I'm forwarding this message that came over on another very busy list that I
subscribe too.  It is a well moderated list and the owner has made some good
suggestions here that I think all of us on museum-l will benefit from too.  So
in the interest of keeping the mail at a level we can all tolerate and enjoy,
here it is:
 
              >>  >     DOs and DON'Ts for KIDSPHERE
                        (perhaps for museum-l too?)
 
>>>Kidsphere is a relatively large mailing list, with over 2000 direct
addresses and redistributions to thousands more.  In order to keep
everyone happy (or some reasonable fraction of everyone reasonably
happy), it's best if subscribers follow a few guidelines as they use
this resource.  An attempt at putting together a set of guidelines
is given below.  Please feel free to comment on any of the items listed
or to send me your own list of suggestions.
 
Cheers!
Bob Carlitz
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 1- DO contribute to discussions on the list.  The Internet is a
two-way communications medium.  Please use it that way.
 2- DO share your ideas and resources with others on the net.
 3- DO summarize findings generated by Kidsphere postings.  This reduces
repetition on the mailing list and makes contributors more willing to
send you useful information.
 4- DO use the network to publish information that you have collected or
generated yourself.  Convenient mechanisms for this are ftp archives,
gopher or Web servers or summary postings to mailing lists such as Kidsphere.
 5- DO use the administrative address [log in to unmask]
for all subscriptions, cancellations, address changes and miscellaneous
questions about the operation of the mailing list.
 6- DO include a descriptive Subject line for your messages.
 7- DO retain the Subject line for messages to which you are replying.
Most mailers do this automatically when you issue a "reply" command and
attach the characters "RE:" at the beginning of the Subject line.
 
 1- DON'T send personal messages to the whole mailing list.  You can
find the address of the person who sent any given message by looking at
the "From:" line which precedes the body of the message.  Use this
address for a personal reply.  The following types of messages are best
sent by personal e-mail:
        a- Personal comments to someone you know or are seeking to meet
           for a one-to-one interaction.
        b- Responses to surveys.
        c- Responses to requests for greetings.
        d- Responses to project announcements.
        e- Requests for further detail on a given posting.
        f- Thank-you notes for particular postings.
Reserve for posting to the whole mailing list those items which are
likely to be of interest to a large number of people on the list.
 2- DON'T format messages as a single long line of text.  Many mailers
have trouble with messages which contain more than 80 characters per
line (a typical screen width).
 3- DON'T post messages which contain anything other than plain text.
Many readers lack access to MIME-compliant mailers, uudecoders and other
tools to handle encoded files of one sort or another.
 4- n/a for museum-l
 5- n/a for museum-l
 6- n/a for museum-l
 7- DON'T expect Kidsphere to be able to solve problems with your local
mailer.  If you try to send mail to someone and it is returned to you,
talk to your local system administrator or postmaster about the problem.
Most commonly you will have read the address wrong;  infrequently your
local mailer software will have some configuration problem.  Seldom can
these problems be spotted by people not at your site, so it's best to
ask locally first.
 8- DON'T send subscription or cancellation requests to kidsphere (or Museum-L)
itself;  use the administrative address
[log in to unmask](what is the museum-l unsubscribe address?)
 9- DON'T include long quotes from messages to which you are replying.
10- DON'T type your messages in all capital letters.  Network tradition
reserves this type for formatting for when you feel like SHOUTING or
when you need it for EMPHASIS.