John Williams wrote:
On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 7:18 PM, Nick Arnett<nick.arn...@gmail.com> wrote:
We have a sense of community here, along with the usual collaterals of
explicit and implicit standards of behavior and discourse. We do, indeed.
We don't like straw men or trolls (which I can't help observing are at two
rather opposite ends of the materials spectrum, whatever that might
signify).
There's that "we" several more times. How many people subscribe to this
email list, and how many of them do you speak for when you say "we"? How
did you determine that these people have that view?
John--
You're not going to claim that all the lurkers are
the "silent majority" are you? : ) This is a silly
discussion, because every statement Nick made above
would get broad agreement on most established lists.
What do you want, that we should all sign a petition?
---David
FYI, there ARE etiquette guidelines for the list.
(In fact, googling finds several slightly different
versions. Here's an old one from the archives, at
a previous host:
http://www.mail-archive.com/bri...@cornell.edu/msg13842.html
Julia Thompson, posting in 2002.)
----------------------------
Etiquette Guidelines
The Brin-L Mailing List exists for the discussion of matters pertaining to
the writings of Drs. Brin and Benford and topics of interest to list
members.
As members of a civilization, these are the guidelines we agree to live
under:
- We post as if every message we write as if we were going to read it
aloud in front of the whole group.
- We sign our messages with our name and e-mail address.
- We are tolerant of subject threads that bore us to death.
- We keep subject lines appropriate to the contents of the message.
- We do NOT include the entire message to which we are replying.
- We DO include a few lines if our reply can't stand on its own.
- We DO keep attributions correctly assigned to the original poster.
- We do NOT send terse, one line replies.
- We use emphasis to make our comments clear. (Stars, smilies, etc.)
- We use white space and keep our paragraphs short.
- We keep our line length below 80 characters.
- If our reply is more appropriately directed only at the original poster,
we don't send it to the entire list.
- If our message is funny, frivolous, humourous, or is generally silly in
nature, we add a "Silly/Humor" flag to the subject line so others can
identify it easily.
- We flag long messages with "GLL", "ELL" or "L3" in the subject line. (In
deference to our Grand Past Alpha Mails this stands for "Gord like
length", "Eythain like length" or "Lazh like length")
We agree that:
- Questions are welcome.
- Extensive discussions that get into the nitty-gritty of the subject are
welcome.
- Funny, silly, frivolous, amusing, playful, joking, cheerful postings are
welcome. Original humor, especially if it pertains to an existing
thread, is quite welcome. Forwarding blanket humor from other sources is
discouraged, but not forbidden.
- We are a multilingual group, and as such we tolerate mistakes and
idiosyncracies when they show up on the list in English (American
English). We remember that some folks may not be the best typists
around, and tolerate those mistakes as well. We all will kindly answer
any questions others have about our native language in a friendly
manner.
- Brin and Benford ROCK. =+)) Trevor Sands is the best screen
writer ever. Most of the time we think Iain Banks is pretty cool, too.
We will further endeavor to remember, as David Brin says, to "Remind
yourself, now and then, to say the following phrase: 'I am a member of a
civilization.' (IAAMOAC). Our society has its flaws, but if you
ponder history, and cantankerous human nature, it's astonishing how far
we've come. We just don't say IAAMOAC often enough. ... "
We further agree that:
- Personal attacks, whether direct or indirect are not welcome. These
should be handled off list, and if you disagree with some controversial
point, direct the attack at the argument, not the person.
- Abusive or inflammatory language is not welcome.
- Profanity is not welcome.
- Chain letters are not welcome.
- Mail bombs to each other are not welcome.
- The Listowners have the right to remove someone who does not wish to
comport themselves in a manner concordant with our civilization.
Thank you,
Jo Anne
Lady of the List, Bearer of the High Standards, Owner of the 7th Chalice
of Betazed etc. ( I still like these titles! Maybe I should get a
business card for introductions with these titles on it? ;+))
Note: This list was written using another set of guidelines originally
composed by Donna Hrynkiw of Vancouver, British Columbia -- and is used
with her permission.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------
Besides these guidelines, please keep in mind that posting attachments is
a no-no, for reasons of bandwidth (some people *do* have to pay per
minute, others have finitely-sized inboxes and I'm tired of error messages
due to full mailboxes) and the fact that it puts a whole lot of unreadable
stuff in the middle of the digest, and those folks getting the digest
would prefer not to have that (at least, the ones who have spoken up on
the topic have that preference).
And if you've read this far and want to ask me any embarrasing questions,
go right ahead. I don't promise to answer them, but I'll read them, I
promise. ;)
Julia
_______________________________________________
http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
