SEELANGS Administrivia - Guideline Reminder

[Alex Rudd]

Dear SEELANGS members,

I would very much appreciate it if you would read this entire
message.  Also, if you're not yet familiar with the convention,
every message I post to this list with "SEELANGS Administrivia"
in the Subject: line is an administrative message from me (the
list owner) that I wouldn't be posting if I didn't expect
everyone to read it, so please don't delete those messages unread.

Although I have detected some improvement over the years, I've
noticed that occasionally some people neglect to comply with the
list guidelines we've had in place here for many years already.
This message is meant as a gentle reminder and a plea for future
cooperation.

Specifically, although in some contexts it's okay to reply to
an e-mail message and include the entire message to which you're
replying in the body of you're reply, it's not okay on SEELANGS.
Accordingly, we have the following guideline:

--- Begin ---

Quoting Text From Original Messages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because all posts to SEELANGS are archived, and because disk
space is a finite resource, list members are asked to pay
close attention when they reply to messages on the list and
quote text.  Including portions of original messages is fine,
as long as it's done to provide context for the reader and
is done selectively.  However, quoting entire original
messages within the body of replies, when the original messages
are more than just a few lines, is prohibited.  Not only
does it fill up our disk space with extraneous text, but
those list members receiving SEELANGS in DIGEST format are
forced to read through the same messages three and four
times.

--- End ---

Please, when replying to posts here, manually delete whatever
original text is not needed for context.  No one should be
including header lines and no one should be including the
footer that gets added to each post to SEELANGS (the one
containing the URL to our Web Interface).

Next, when replying to a SEELANGS post, before you click on
Send, take a moment to ensure that your message is going where
you want it to go.  If your reply is meant for the whole list,
send it to the list address (which is SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU).
However, if your reply is *not* meant for the whole list, then
don't send it to the whole list.  Just send it to the individual
who posted the message to which you're replying.  We have a
guideline that covers this, too:

--- Begin ---

Personal Replies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because each message sent to the list address is distributed to
all list members, personal messages and replies should not be posted.
If you wish to reply only to the original sender of a post, make
sure your reply is directed to that person and not to the list
address (seelangs at listserv.cuny.edu).  If you wish to contact only
one subscriber, yet do not know that person's personal e-mail address,
do not use the list address to write him.  Instead make use of the
SCAN SEELANGS command or write the list owners for assistance.

Example:  SCAN SEELANGS Smith

VERY IMPORTANT:  When you just use the Reply feature of your e-mail
program while reading a SEELANGS post, your reply is directed back
to SEELANGS, *not* to the person who posted.  Your failure to
realize this fact is what gets most people in trouble when it comes
to sending personal replies to the list address.

--- End ---

Please note, by the way, when you post a message to SEELANGS
desiring that all replies to your message be sent directly to you
and not to SEELANGS, it is often not enough merely to encourage
off-list replies.  As we've seen, that doesn't always work.
Instead, you can insert into your post submission a "Reply-To:"
tag (header line).  For an example of that, see the header of the
message you're reading now.  I have inserted one pointing back
to the list owners' address, seelangs-request at listserv.cuny.edu.
If you don't insert your own Reply-To:, then LISTSERV uses the
default, which is the list address, and all replies are directed
back to the list (this is a discussion list, after all).

If you'd like to send a message to the list, and you want all
replies to go directly back to you, and you can't figure out how
to insert a Reply-To: tag using your own e-mail software (but
check the manual first), then you may send your submission
directly to me at seelangs-request at listserv.cuny.edu and I will
post it for you after inserting the Reply-To: on your behalf.

Additionally, when someone posts a question on SEELANGS, please
resist the temptation to answer that question on the list
before you've checked to see whether it's already been answered!
We see this all the time, and ultimately, when you think about
it, it's a waste of disk space (because all posts are archived).
If you have nothing new to add to the answer(s) already posted,
why bother?  But you won't know what's already been posted unless
you read all the posts in your in-box before replying to the
question to which you know the answer.

Finally, I feel the need to remind you that SEELANGS, despite its
purpose and focus, is an English-language list.  In other words,
please do not assume that all subscribers have the ability to
read and/or write e-mail using cyrillic text.  That may seem odd
to some of you, but not everyone is yet using computer systems so
technologically advanced.  On behalf of those people whose e-mail
programs display cyrillic text only as question marks or other
nonsensical text, some of whom have written me off-list about it,
I would ask that if you do need to post some text in a Slavic
language, do so in transliteration, to est', latinskimi bukvami.
If you feel you must post in the original, I know those people
would appreciate it if you would include a transliteration as
well.

If you need a copy of the SEELANGS Welcome message, which contains
all our guidelines, you can grab one by sending the command:

GET WELCOME SEELANGS

in the body of e-mail to:  LISTSERV at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU

It's also available on the web site.  The URL is below.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

- Alex, list owner of SEELANGS    seelangs-request at listserv.cuny.edu
....................................................................
Alex Rudd                ahrjj at cunyvm.cuny.edu            ARS KA2ZOO
{Standard Disclaimer}    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/

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