[Sosfbay-discuss] Developing E-list Guidelines

[Cameron L. Spitzer]

The owner of an electronic mailing list has the authority
of a pilot or a ship's captain over his vessel.
If any of you want to get married, contact me off list
but you'll have to do your vows here.

Ultimately the subscribers have final authority, because
they can leave for a more useful list.

But for those of you who want more rules than have yet been
stated, here they are.

1.  Don't be a jerk.

2.  This mailing list is for discussing tactics, strategy,
and business of the Green Party of Santa Clara County.
That's to be taken broadly: it includes events and action
of groups we act in coalition with, candidates we might
endorse and their competitors, business in our region
or state or planet that might affect us.

3.  Subscribers are expected to have read and understood
the famous essay "Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions
on Netiquette."  It's about Usenet but just about all of
it applies to email lists, web-forums, and similar things
that haven't been invented yet.  If you haven't read it,
google "emily postnews."  If you don't know who Emily Post
was, the Wikipedia article is enough.

"**NOTE: [Emily Postnews] is intended to be satirical.
  If you do not recognize it as such, consult a doctor
  or professional comedian.  The recommendations in [that]
  article should recognized for what
  they are -- admonitions about what NOT to do."

4.  Email messages are expected to be of as much value
to the recipient as to the sender.  That's why there's
no postage.  Every message to a mailing list that isn't
what the subscribers signed up for encourages people to
leave, even this one.  Before you post, look your message
over.  Is it really worth sixty progressive activists'
valuable time?   Remember that's at least half an hour
of activism that isn't going to happen.  Consider replying
off list instead.  Your message might be the very first
thing a newcomer reads, so behave.

5.  No insults.  No impugning people's motives.
Remember you can't read people's minds, so don't talk
about what other people are thinking.  Sarcasm is hardly
ever appropriate.  Give people the benefit of the doubt.
No personal back-and-forth.  You're addressing the
group, not the person who wrote the message that made
you hit "Reply."  No trolling.  No posting by non-
subscribers, excepting honored alumnis.  No posting
in anger.  This isn't a shouting contest.
No generalizing about people's behavior.  Saying "you
always do that" or "that's typical of you" is out of line.
No posting the same thing over and over.
No attachments; that's why your Internet access comes
with web server space.

6.  This mailing list is open to anybody interested in
its topic.  The question of whether there should be
a Green Party or we should go reform the Dems from
the inside instead is way off topic and any Democrats who
subscribe to disrupt the list with that kind of trolling
will be immediately unsubscribed and banned from more
servers than they might have imagined.  That's how we
deal with people who shouldn't be on the list.
Expect Democrats to subscribe to find out how we work,
and try to impress them.

7.  The archive of this list is public and you should assume
it is carefully analyzed by the FBI and the state
Democratic Club every day.  However, anything you post
is automatically copyright by you unless you disclaim it.
So if the New York Times runs your message as an Op-Ed
without your permission you can sue them.
The IT Subcommittee reserves the right to edit or remove
your message from our archive at our whim.  (We do that
when someone wants their phone number hidden, for example.)
If you want to be able to prove we edited it, sign your
message body with GNU Privacy Guard.  If you want a
copy to survive, keep a copy.

8.  The American Sign Language gesture for "applause"
(http://www.dictionaryofsign.com/main.php?g2_itemId=7285&g2_myThumb=)
may be referred to as "twinkle" but it makes more
sense to write it as "applause."

9.  No niggling about the rules.  No niggling about
niggling, either.  Loopholes are unintentional.
You know what I meant.  No backseat driving.


Cameron