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Global Health Network
http://www.GlobalHealthNetwork.org
Group Guidelines and
Rules of Netiquette
The Group owners/moderators will enforce
these guidelines!
The Global Health
Network support group community gives persons affected by various diseases or
disorders, family members, friends and medical professionals a place to meet,
interact, and share ideas with each other. Just like a real community, you may
have different opinions than other group users. Our Group experience is best
when people remember a few rules. Herein, we have set out guidelines and Rules
of Netiquett for participation in our group. Here are some of the key things to remember:
- You may not harass, abuse, threaten, or
advocate violence against other members or individuals or groups.
- You may not post content that is harmful to minors.
- You may not post content that is obscene, otherwise objectionable,
or in violation of federal or state law.
- You may not add members to a group without their permission.
- You may not use the group for commercial or advertising purposes.
- You may not post content which infringes the intellectual property,
privacy or other rights of third parties.
- Some content may be more appropriate in some contexts than others.
We reserve the right to remove content that it determines deemed to be
inappropriate and in violation of our rules.
- You may not use the group solely for the purpose of storing and
archiving files.
If you are
unsure whether your content is consistent with these policies, please err on
the side of caution and do not post it!
NOTE: In the beginning, posts will be moderated to ensure adherence
to the group Guidelines and Rules of Netiquette.
Our Right to Terminate Group Membership.
The group owner(s) and or moderator(s), in their sole discretion, may terminate
or remove any content or your membership immediately and without notice if (a)
it is believed that you have acted inconsistently with the spirit or the letter
of the group, the group’s guidelines, or (b) believed you have violated or
tried to violate the rights of others. Please help us keep our group an
enjoyable and positive experience. If you see a post that violates our rules,
please let us know by contacting
Read
on for Group Rules of Netiquett!
Rules of Netiquette
Joining
a List/Discussion Group
- When you join a list, save your introductory welcome message! Welcome messages generally contain important information about the group -- the rules and guidelines, instructions on how to post to the group, how to subscribe, how to unsubscribe, etc. Follow any and all guidelines that the list owner has posted. The list owner establishes the local "netiquette" standards for her/his list and retains the right to deny access to the group for those violating the rules.
- When you join a list, monitor the messages for a few days (or read through the list archives, if available) to get a feel for what common questions are asked, and what topics are deemed off-limits. This is commonly referred to as lurking. When you feel comfortable with the group, then start posting.
- See if there is a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) – for a group that you are interested in joining. Veteran members get annoyed when they see the same questions every few weeks, or at the start of each semester. Our group does have a FAQ page available in the database.
- Use your own personal Email account; don't subscribe using a shared office account. There are many free email websites out there -- Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc. - you may find it useful to use one of these type of accounts for all of your list mail. Also turn off any Auto-Responders - they create extra mail for people posting to the list and can cause people to stop posting.
- Keep your questions and comments relevant to the focus of the discussion group.
- Do not post in ALL CAPS. Capitalize words only to highlight an important point or to distinguish a title or heading. *Asterisks* surrounding a word also can be used to make a stronger point. Capitalizing whole words that are not titles is generally termed as SHOUTING!
- Do not send "Me Too!", "Thank You", etc. messages to the group! Send those directly to the original poster. A private "Thank You" is nicer too!
- Do not send attached files. If you have a file that you want to share, advertise that you have them available and those who are interested can request them via private e-mail off list.
- Do
not send SPAM. SPAM includes virus warnings, get-rich-quick
schemes, secret cookie recipes, political propaganda, and chain letters
(i.e. Pass this letter on to 10 people to have
“Good Luck”). Most of these are hoaxes and are not welcome on mailing
lists. They only serve to irritate people. Definition
of Spam: It is
unsolicited. It is part of a “mass
mailing or the sender is a stranger to the recipient. (The recipient has never had a willful
personal contact with the sender.)
- Try to read through the day's messages before responding so that twenty people don't end up answering the same question. Keep the messages that you think you'd like to respond to and delete the others. Then go back through and begin your replies. If you can, put your replies all in one post (known as combining posts).
- Do not send or forward personal email to a list or another person without permission. This is a copyright violation and a serious breach of privacy and you may be removed from a list for doing so.
- When going away for more than a week, unsubscribe or suspend mail from any mailing lists or LISTSERV services. Directions for how to do that should have been included in the introductory welcome message that was sent to you went you subscribed.
- When replying to a message posted to a discussion group, check the address carefully to be certain it's going to the intended location (person or group). It can be very embarrassing if you reply incorrectly and post a personal message to the entire discussion group that was intended for an individual.
- Use discretion when forwarding a long mail message. It's preferable to reference the source of a document and provide instructions on how to obtain a copy. If you must post a long message, warn the readers with a statement at the top of the mail message. Example: WARNING: LONG MESSAGE
- Resist the temptation to "flame" others on the list. Flaming is the act of responding in a highly critical, sarcastic, or ridiculing manner - especially if done on a personal level. Remember that these discussions are "public" and meant for constructive exchanges. Treat the others on the list as you would want them to treat you.
- Do no send "unsubscribe" requests to the list. Other people on the list are not interested in your desire to be added or deleted. Any requests regarding administrative tasks such as being added or removed from a list should be made to the appropriate area, not the list itself. Refer to your introductory welcome message for instructions on how to unsubscribe or change your subscription settings. You were able to subscribe on your own, you should be able to unsubscribe on your own as well.
- Don't feel obligated to send a personal introduction or biography to the list when you first join unless the list guidelines specifically request that you do so. However, if someone does post a message of this type, it's OK if current members wish to welcome these people into the group and make them feel at home. Doing this on low volume lists helps to stimulate conversation. On high volume lists though, it is suggested that these people be welcomed using their private email address rather than have several welcome messages cluttering up group related discussions.
- Be sure the subject line reflects the topic. In other words, don't auto-reply and start a new thread leaving the old subject line in the header. This of course, providing that your software will allow you to change the subject. (I don't know of any email program that *doesn't* allow it.)
- Put your entire comment in the body of the message. Don't begin your message with a few words in the Subject line and continue in the body of the message. That leads to discontinuity of the message and defeats the purpose of the Subject Line.
- If you receive your list mail in Digest form, change the subject line to appropriately reflect the topic of your post. A subject of "Re: Digest xxx" helps no one.
When quoting another person, edit out whatever isn't directly applicable to your reply. Don't let your mailing software automatically quote the entire body of messages you are replying to when it isn't necessary. Take the time to edit any quotations down to the minimum necessary to provide context for your reply. Nobody likes reading a long message in quotes for the third or fourth time, only to be followed by a one line response: "Yeah, me too."
What does quoted text look like? Email programs can display quoted text in a variety of ways, but the most common is for each line of text to be preceded by the "greater than" symbol (>).
> This
is quoted text
Some email programs will simply add the line "--- Original Message ---" (or something similar) to the top of the previous message with the expectation that you will type your reply above that. While this style of quoting is okay in a business situation -- that is, when you are having a discussion with a co-worker and would like to keep the entire message thread within each email -- it is definitely NOT okay when using discussion lists, as it only serves to make the mail difficult to read. If you are using an email program that quotes in this fashion, you will need to manually create your quoted text. The simplest way to do this is to edit out the text you don't want and add two slashes ("//") to the beginning and ending of the text you'd like to quote.
//This is also quoted text//
The number one rule of quoting is quote judiciously. Quote only what is essential to make it possible for the reader to understand what your posting or email message is about. As a rule avoid quoting an entire message (signatures and all). It is not judicious to quote, say, a hundred lines of discussion just to input a single line of one's own. Proper quoting is a skill. Please devote some time to working the quote appropriately. Don't be lazy in this respect.
Leave a blank line between the quoted text and your reply or else your text and the quoted text will difficult to distinguish from each other.
Where is the best place to put your reply? Above or below the quoted text?
BELOW! Some more recent standard email and newsreader programs have assumed a very problematic feature. They include the message which you are responding to below your message and expect you to type your reply above it. Don't allow that to happen! The proper order is
>Quote 1 (properly pruned)
Your response 1
>Quote 2 (properly pruned)
Your response 2
In other words, put each appropriately trimmed item that you choose to quote before each of your own comments respectively. Remove any remaining "post quoting." Let me emphasize. Do not leave the entire earlier posting, which you have been responding to, at the end of your own posting.
Answering above the original message is called top
posting. This is sometimes, called “The Jeopardy Style.” Discussion groups are Q & A not A &
Q.
These things SHOULD NEVER be in quoted messages:
- Headers or any Subject, Date, From, Reply-To, To, information, nor any general salutations.
- Entire posts! Keep your quoted lines down to 4-6 for each different issue you are addressing.
- Widowed quote lines. This means a line consisting of only one word getting stuck between two regular length lines of quoted text. You make the digest listing TWICE as long when you allow that. If the quoted material comes out with an orphaned word, take the time to move everything around so there aren't a bunch of holes in your post. Often this is a problem with keeping the font for your mail program too low. Please change to a bigger font size if your quotes are producing orphaned words.
- Sig lines, signature text, ads or footers from previous posts (you know, like the ones that tell you how to unsubscribe or how to contact the list owners, etc.)
Posting - How Do I Edit My Messages?
Help! I've been asked to "edit my messages" but I don't know how!
We were all new once, so don't let it bother you that you don't know how to edit. :) Editing a message is very easy. With a little practice, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it!
When you are replying to a post, hit the REPLY button just as you have been doing. Hitting the REPLY button will include the entire OLD message in the NEW message you are creating. The goal of "editing" your message is to get rid of any information from the previous post that you don't need in order for your reply to make sense.
To edit, put your cursor at the top left of the section you DON'T want to include (for example the To/From/Subject stuff or the message footers and people's signature lines. Click and hold the left mouse button and drag across the section to highlight it. Then hit both the delete key and the space bar or enter key (whatever is comfortable for you) and it will remove the unwanted section. If you accidentally remove more than you intended, go to the menu bar at the top of the screen, look under EDIT and click on "Undo".... then start again. 'Undo' is also available from the menu that pops up when you right click on the mouse. Or pressing the CTRL button along with the Z button will also "undo" the last action.
Also, when you are replying to different portions of a previous message, it is normal procedure to skip to the different portions you are replying to using the "question, answer, question, answer" format discussed in the previous section. Just make sure you hit the Enter key to leave a space after the quoted text and include your comments below that section of the message so that people can tell where the quoted text ends and your replies begin. It makes it so much easier for everyone to understand what you are replying to.
You might be wondering why we ask people to please edit their messages. There are many reasons to dislike excessive quoting. The most common are:
1. Some people are visually handicapped and use "screen readers"
2. Some people pay for their download/transfer usage or pay for their time online on a per-minute or per-hour basis.
3. It clutters up the Digests and makes them darn near impossible to read.
4. It makes it more difficult to follow the discussion. If your reply looks like it's part of the quoted portion, it can easily be missed. Also, if you don't include *any* quoted material, your reply won't make any sense to anybody. But most importantly,
5. The List Mom doesn't like unedited posts. Can we say "pet peeve?" :)
Internet users in general have developed their own shorthand for e-communications. There is a comprehensive list of e-shorthand and emoticons (those little smiley faces made up of keyboard characters to indicate emotion) that can be found at the website here: http://www.stevegrossman.com/jargpge.htm
Another smaller, yet Early Edition skewed list can be found here: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Makeup/3281/acronym.htm
For anything not covered in either of those sites, the general thing to keep in mind is that fans of a particular series will most often make acronyms out of the episode titles (DWAR for "Don't Walk Away Renee," etc.), out of the character names (GH for Gary Hobson), or out of the actor names (FS for Fisher Stevens). Keep those things in mind, and you shouldn't have any troubles.
Some commonly used acronyms/emoticons include:
LOL =
Laughing out Loud
ROFLOL = Rolling of Floor Laughing out Loud
TPTB = The Powers That Be
TIIC = The Idiots In Charge
OT = Off Topic
TAN = Tangent
IMO = In My Opinion
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
YMMV =
Your Mileage May Vary
<g> = grin
<G> = big grin
<eg> = evil grin
Information contained in this email netiquette document has been culled from various sources. The list below contains some of those sources as well as other informative documents on Netiquette and proper quoting techniques. I recommend reading them all too thoroughly familiarize yourself with the process. Many of them are geared towards Usenet users, but the principles are the same.
ListManager's FAQ Page with section on "How Do I Edit?" - geared towards Onelist/eGroups/YahooGroups users.
Quoting Text in Replies from the news.newusers.questions FAQ.
A bit more on the Netiquette and quoting
by
Quoting from Zen and the Art of the
Internet.
Trim down your quotes in Email Group Netiquette Guidance
Email Quotes and Inclusion
Conventions
Quoting in JafSoft Limited's Introduction to the Internet
Proper quoting Alex D. Baxter
The Basic Rules of Netiquette; search for "Quoting"
On netiquette by Julie Waters; search for "Quoting".
Email Netiquette by Randy Ryan
http://www.ultranet.com/~mobius/Roadmap/map07.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1236/nomime.html
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/quote.html
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html
Configuring Mail Clients to Send Plain ASCII Text from G. Boyd
This document, as well as the complete "Early Edition Lovers" list rules can be found at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earlyedition/files/EEL_Rules_and_Guidelines/
Note: You *must* be a member of the list and have already converted/merged your account with a Yahoo! ID in order to have access to the files area on the list's website. If you haven't already merged your account, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/convwiz and follow their directions. Then go back to the list's main page (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earlyedition) and make sure you're signed in.
This document is: http://earlydues.usanethosting.com/ieel/netiquette.htm
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