please allow me to emphasize that we are a special interest group on Pali language and literature, and related Buddhist studies and practices. From time to time, as part of our studies, we may have to make references to other Buddhist schools of thoughts, contemporary or ancient Indian or Asian social systems, even other religious or philosophical ideologies. However, we do this with the minimum impact to our main focus on Pali language and related studies.
I hope that all members respect this very fact that we are not a general discussion group, and that we do have plenty to cover even with just Pali. At the same time, I appreciate that many of our learned members have a broad background in Buddhist studies and practice, and have a lot to contribute and share with the group. However, it is not within our scope to conduct lengthy, detailed and deliberate discussions on non-Pali topics.
As a Nikaya-focused group, we intend to emphasize on studying the Buddha's teachings and appealing to the wider membership which does not have special trained knowledge on Vinaya, Abhidhamma and other special subjects.
As a Pali group, it is understandable that we like to include Pali sentences in our messages. However, it is expected that when Pali sentences are included, English translations are provided too. In addition, please use Velthuis encoding for typing Pali, and provide sources of all Pali quotations, e.g. nikaya name, sutta number and name (in Pali, at least).