[wellylug] Suggestion and apology

[Mark Foster]

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005, John Durham wrote:

> After a recent discussion off list regarding the top posting issue, I
> wish to apologise to anyone concerned about the matter.
>
> The cause of this was lack of knowlege of what the list expects of its
> members. Since I've run my own list for years, I have dealt with this
> problem using a signup welcome message like the quoted example below. If
> I had received something like it then, it would have been much easier to
> know what was required. Since it comes officially from the list, it has
> much greater weight than opinions offered by the list members (who often
> disagree with each other in their opinions) Therefore, would the list
> moderator please consider what may be gained by enhancing the list in a
> similar way?

Cheers John for your gracious post.
Whilst its not necessarily a bad idea, I think to a large degree it is 
assumed that when people join a community, they will behave in a manner 
least likely to annoy others.

I have a tendency to join a list and remain quiet to start with, and learn 
how to be have largely by observing others.

Also a quick google for 'Netiquette' brings up LOTS Of stuff. RFC1855 
actually defines what should be considered appropriate behavior with a 
subsection dedicated to Mailing Lists.

Your 10 Commandments list, however, was pretty good. I'm pondering 
stealing it.

I've just this weekend written up an 'AUP' for AuckLUG which i'm 
discussing with the other administrator before publishing.  Its not quite 
as to-the-point as your list, however...

End point: A line as simple as 'Standard netiquette rules apply' may be 
sufficient.  Certainly seeing a copy of rules for _every_ mailing list you 
join can get tiresome, when almost without exception the guidelines are 
the same.  Thus a simple statement indicating we adhere to fairly standard 
guidelines might be enough not to make us seem like a bunch of netiquette 
nazis...

Mark.