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.