I updated the Netiquette page this morning to address some recent issues 
involving signatures, name calling, vulgarity, perceived threats, and 
when it's appropriate to mention an auction on the list. Some of these 
are good general netiquette guidelines; others are specific to the Low 
End Mac family of email lists.

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with this information.

Thanks!

Dan the listmom


updated 2001:07:15

There are informal rules of the Internet which are termed netiquette to 
help people use proper etiquette within this form of communication. Some 
examples of poor netiquette are not signing messages, unsubscribing to 
the posting address instead of the administrative address, or TYPING IN 
ALL CAPS (which is considered yelling). This is a dynamic environment and 
netiquette is changing rapidly.

I can't say it much better than this: "...my goal here is to educate 
people who participate in mailing lists, since only by improving our list 
manners will mailing lists continue to become increasingly pleasant and 
useful." (Adam C. Engst, TidBITS #480.)

Some informal rules for the Low End Mac family of mail lists:

Remember that replies automatically go to the list, not the just the 
person who posted the message. You need to change the to: address to 
respond to an individual. (Some other lists, such as Mac-Mgrs and our 
Swap list, work just the opposite way. On those lists, a reply goes to 
the original sender by default, not to the list.)

Never send attachments to the list. An attachment may contain a virus, 
may be in a format others cannot use, may not make it through some mail 
gateways, makes the message bigger, and will bog down both the list 
server and the mail server.

- Many of today's email programs send styled text attachments by default. 
  You must turn HTML and other styled text off to post to the list (see 
#3).

- Large enough attachments or messages will be rejected. (I've set a 
ceiling 
  of 10 KB per posting.)

- Instead of sending an attachment to the list, offer to email it 
directly 
  to those who request it.

Don't send styled text or HTML files; only send plain text. Style text 
may or may not come through as an attachment, but it is very difficult to 
read in a plain text email client. Styled text is especially troublesome 
in digests. The list server is set to reject anything except plain text. 
(I routinely throw out any email I receive that comes in only as an 
attachment -- if you can't take the time to send it as plain text, I 
won't take the time to read it.)

Style your posting -- ASCII style.

- Put a blank line between paragraphs.

- Put a blank line between what you are quoting and what you are writing.

- Clearly mark quoted sections. Most email programs do this by putting 
">" 
  or "> " in front of each line of quoted material.

Don't use PGP encryption on your messages. A lot of people (probably 
most) can't even use it.

Please quote only the relevant portion of messages you respond to -- and 
please quote some of the original message so others know what you're 
responding to.

"You shouldn't have to wade through gobs of extraneous stuff to get to 
the meat of the message. You should include just enough to provide a 
context for the message and no more. (Peter Kimble, my high school CS 
teacher, now gives his students the rule of thumb that at least half of 
the lines in an email message should be their own.) If you must include 
the whole message that you are replying to, include it after your 
response." (From "A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email", Kaitlin Duck 
Sherwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
<http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html>.)

"Quoting sparingly does require manual work, since most email programs 
automatically quote the original message in replies. But failing to edit 
the original wastes everyone's time and bandwidth." (Adam C. Engst, 
TidBITS #480.)

Please keep "me too" messages off the list; these are best sent 
privately, if at all.

Let sleeping threads lie. If it's been over a week since the last posting 
in a thread, consider it dead and buried.

When asking a question, please list relevant information regarding 
hardware, software, and version of the Mac OS involved.

Change the subject line when the subject of the thread changes.

When responding to a digest post, be sure to change the subject to match 
that of the original message. The list server is set to reject replies to 
the digest otherwise.

You can wander into other Mac-related topics, but try to limit discussion 
to Mac-related topics (politics, religion, and a lot of other things are 
off topic as far as Mac lists are concerned). Always treat others 
courteously.

Signature lines

- Please keep your signature concise. Six lines or less is best.

- Many email clients wrap text at 80 characters, so check that your 
  signature won't wrap badly because of this.

- Taglines should be clearly separated from the body of the email and 
should 
  come after your name.

- Avoid vulgar and offensive taglines

Mom is watching. The list manager has the right to block posting 
privileges or ban anyone from the list for vulgarity, trolling, flaming, 
name calling, threats, or other behavior detrimental to this online 
community.

Although subscribers may offer specific equipment and services to the 
list or share an exceptional bargain they have discovered, explicitly 
commercial postings are prohibited. Any address or domain posting such 
will be blocked.

Items for sale should generally be posted to the LEM Swap List. 
Exceptions are made for regional lists (Canada, UK, Australia) and 
non-Mac lists (Apple II, Lisa, Newton). You many mention a specific item 
you are auctioning on the appropriate list -- but auction postings are 
prohibited on the Swap list.

Do not send subscribe, unsubscribe, or mode change messages to the list. 
Follow the instructions in the footer of each message to unsubscribe or 
change mode. If that doesn't work, contact <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.

Treat your list neighbor as you wish to be treated. Address breaches of 
netiquette privately, not on the list. Assume the best, not the worst. 
And please notify <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> if things seem to be getting 
out of hand.

Never post private (off-list) correspondence to the list without the 
permission of the sender.


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