Listserve usage policy

These mailing lists are unmoderated. That means that whatever you send out will go to a lot of people fairly rapidly. So please use courtesy when posting.

Usage contents

• Subscribing/unsubscribing
• Changing your address
• Sending messages to the list
• Netiquette
• Privacy
• Copyrights

Subscribing/unsubscribing

DO NOT SEND SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE REQUESTS TO THE ENTIRE MAILING LIST.

This is a common mistake and unfortunately, the email will go to hundreds of people who cannot do what you are asking them to do. Please follow the unsubscribe instructions on the listserve page of the website to unsubscribe from the list.

Changing your address

In order to change your address (in other words, to stop receiving list messages at your old address and start receiving them at your new one), do this:

1. Subscribe from your new address
2. Make sure that step #1 worked
3. Unsubscribe from your old address

Sending messages to the list

Messages addressed to the mail list will be delivered to all list members, including yourself. Note that you must be a member of the list in order to send items to it.

Netiquette

Normal rules of mailing list etiquette apply. If you don't know these rules, please take the time to learn them before participating in this or any other mailing list.

In brief:

ASCII TEXT:
If possible, send your messages in ASCII text only - not in HTML. Please also turn off the automatic inclusion of any attachments (e.g. "vcard", WINMAIL.DAT, and so on).

ATTACHMENTS:
Try to avoid using attachments. Most message with attachments will not be delivered to the list.

DATE/TIME:
Set the date, time and time zone correctly on your computer, so that fellow subscribers who choose to read messages in chronological order can do so.

SUBJECT:
Please pick an appropriate and meaningful "Subject" line for your message. Please preserve the "Subject" line of previous messages when following up.

REPLIES/FOLLOWUPS:
Edit heavily when following up. That means deleting everything except the specific text that you're responding to. Otherwise messages will grow to be hundreds of lines long, even though your actual message may be very short.

PERSONAL RESPONSES:
Consider responding only to the author, not the entire list, if you simply have a personal response such as "Way to go!", "Atta boy!", etc. While these are pleasant greetings, they can also diminish the usability of the list as an information exchange.

PERSONAL DISAGREEMENTS:
Please respond only to the author, not the entire list, if you have a personal disagreement.

BE POLITE:
Never say anything in an electronic message that you wouldn't say to someone in person, or that you wouldn't want appearing, and attributed to you, in tomorrow morning's front-page headline in the New York Times.

JUNK:
Please do not send junk traffic like: unrelated jokes, virus warnings, chain letters, urban legends, or spam.

PROBLEMS:
Don't send a message more than once. Don't send "test" messages if you think your emails aren't working. If you think something has gone wrong, notify the WSA directly and we'll find out what happened.

Privacy

The lists of subscribers are confidential, and are not available to anyone, for any reason. We try to protect the privacy of subscribers. However, we also do NOT regulate who is subscribed to the list - it is an open list. Therefore, do NOT post extremely personal or private information to the list, because you do not know who is reading it.

Copyrights

The copyright on each message belongs to its author. The WSA is not responsible for the content of an individual's messages and makes no representations that the information presented in messages is accurate.