ES - Galen's opinion (was: List policies)

[baron at elfsea.ansteorra.org]

Quoting Sluggy <slugmusk at linuxlegend.com>:

> Greetings, Galen and Elfsea!
> Some mail lists I am subscribed to, especially the 
> ones with lots of traffic, periodically post the 
> charter/rules for the list automatically, the 
> interval seeming to depend on the traffic. This helps 
> keep everyone cognizant that there are specific rules 
> concerning mail list membership.
> 
> _I_ know the general rules for any mail list, but not 
> everyone has the benefit of my experience. :)
> 
> I have a couple of questions about the list in 
> general and perhaps the answers will help everyone.
> 
> 1. Who is the current list administrator?

That would be Lord Ceatta.

> 2. Is there a place where the rules specific to this 
> list are posted or otherwise publicly accessible?

<http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html> is where you 
can do a variety of tasks, including getting another 
copy of the message you received when you subscribed, 
which has the rules.  You can also get a list of e-mail 
addresses that are subscribed to the list.

> 3. Is there a recommended place for the newcomer to 
> the internet to find general "netiquet" information?

I don't have a place to recommend, but I think if you 
try to follow basic rules of written English and 
etiquette, you can't go far wrong.

You know, rules like spelling and capitalization, and 
being aware of your audience and considerate of their 
feelings.

When I set up the Elfsea list, there were several 
things that were common on the Ansteorra list, which I 
wanted to get away from.

One of those was the posting of the ever-popular 
circulating e-mails.  At the time, these consisted 
largely of bogus virus warnings, but they have come to 
include all sorts of feelgood things about friendship, 
which you are then charged to pass on to everyone whom 
you consider your friend; or jokes; or religious 
anecdotes, like the one we saw here recently; or 
internet urban legends like Craig Shergold or the money 
for e-mail scam; or bogus legislative warnings like the 
one about the Post Office charging for e-mail (which 
Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio were asked if they 
supported in their 2nd debate -- it's a hoax!); or 
health warnings about common food additives like 
Nutrasweet(r); or virtually anything that ends 
with "send this to everyone you know!!!"  Most people 
with e-mail see these same messages usually with little 
if any variation, over and over again, and so they 
don't need to be posted to the list.  Besides, I'm much 
more interested in what's on your mind than in what's 
in your inbox.

We also want to keep the subject matter SCA-related, so 
that we don't all start going off on our favorite 
tangentially-related topics, unless they really are 
relevant to Elfsea, or of immediate interest to a large 
part of the barony (this is the loophole under which we 
arrange to see Star Trek movies as a group).

I wanted to be protected from all this, and also to 
protect all of you from me, or else the Christian in me 
would be contantly telling all you pagans, agnostics 
and atheists why you should accept Christ, and the 
Catholic in me would be telling all the Protestants why 
you should come back to the Church, and the 
Conservative in me would be telling all you liberals 
why you should vote for smaller government, and also 
all you libertarians why we need _some_ government, and 
so forth.  I'm a very opinionated fellow, but I try to 
keep my harangues down to about one a month, and limit 
them to topics that are relevant to the list:  that is, 
the conduct of the list itself, and the SCA and its 
activities and philosophy.  

But on very little notice I can knock out a thousand 
words on any of the above topics, and I love to argue, 
so we keep that stuff off this list, so that people who 
want to actually use the list as a tool for legitimate 
SCA-related communication, including for instance 
today's announcement of a birthday party for Duke 
Jonathan, can have a safe refuge.

We also don't post award recommendations to the list.
"Daniel & Siobhan did a great job on Defender!" is 
fine, but "Daniel & Siobhan should be Pelicans!" is 
not.  Those go in private e-mail, and I'm always 
grateful to receive them.

Finally, I identified the Elfsea list from the start as 
an SCA forum, in which SCA courtesy was expected from 
all participants.

A few other bits of advice:  

- Read all your mail before replying to any of it.  
That way, you can see if someone has already posted 
what you want to say, and if that's already been 
replied to as well.

- Avoid jumping up to post what other people will also 
post.  Especially if you don't do the previous bit.

- Quote enough of what you're replying to that people 
can understand what you're answering, but not more than 
you need.

- Trim all that extra stuff off the bottom of your 
replies.

- Don't post to the list a message intended for only 
one person.  Or two.  Or even just three.

- Change the subject line so that people know what 
you're presently talking about.

- If you can't learn to spell, learn to use a spell-
checker, or at _least_ read what you write before you 
send it.

- Don't flame people.  Don't get harsh.  We will all 
break one of these rules, or fail to pick up on one of 
these tips.  (You should have seen what I accidentally 
posted to the Steppes list last month!)  Get a life and 
hit "delete" and go on to the next message.

I hope this helps someone have a happier e-mail 
experience.

AND FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO CRAIG SHERGOLD AND BILL 
GATES AND 10 FRIENDS (PLUS TWO ENEMIES) IN THE NEXT 10 
MINUTES OR ELSE THE IMBEDDED VIRUS WILL ERASE YOUR 
HARDDRIVE, THEN E-MAIL ITSELF TO THE PENTAGON AND ERASE 
THEIR HARDDRIVES, AND THEN RUN DOWNSTAIRS AND UNPLUG 
YOUR FREEZER SO ALL YOUR MEAT WILL GO BAD!!!!  AND THEN 
IT'LL INFECT ALL THE VOTING MACHINES AND ELECT PAT 
BUCHANAN AS PRESIDENT!!!!

- Galen 

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