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ICWP-L
e-mail discussion List Etiquette - Full Version
The List Etiquette is a set of rules of protocols which subscribers
are required to observe.
It is very important that you try to remember these before you press
the 'send ' button. With practice, they become second nature.
A few reasons why we need a List Etiquette.
Not all List subscribers receive
their List mail as individual messages, posted as they processed
by the Listserv computer.
Some subscribers receive their List messages in a daily Digest
or an Index.
The Digest is one long message
containing all the messages posted to the List in the previous 24
hours. Digest users can't delete a single message. They have to
scroll through all of the messages, looking for subject lines that
interest them.
The Index, two types, HTML Index and
plain index.
HTML Index consists of a daily
message listing only the subject lines of messages. Next to each
message there is a code number and the subject line is a hyperlink
to the actual message stored in the online List Archives.
The plain index has no hyperlinks: the
user has to e-mail the Listerv computer, quoting a message code-number
and tell it which message to send back to the user.
If users ignore the rules below, it will cause Digest and Index
subscribers to have a less-than-pleasant experience when they open
their List mail each day.
Please read this message carefully. You can print it or save
it to another folder in your computer for future reference.
- Delete Headers from messages when
replying to the List
When you hit 'reply' some e-mail programmes (e.g. Outlook Express)
quote the entire message being replied to, including the headers
(To: From: Reply-to:) The Listserv will reject such posts and
won't distribute them to the List.
- Change the subject line
When you reply to a previous message, but begin a new topic, change
the subject line.
Digest Users: change the subject line when you hit "Reply".
The archives can be searched by subject. Remembering to change
the subject line will provide more relevant results when subscriber
search the archives. Subject lines like this :
Re: ICWP-L Digest - 18 Apr 2003 to 19 Apr 2003 (#2003-110)
Are not helpful to anyone searching for messages on a particular
topic.
- If your message is very clearly
not about a Playwriting, Writing or a Theatre-related subject,
put OT: or OFF TOPIC: at the beginning of the subject line.
- Put OPP: in the subject line if
your message contains an announcement of
a contest or production opportunity or funding information put
OPP: at the beginning of the subject line, followed by "contest"
or "production" or "funding".
- Delete most of the text of quoted
messages when you REPLY.
When you hit "Reply", the text of the message you are
replying to is quoted in your outgoing message. Delete as much
of it as possible and leave just enough to make it clear whose
message you are replying to.
- Send plain text messages, not HTML,
if possible.
The Digest is one way to receive List mail. Messages which are
sent to the List in in HTML format cause the Digest to be much
longer than necessary, as a duplicate of each HTML message including
all the the HTML coding is added to the message along with the
text of the message. There is a version of the Digest which doesn't
include the HTML coding but it doesn't suit all e-mail programmes,
especially AOL.
- The List does not accept attachments
Your message will be returned with an error message if you send
an attachment with it.
If there is something special you would like other subscribers
to see, put it on a webpage and send a message to the List quoting
the webpage address (URL). or you can offer to backchannel the
file to people who express an interest in seeing it, or you can
contact the list administrator for assistance.
- Ask permission of the sender:
1) before forwarding a message from ICWP-L to any other
person or another List
2) before forwarding a message from anyone else to the
ICWP-L List.
- Privacy, Defamation, Libel
The ICWP-L List is a private list, which means the archives are
not accessible to the general public. However, some caution is
necessary and consideration needs to be given to the content of
messages.
The Listserv Users Manual covers this very well: below is a
quoted section from the Manual.
Quote:
" Most lists are organized as "forums" where public
discussion is actively encouraged, and many of them are set so
that hitting the "Reply" key or button will automatically
direct replies back to the list. Unfortunately, this can sometimes
be embarrassing if you end up inadvertently sending a private
comment to the whole list. Fortunately, there is a very easy way
to avoid this, and the good thing is that it works even for non-LISTSERV
mail. It is a simple rule that is easy to remember once you understand
its purpose:
Always think before sending any message!
Ask yourself a few simple questions
* Who is getting the message? Carefully check who your
mail program intends to send the message to, and make sure
this is where you wanted it to go. It is easy to click on
the wrong icon, press the wrong key, misunderstand the meaning
of a help file, or otherwise do something that will make your
computer send the message to the wrong people.
* How well do you know these people? Can you trust
people you have never met in person not to forward your comments
to someone else, or to a list? And if they did, whose reputation
would suffer the most - yours for saying these things, or
theirs for forwarding without your permission?
* What is the worst thing that can happen to you if this
message is used against you?
Computers are not perfect and they sometimes do unpredictable
things to perfectly valid messages. It may be a rare occurrence,
but it happens; any system manager will have a lot of juicy
stories to tell you about messages that were forwarded to
him because they caused some system problem or other, and
whose contents could have made a couple people lose their
job if it had been shown to the right person. System managers
normally are ethical people, but do you really want to rely
on that?
* Have you removed extraneous information not germane to
the discussion, such as copies of previous postings included
by my mail program or long signature files?
You want to ask yourself these questions anyway, even if the
message has nothing to do with LISTSERV, even if the list
is set up to reply privately by default. In a non-computer
situation, you would probably look around to see if someone
can overhear you. Just use that same reflex to look around
the list of recipients and decide if you can trust these people
with what you said. If you develop this habit, you will never
send to a list by mistake."
To read the List Users Guide (also called the Manual) go
to:
http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/user/user.html
Thank-you for your cooperation.
Enjoy!
Margaret McSeveney
(List Admin)
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