NCF USERS National Capital FreeNet users will be of three general kinds: - Guests will be allowed reading access to all public information at any time without registering as an NCF participant; - Participants will registered users of the NCF, and will additionally be allowed writing access to electronic mail, conference, polling and voting facilities; - Providers will have all facilities of participants plus capabilities of creating FreeNet menus for the addition and organization of "pamphlet" information. Registration is required of participants and providers to ensure that they abide by regulations governing proper and ethical use of the NCF. These regulations will be posted as a separate menu item on the first screen of the NCF. Registered users who violate the regulations will be immediately barred from future use of the system. The FreePort software automatically attaches the name of a participant or provider to any information he or she releases to the public, except for anonymous voting and opinion polling responses. This encourages responsible use of the system, and discourages the posting of questionable materials. Anyone can register free of charge, and no charges are levied for NCF use. However, because no FreeNet can operate without some funding, it is possible that users will be invited -- in the spirit of TVO, PBS and National Public Radio -- to contribute money voluntarily for NCF support. Requests for voluntary contributions have been moderately successful on American FreeNets, and account for up to 25% of their sustaining funds. Unfortunately, a small minority of FreeNet participants are likely to overuse the system, either by monopolizing an incoming phone line all day, or by storing or posting thousands of pages of personal or useless information. To prevent this practice, some limits will be placed on session connect time and on accumulated disk space.