Shaysites were killed and twenty wounded. There was no musket fire from either side, and the rebel advance collapsed. Most of the rebel force fled north, eventually regrouping at Amherst. On the opposite side of the river, Day's forces also fled north, also eventually reaching Amherst.

General Benjamin Lincoln had mustered 3,000 men at Worcester to deal with the rebels. When he heard of the Springfield incident, they immediately began marching west. Shays led the rebel force generally north and east to avoid Lincoln, eventually establishing a camp at Petersham. Along the way they raided the shops of local merchants for supplies, taking some of them hostage. Lincoln pursued them, reaching Pelham, some 10 mi from Petersham, on February 2. On the night of February 3–4, he led his militia on a forced march to Petersham through a bitter snowstorm. Arriving early in the morning, they surprised the rebel camp so thoroughly that they scattered "without time to call in their out parties or even their guards." Although Lincoln claimed to capture 150 men, none of them were officers, leading historian Leonard Richards to suspect the veracity of the report. Shays and some of the other leaders escaped north into New Hampshire and Vermont.

Some four thousand people signed confessions acknowledging participation in the events of the rebellion (in exchange for amnesty); several hundred participants were eventually indicted on charges relating to the rebellion. Most of these were pardoned under a general amnesty that only excluded a few ringleaders. Eighteen men, including Shays, were convicted and sentenced to death. Most of these either had their convictions overturned on appeal, were pardoned, or had their sentences commuted. Two of the condemned men, John Bly and Charles Rose, were hanged on December 6, 1787. Shays was pardoned in 1788 and he returned to Massachusetts from hiding in the Vermont woods. He was, however, vilified by the Boston press, who painted him as an archetypal radical opposed to the government.

Later life
Shays was later granted a pension by the federal government for the five years he served in the Continental Army without pay. Shays lived the last few years of his life in poverty, a heavy drinker. He supported himself on his pension and by working a small parcel of land. Shays died at age 78 in Sparta, New York and was later buried at the Union Cemetery in Scottsburg.

Rededicated grave marker
The original gravestone for Shays contained an error; by dropping the "s", Shays was incorrectly spelled as "Shay". Philip R. Shays, of Clarence Center, New York, a descendant of Daniel Shays, led an effort to correct the error. Because the original stone did not contain enough space to add a letter, a new marker was created. The new gravestone was dedicated in a ceremony on August 12, 2016.

title: Daniel Shays