From: Prescott Smith
pgsmith@educ.umass.edu
Below are some policy files I developed as former owner of an
unmoderated list. I found the "Metadiscussion Rule" and Commercial
Policy particularly valuable.
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- Representatives of for-profit firms or those with any financial
or private interest may not post ads, announcements, press
releases, "free" offers, samples, marketing surveys, solicit
articles, contributions, etc. to or on Ednet. They may
respond off-list to a direct inquiry about their product,
service, etc. If it is a disinterested inquiry and of wide
general interest, they may respond once, succinctly, with a
terse pointer to further information. A "$" symbol *must*
be included but no other reference to price nor any euphemism
like "nominal" or "modest", etc.
- "Signatures" must contain the name of the firm and your
connection with them, but no logo, blurbs, slogans, art, and
should be no more than two lines exclusive of dashed lines
- As long as there is no fee involved, individuals or non-profit
groups may post announcements of any offerings likely to be of interest
to educators. If sponsorship or advertising by private organizations
is included in the offering, this must be mentioned, but not the
names of the sponsors, advertisers. Please do not repeat the
announcement unless requested and then only in shorter, pointer form.
- Non-Profit groups offering a fee-connected service or product of
direct interest to subscribers may provide the briefest description
and a pointer and must include a "$" symbol. A "cost only" claim
may be included only if that is indeed the case. You must identify
yourself as a non-profit firm and be prepared to back it up. For
those who are so non-profit as not to have incorporated that way,
I would suggest you post the announcement to the private address
below for suggestions before sending to the list.
- Disinterested reviews, suggestions or opinions on commercial
products and services are welcome. Include a disclaimer
that you have no financial or private interest in the item,
whether you are providing information about a commercial
product or service or seeking it.
- As the commercialization of the Net proceeds rapidly now, these
guidelines will be refined and added to as the need arises to
prevent the kind of abuses common even on National Public Radio
and Television. If you have any doubts about whether your post
might involve these guidelines, it is best to query me off-list
at the address below. It is not possible to codify rules for
every possible situation. I will work with those trying to
get out genuinely useful information and I will be harder on
anyone who seems to be exploiting the list or the subscribers.
- Anyone ignoring the guidelines is subject to censure on the
list and their subscription temporarily or permanently suspended.
I regret that such guidelines and proscriptions are necessary,
but this is a fairly high traffic list without the addition of
self-interested blurbs. These would soon reduce the list under
"business as usual" to a billboard where the good stuff
couldn't be found.
Back to the top
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prescott Smith Ednet pgsmith@educ.umass.edu listowner listproc@lists.umass.edu Amherst, MA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A reminder:
Under the broad rubric of "exploring the educational potential
of the Internet", Ednet is an open list with few rules and a range
of interests as broad as the Net and K-95. It includes those whose
interests are primarily in the technology to the "Ivory Tower"
theorists, from those who see a promising new world in the Net to
those who view it as the final dystopia.
Every once in a while someone questions the direction and
tries to define it along the lines of their own interests or to bar
certain kinds of posts or from certain kinds of people or ideas.
Off list, that's fine, but on list it inevitability falls out in
several main camps and a lot of "me, too" posts. Such discussion
gets in the way of any real discussion and is finally more
irrelevant than whatever was originally thought to be irrelevant.
So one of the few rules on Ednet is the "meta-discussion" rule:
discussions about the discussions should be carried on off list. If
you object to the nature of someone's post, take it up with them
privately. If after a number of exchanges, you aren't able to
resolve it, send the exchange to the listowner for moderation. If
it can't then be resolved, perhaps a new policy should be set and
where feasible it will be put to vote by the subscribers--but
off list. A number of such issues have been decided that way.
Ednet tries to provide answers to questions asked on list,
particularly for new users, but the emphasis is less on providing
specific answers than in telling how and where to find the answers
to questions of this type; on the techniques and processes of
research. The idea is to familiarize all of us with the
new methods for doing this, keep up with the ever expanding
resources, and finally to become independent of Ednet, but
give back to others something of what we've learned in the process.
Beyond that discussion ranges widely and unevenly. In
other words it reflects the participation of a mixed group of
those currently subscribed and contributing--at the moment.
Cliff Boldt is correct. The best way to influence the
current topic of discussion in ways that interest you, but do not
exclude others, is to contribute to those topics or threads in
the manner you would like to foster.
Back to the top ========================
Q. How do I get off this @%&?! list?
Send email to: listproc@lists.umass.edu
First line message: Unsubscribe Ednet
No Subject, No name. If your mailer requires something in the
"Subject: " field, then just put a single letter or nonsense
syllable.
Q. I'm going away to a conference--how do I set "nomail"
"Nomail" is a command for Eric Thomas' original Listserv program.
The comparable command in Ednet is "postpone" in the proper
order and syntax.
Send email to: listproc@lists.umass.edu
message: Set Ednet Mail Postpone
To receive normal messages, send email again to the listserv
address:
message: Set Ednet Mail Ack
Sounds odd, but trust me.
Again, nothing in the "Subject: " field unless your mailer
requires it, then just use a single letter or nonsense word.
Q. How do I set digest?
I would advise against it. The digest version is shorter
only by having one header. Unless you're a whiz with a
text editor, it's difficult to save posts you might want
to save. You can't delete and move on, you have to page
through, etc. A better idea would be to read Ednet on
one of the many gophers or bbs's it's on. That way the
mail is never in your box, but you probably will miss a
lot. If I can't talk you out of it....
Send email to: listproc@lists.umass.edu
message: Set Ednet Mail Digest
If you find I'm right....
send the messsage: Set Ednet Mail Ack
Again, no subject, memohead, date, name, etc.
Q. How does Ednet work?
Ednet uses a unix based mail list server program that in some
ways is similar to Eric Thomas' original LISTSERV program but
differs in important respects.
There are three addresses to keep in mind when using Ednet:
listproc@lists.umass.edu --this is the address used in
automatically responding to your
"Subscribe" command, and others like
"Help", "Unsubscribe", "Set" , etc.
ednet@lists.umass.edu --this is the address to use only when
you wish to post a message to everyone
on the Ednet list.
ednetmgr@educ.umass.edu --the listowner's address when
you can't get the automatic list server
commands to do what you want; have a
personal question or request you
don't want broadcasted to the list;
any problem with the list.
To get automatic help with the automatic commands available send email
to: listproc@lists.umass.edu
message: Help
To get personal help from a human being, send email to:
ednetmgr@educ.umass.edu
Q. I deleted an Ednet post with a reference in it I wanted to save. How
can I get another copy?
Q. Did anyone ever discuss "blank" on Ednet? How do I find the archives?
Send email to: listproc@lists.umass.edu
Left flush commands on separate lines: Ednet Index
Help Get
Help Search
The archives are separated into monthly files with simple names
like 92.12 for the log of Ednet messages for December 1992. Many of
these files are close to 800K, so even if you remember the date, it
would be best to first use the Search command. There are a number
of boolean operators that can be used by getting the command
instructions as above, but briefly, it would go like this:
Send email to: listproc@lists.umass.edu
message: Search Ednet "blank"
Every word in every file will be searched for "blank" and
back will come one or two lines bracketing any "hit" of the
search item "blank" together with a file reference. With
this information, send "get" commands to the listserv address
like:
Get Ednet 92.12
just remember to have enough space to manipulate
the file in your mailbox/filespace. Use your host's /tmp file
space if it has one--ask user services at your site. Use fgrep
on a unix host or the equivalent on other operating systems or
download to your pc and use Vernon Buerg's freeware fgrep or
the shareware program, List, or other to locate the item you
want to cut and paste to another file.
Q. What are the commonest errors of new users on Ednet?
Inadvertently posting private replies or personal messages to
the full list, usually through inappropriately using the
"Reply" function of their mailers or accidents in manipulating
the mailer/editor. Be sure you get and practice the instructions
available from your host's user services on the mailer and editor
and whenever you use the "Reply: " function, check that the
address that's automatically filled in is the address you intend
to reach.
Not including their name and email address at the end of all their
posts to Ednet. Many subscribers' mailers do not show the
headers of messages, so that replying privately to posts lacking
such a short "signature" becomes difficult. You may miss
relevant information because it's too inconvenient for others to
somehow find an address to which to reply.
Sending commands meant for the list server to the Ednet address
instead of: listproc@lists.umass.edu No one on the list can
help you "Unsubscribe" etc. With the new list server upgrade,
this is less of a problem since it rejects messages when it
detects the commoner automatic commands in the first line, but
it will save you time to send them to the correct address with
the proper syntax the first time.
Not saving the initial "welcome" message they receive on subscribing.
It contains important instructions and information you will
eventually need. This is true for all of your email lists. Many
are much harder to sign off than Ednet, so get in the habit of
saving them with a standard name and extension that will make them
easily recoverable at an often much later date.
Using the wrong subject heading for the topic you wish to discuss.
Don't pick up someone else's subject line when you mean to introduce
a new topic. On the other hand, don't choose an entirely different
subject heading when you wish to contribute to an ongoing topic or
"thread". It is much easier for everyone to file and re-locate
your idea by its association with the "Subject: " heading.
Quoting all of someone else's posting when you wish to respond to only
parts of it. In general, resist quoting someone else quoting someone
else. It usually becomes very difficult reading and keeping track
of who said what, when, in which context after the party of the second
part, etc.
Reacting to such errors and breaches of Netiquette by firing off a
message to the list intended to discipline the miscreant, but merely
compounding the offense. If you can't resist, send such messages to
the personal mail address of the offender, but remember, we are all
"newbies" in some sense and Ednet is intended to encourage experiment
and learning.
Back to the top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prescott Smith pgsmith@educ.umass.edu
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