Dear Community Gardeners, I've always found this listserv to be one of the best, most respectful, and open-minded lists. It's always full of great advice, resources, and mutual support. But it's probably inevitable that occasionally there will be a problem. So here is a reminder of the guidelines for using the ACGA listserv.
Thank you for all your wisdom and help. And happy gardening to everyone in 2009! ---Vicki GUIDELINES FOR USING COMMUNITY_GARDEN Elist Important: Please save this message for future reference The following commands allow you to administer all COMMUNITY_GARDEN commands and functions on your own. In case of problems or for other assistance in using this COMMUNITY_GARDEN Elist, you may contact [email protected]. CONTENTS: 1. Introduction: What is COMMUNITY_GARDEN Elist? 2. Posting messages on COMMUNITY_GARDEN Elist 3. Administrative functions: a. Subscribing to COMMUNITY_GARDEN b. Unsubscribing to COMMUNITY_GARDEN c. Subscriber options: Customizing reception mode (digest, etc.) d. Archives for COMMUNITY_GARDEN 4. Netiquette 1. WHAT IS COMMUNITY_GARDEN ELIST? COMMUNITY_GARDEN is an email listserv service of the American Community Gardening Association. The list was established to allow Community Gardeners, Community Organizers, Master Gardeners and others interested in developing or enhancing community gardening programs to communicate via email. ACGA membership is not required for subscription to COMMUNITY_GARDEN Elist. COMMUNITY_GARDEN is unmoderated - any subscriber (non-subscriber postings are rejected) may post an item directly to all others on the list by sending an email to [email protected]. Subject matter posted should be appropriate to the purposes of the list and be of interest to multiple subscribers. 2. POSTING TO COMMUNITY_GARDEN ELIST Note: Commands may be sent in UPPER or in lower case. * To reach ALL PERSONS on the list, send your email posting to: [email protected] * To reply only to the person posting, reply only to that person's address – this is the default setting. POSTING FREQUENCY: Please be considerate with your posting frequency and content – remember that your message goes to almost 1000 subscribers. "Reply" postings to the listserv should be of interest to multiple subscribers, not just the original sender. Reply with Caution! Always check the "To:" line after you use the reply feature of your email program and ensure the message is destined for the correct address (either the list or an individual). A hasty reply can mean embarrassment to both the sender and the recipient - it has happened in the past, and it could happen again – do not let it happen to you. Especially if you receive the Digest version, be sure to delete all but the message to which you are responding. 3. COMMUNITY_GARDEN ADMINISTRATIVE COMMANDS a. Subscribing To subscribe go to: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org Enter your email. If you plan to post from more than one email address, you must subscribe both addresses. Select a password. You must enter a privacy password. This provides only mild security, but should prevent others from messing with your subscription. Do not use valuable passwords! Once a month, your password will be emailed to you as a reminder. Select whether you wish to receive each email posting separately or as a single daily email (DIGEST form). If you plan to be an active respondent, receiving the emails singly is recommended. b. Unsubscribing Once you have joined COMMUNITY_GARDEN you may unsubscribe at any time, as well as change options related to receiving mail. When you want to leave COMMUNITY_GARDEN for any reason, you must unsubscribe from it. You may re-subscribe at any time. If your email address changes, you must unsubscribe your previous email and then subscribe with the new email address. You may also choose to suspend receiving email, but remain a subscriber and thereby able to make postings. To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription, go to http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org c. Subscriber Options - Digest Instead of receiving individual mail messages from the list, subscriber will daily receive batched messages in a Digest. Digest compiles a group of messages from the list, using the multipart/digest MIME format. d. The Archive All messages sent to members of COMMUNITY_GARDEN are saved to a list archive. The archive allows you to revisit posting and discussions. All list messages are saved into the archive as soon as they are posted. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A SUBSCRIBER TO VIEW THE ARCHIVE. Navigate from the Home page of www.communitygarden.org. Messages are grouped by month (since March 1999). The messages in each month may be sorted by Author, Date, or Thread (subject). The Archives may be searched for key word(s), e.g., starting a garden, compost, threatened. Be sure to check each of the years that you want included in the search. 4. NETIQUETTE Customary netiquette is expected (e.g., no spamming, advertising, flaming). Please respect the opinions of others and help to maintain a level of professionalism in your exchanges. All posting are statements and opinions of individual posters and not of the American Community Gardening Association, unless specifically indicated by ACGA's President or Executive Director. General Guidelines for mailing lists • Read both mailing lists and newsgroups for a while 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 the postings are 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 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. • Subject lines should follow the conventions of the group. • Forgeries and spoofing are not approved behavior. • Advertising is unwelcome. Relevant product recommendations are acceptable. • 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. 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 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. In short, do not use them. Consider unsubscribing. • 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 directly to each other 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. It's a good idea to copy and paste your post into Notepad to remove formatting. Otherwise, your post will be automatically rejected if it's too big (formatting makes files too large), or look like gibberish if it's small enough to go through the system. • Don't send large files to mailing lists when Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) or pointers to ftp-able versions will do. If you want to send it as multiple files, be sure to follow the culture of the group. If you don't know what that is, ask. • When sending a message to more than one mailing list, especially if the lists are closely related, apologize for cross-posting. -- Vicki Garrett Projects Coordinator American Community Gardening Association 1777 East Broad Street Columbus, OH 43203 Toll-free: 877-275-2242 Direct line: 614-645-1880 [email protected] To join ACGA and help promote community gardening, go to www.communitygarden.org, click on "Support Us," then "Become a Member" on the left-hand side of the page, and choose the membership category right for you. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090107/afe6d1aa/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
