Via Netiquette

General Guidelines for mailing lists and NetNews

Read both mailing lists and newsgroups for one to two months before you post anything. This helps you to get an understanding of the culture of the group.

Do not blame the system administrator for the behavior of the system users.

Consider that a large audience will see your posts. That may include your present or your next boss. Take care in what you write. Remember too, that mailing lists and Newsgroups are frequently archived, and that your words may be stored for a very long time in a place to which many people have access.

Assume that individuals speak for themselves, and what they say does not represent their organization (unless stated explicitly).

Remember that both mail and news take system resources. Pay attention to any specific rules covering their uses your organization may have.

Messages and articles should be brief and to the point. Don't wander off-topic, don't ramble and don't send mail or post messages solely to point out other people's errors in typing or spelling. These, more than any other behavior, mark you as an immature beginner.

Subject lines should follow the conventions of the group.

Forgeries and spoofing are not approved behavior.

Advertising is welcomed on some lists and Newsgroups, and abhorred on others! This is another example of knowing your audience before you post. Unsolicited advertising which is completely off-topic will most certainly guarantee that you get a lot of hate mail.

If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just enough text of the original to give a context. This will make sure readers understand when they start to read your response. Since NetNews, especially, is proliferated by distributing the postings from one host to another, it is possible to see a response to a message before seeing the original. Giving context helps everyone. But do not include the entire original!

Again, be sure to have a signature which you attach to your message. This will guarantee that any peculiarities of mailers or newsreaders which strip header information will not delete the only reference in the message of how people may reach you.

Be careful when you reply to messages or postings. Frequently replies are sent back to the address which originated the post - which in many cases is the address of a list or group! You may accidentally send a personal response to a great many people, embarrassing all involved. It's best to type in the address instead of relying on "reply."

Delivery receipts, non-delivery notices, and vacation programs are neither totally standardized nor totally reliable across the range of systems connected to Internet mail. They are invasive when sent to mailing lists, and some people consider delivery receipts an invasion of privacy. In short, do not use them.

If you find a personal message has gone to a list or group, send an apology to the person and to the group.

If you should find yourself in a disagreement with one person, make your responses to each other via mail rather than continue to send messages to the list or the group. If you are debating a point on which the group might have some interest, you may summarize for them later.

Don't get involved in flame wars. Neither post nor respond to incendiary material.

Avoid sending messages or posting articles which are no more than gratuitous replies to replies.

Be careful with monospacing fonts and diagrams. These will display differently on different systems, and with different mailers on the same system.

There are Newsgroups and Mailing Lists which discuss topics of wide varieties of interests. These represent a diversity of lifestyles, religions, and cultures. Posting articles or sending messages to a group whose point of view is offensive to you simply to tell them they are offensive is not acceptable. Sexually and racially harassing messages may also have legal implications. There is software available to filter items you might find objectionable.



I am guilty of so many of these. If anyone has more suggestions, post them here.

cliff notes

Greedy likes boobies.

Shortest one yet...

I do believe that more than one us members have broken more than a few of these golden rules!!

Watchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?

The golden rule of forum posting is: let the contributors, with the guidance of the forum owner(s) and Moderator(s), determine what is and is not acceptable.

I doubt that anyone always obeys every one of those rules, nor is there necessarily anything wrong with that. The fact is that every forum has it's own, usually unwritten, standards of conduct.

So Heather try not to feel TOO guilty!

I feel the same way, B. I always thought our forums went along smoothly without a hitch until Rom started griping about staying on topic and people were getting on Joe for dropping in to post topics and then leaving.

The Passion of the BMIC

Well its frustrating to have a good debate when people throw the topic way off. It's called ruining a thread and it has become more frequent as of late. I mean for crying out loud, the "Was Bush right in Iraq" topic turned into a pulpit for anti-gun zealots?

I just want to see more topics in the forum rather than have one that trails off into 50 different debates/discussions/ or what have you.

I guess you can bi^ch at me for that one, Rom. See, it's really not too hard for a conversation on one issue to spread to other issues. (Below the *** is how it happened with the gun issue.) It happens often, on many threads, by many people, but with no malice intended, and sometimes it is so short it's not worth a new thread of its own. Maybe the board as a whole can agree to try to do it less often, and/or to use an "off topic" warning when things stray. I've seen boards with an "off topic" emoticon/smilie thingy for just that reason. But try to relax a little!

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QUOTE (PHISH @ Apr 30 2004, 02:09 PM)
Well, in all actuality, the PEOPLE of this nation did not vote for Bush. Gore won the POPULAR vote.

Oh, and SNOOPY - HATE is such an ugly word - I don't HATE anyone. I'm just amazed that so many people support Bush. I thought this country had come a long way - guess not.
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QUOTE (Snoopy)

The Constitution says we go by electoral votes -- is that okay with you?

As far as not thinking the country had "come a long way" because so many folks support Bush... I think it has come a long way -- in the wrong direction. Why?

The party of JFK (Kennedy -- not Kerry) no longer agrees with most of his principals -- JFK would not have a chance in today's Democratic party.

Today many (mostly Democrats/liberals) openly celebrate and condone homosexuality; want to tax the heck out of people; cozy-up to dictators like Castro; defend married Presidents having sex with teenage interns in the Oval Office; do all sorts of things to "demand" women be allowed to kill babies that are inches from full-term birth and call it "choice"; but do not want to allow law-abiding citizens the "choice" to own firearms in their own home, let alone the right to carry them in public for protection (something that folks in over half of the states can do, though, without it having caused any "Wild West" problems); etc. etc.

The country has "come a long way" all right.

I wasn't calling you out to frown on you, Rom. I was just explaining that I didn't understand that anything was wrong until you mentioned it.

hey Greedy, you & my 20 month old son should hang out sometime! He's a big fan of boobies as well!