Netiquette for Mailing List Administrators and

Mailing List Contents:

• Introduction
  • Types of Lists
  • The Netiquette Challenge
• Recommendations for Mailing List Owners
• Netiquette for Mailing List Participants
• For More Information

Introduction

A mailing list - a list of e-mail addressses indentified by a single name - serves multiple communication purposes. Mailing lists facilitate the distrubution of messages to multiple addresses, further group member discussion, and allow multiple leaders to jointly manage group business.

Types of Lists

Here is a brief overview of the types of lists that are available through umd.edu systems

The Netiquette Challenge

Though mailing lists enhance the ease and efficiency of message distribution to large numbers of recipients, problem messages associated with breaches of netiquette (e.g. off topic content; angry comments; or "flaming" remarks) can be magnified as a result of the efficacy of one-to-many communication tools.

Recommendations for Mailing List Owners

1. Decide what the purpose of your list should be. Make sure this purpose is stated in your welcome letter to your members. A clear purpose will guide what are and are not appropriate comments that members can make on your list. Some ideas to consider are:
• Is it an open forum for discussion?
• A way for you to give announcements to a particular group of people?
• A place for anyone on the list to make announcements?


2. Consider requirements that all messages must contain, such as signatures and reply-to addresses. This will allow you to encourage members to respond to each other directly when appropriate rather than to the entire list. In addition, it forces members to take ownership of their statements.


3. What will your role on the list be?
• Are you just another member of the group who happens to be list owner?
• Are you there to facilitate discussions and provide direction?
• Are you a moderator who keeps watch over the list and makes sure people are acting in accordance with stated Acceptable Use Policy?


4. Establish procedures for issuing warnings and terminating people from your list. These guidelines should be made known to users through either a welcome message or an appropriate use message issued when they subscribe to the list.
• How many warnings are you willing to issue before removing someone from the list? Are two warnings sufficient before cutting off access? Three?
• If there are multiple list owners, establish procedures for deciding whether or not to issue a warning. Will enforcement be the responsibility of one particular list owner? Will you need consensus from all owners before issuing a warning? Will each person be allowed to make decisions independently regarding policy enforcement?
• Have a method for members to be able to raise concerns to you about messages being posted to the list. Make sure they are aware of these methods.
• Make sure you only issue warnings based on guidelines that have been made known to the list members. Don’t surprise them!
• When issuing a warning/termination consider your motivation for doing so. Are you doing so because of a personal response to the message they posted? Are you doing so because they have somehow violated one of the previously established rules of the list?
• Have an appeal procedure in place if you decide to terminate someone from the list.
• Make sure to maintain consistency in how you are enforcing policy. Are you responding to all people equally, regardless of your relationship with them? Are you addressing similar actions with the same actions (e.g. a warning)?


5. Re-issue your Acceptable Use Policy on a routine basis. This will remind old members of the standards of the list, as well as, ensure that new members are up to date. Clearly established guidelines make for a productive list!


6. Consider writing an FAQ after your list has been established so that you don't have to answer repeated questions. Also, this ensures that everyone has access to the same information.


7. Make sure that once standards and appropriate guidelines are set in place that you as list owner are abiding by them. By being an appropriate role model, you discourage other people from abusing the list. If you are violating the policies but try to enforce them for others then participants may not choose to listen to you.

Netiquette for Mailing List Participants

The “Policy on the Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources” policy provides general guidance on what constitutes appropriate expression in its introductory section “Primary Principles: Freedom of Expression and Personal Responsibility”:

"Freedom of expression and an open environment to pursue scholarly inquiry and for sharing of information are encouraged, supported, and protected at the University of Maryland. These values lie at the core of our academic community. Censorship is not compatible with the tradition and goals of the university. While some computing resources are dedicated to specific research, teaching, or administrative tasks that would limit their use, freedom of expression must, in general, be protected. The university does not limit access to information because of its content when it meets the standard of legality. The university's policy of freedom of expression applies to computing resources.

Concomitant with free expression are personal obligations of each member of our community to use computing resources responsibly, ethically, and in a manner which accords both with the law and the rights of others. The university depends first upon a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation to create and maintain an open community of responsible users."

The following suggested guidelines are intended to give specific recommendations on how mailing list participants can successfully balance the responsibilities of free expression and civil communication. They are broken up into a section on minimal expectations, basic netiquette, and a category we call “superstar”. Mailing list owner/administrators should feel free to use these guidelines or adapt them as appropriate for different lists.

By joining the mailing list you agree to the following minimal expectations:

• It is unacceptable to be abusive. Flaming (insults) do not belong on the mailing list. If you and another member are having a disagreement your opinions should always be conveyed in a mature and rational manner.
• Do not spam the mailing list. This includes sending forwards that are off topic and offensive.
• It is unacceptable to post illegal material or send messages that contain offensive/foul language.
• The mailing list is not to be used as a way to promote sales of products or services.

The following is the basic netiquette of the mailing list:

• Identify yourself in all your postings.
• You are a professional; conduct your postings as such.
• Postings should be relevant to the discussion topics of the list.
• Compose brief and concise messages.
• Always have subject headers. They should be relevant to the message.
• Never use all caps when composing a message, it gives off the notion that you are shouting.
• Don’t send messages that just state “I agree” or “I disagree” without further expanding your point.
• Before responding to a comment someone has posted to the list consider whether or not your response should be sent to the entire mailing list or just the person.
• If you are posting a long message consider creating a table of contents at the top of the email message.

As a user of the mailing list it is possible for you to obtain superstar status.

• You are a mailing list superstar if you:
• share your resources when you have them.
• help newbies become accustomed to the mailing list.
• make a valuable contribution at least once a month.
• write purposeful and clear messages.
• place yourself in another person’s shoes before responding to their message.

And finally, you are truly a superstar if you abide by all of the above!

More information on LISTSERV (a specific type of mailing list) is available at:

A Basic Guide to LISTSERV:

http://www.helpdesk.umd.edu/documentation/other/listserv.shtml

L-Soft international, Inc.General User's Guide to LISTSERV®, version 1.8c

http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/user/user.html