Posting messages to our mailing lists

If you wish to post messages to EDline, Grapevine or LANGline, we ask that you follow the following polite suggestions and notes (based on Netiquette Guidelines, RFC 1855).

Messages should be pertinent to the basic premise of the list; messages may be withheld or redirected to one of our other mailing lists if more pertinent.
There are no restrictions on topics that may be raised or discussed on any of the mailing lists. Details of topics discussed in the past are available for EDline, Grapevine and LANGline. You are welcome to advertise goods wanted or for sale (e.g., books and computer equipment), but contact the relevant Moderator first if you wish to advertise services.
Send plain text messages rather than HTML messages. It is easily done in Outlook Express, Outlook, Netscape and most other e-mail programs. Reserve HTML formatting for family, friends and those circumstances where you know that it will be welcome.
Make sure you quote from the message to which you are replying. Not all of the message, just as much as is needed to put your comments in the proper context. Most readers belong to several mailing lists and it is easy to lose track of some discussions. It is bad form to include all the previous message in your reply: edit out all the irrelevant material.
Remember that readers have differing points of reference concerning culture, language and humour. Be careful with date formats, measurements, idioms, slang and/or local acronyms, as these may not travel well.
Use asterisks and underscores for emphasis and italics, respectively: e.g., “That *is* what I meant” and “_The Times_ is my favourite newspaper”.
Use our ASCII-based system to represent accents in e-mails.
Subject headings:
- Specific, correct and relevant subject headings are more useful than broad, vague ones. Use some imagination. A subject heading that reflects the content of a message allows readers to decide whether they will read that topic while not missing out on useful tips or important information. For example, “On-screen editing” tells readers nothing about the real thrust of the message; “On-screen editing: ideas to make it easier?” is more meaningful.
- If you are taking the discussion in a new direction by introducing an associated topic in your message, use a new subject heading followed by “[Was: Old Subject Heading]”: e.g., “Authority and responsibility [Was: Spellcheckers (and grammar checkers)]”.
For a message on a new topic, start a new e-mail; do not simply use the ‘Reply’ function and alter the subject heading. When someone replies to a message, the new message contains information (in the message header) about the previous messages in the thread. Any software that threads e-mail messages uses this information (and not the subject line) to assemble the threads. Hence simply changing the subject line after hitting ‘Reply’ retains the thread information and apparent misthreading results.
Forwarding messages:
You are welcome to forward messages of interest or use to our mailing lists, but please note the following:
- Permission: Ensure you have the permission of the sender first, especially if it was a personal message to you and you are re-posting it to EDline, Grapevine or LANGline.
- Copyright: Respect the copyright on material that you forward to the list. Almost every country has copyright laws.
- Citation: give a proper attribution at the beginning of the message (such as “[Cross-posted from XYZ mailing list]”).
- If you are forwarding or re-posting a message you have received, do not change the wording.
Do not comment on the spelling and/or grammar of messages: it is impolite. Note that the spelling and grammar of messages will not be corrected in digest issues, but some editing of length may be undertaken.
Do not encourage or perpetuate national stereotypes or rivalries, which risk causing offence in some quarters. For instance, avoid making dangerous generalizations regarding a nation’s ability to distinguish between accents. It is bad enough that assumptions of this sort are made in the real world without perpetuating them on the lists.
Do not use profanity, personal abuse or overt political attacks in your messages, nor engage in defamation, racism, sexism, other -isms or generally poor behaviour. Our lists are not the place for it. While robust opinions are often fun, the test should be whether you want your clients, friends, bosses or suppliers to see your posts!
Disagreements are always inevitable, but please refrain from engaging in flame wars. We are not saying you cannot argue on our lists, but please try to stick to the facts unless stating your opinion (but please make it clear that it is your opinion).
For lengthy messages, it is good practice to include the word “Long” in the subject heading so the recipient knows the message will take time to read. Over 100 lines is considered “long”. For example, “On-screen editing: ideas to make it easier? [Long]”.
Do not type messages in upper case. THE USE OF UPPER CASE IS THE CONVENTION FOR YELLING!
Do not post “Me too”-type messages (which includes “Thank you”, “I agree” and “Please send me a copy of the file”). Messages that say something like “I agree with what you say,” do not contribute to the discussion and will be meaningless to readers if the sender has not quoted properly (see above). If you feel the need to send this type of reply, send a private message to the person. If you wish to obtain a file another reader has offered to anyone wanting it, send them a private message; do not send a message to the whole list requesting the file.
Try to avoid sending personal messages to the whole list. Be careful when addressing e-mails: know to whom you are sending.
Do not send attachments to the list. If you wish to distribute a file, send it to the Moderators who will upload it to the Electric Editors’s Website and give you a URL where the file can be found.
Do not include Javascript or other executable code in messages.
Keep your signature short: a good rule of thumb is no longer than 4 lines. Remember that many people pay for connectivity by the minute, and the longer your message is, the more they pay. Another convention is that your signature should be preceded by “-- ” (i.e., dash dash space), to enable your signature to be stripped off when replying.
If any list member attempts to SPAM our mailing lists, they will be unsubscribed immediately.
If any list member fails to adhere to these guidelines, they may be unsubscribed.
The views expressed in our mailing lists are strictly those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the moderators or of the Electric Editors.
All messages are copyright © 1996–2008 of the individual contributors.

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Posting messages to the lists

Messages that you wish to post to our automated mailing lists should be sent to:

EDline: edline@topica.com
Grapevine: ee_grapevine@topica.com
LANGline: ee_langline@topica.com

Messages that you wish to post to our digest mailing lists should be sent to:

EDline: edline-digest@electriceditors.net

Having difficulties?

If you are having difficulties with a particular mailing list or your use of it, please contact the Moderators at:

EDline: edline@electriceditors.net
Grapevine: grapevine@electriceditors.net
LANGline: langline@electriceditors.net

These notes may be updated as required.
Version 1.0, September 2003

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