TIPS ON GROUP POSTING

[Guest guest]

From one of our esteemed moderators athan:

**TIPS ON POSTING**

1. When you are responding to a message, make sure

you delete the old message, except the part that you are responding to. This

makes it easier to read, especially for those who are getting the digest.

2. Make sure the subject line reflects the actual

subject of the email. If the subject has drifted away from the original topic,

change the subject line to reflect the new topic. On the other hand, if the subject

has not changed, it's best to leave the subject line exactly as it was (rather

than paraphrasing), so that people can tell what message

You’re replying to.

3. Try to keep off topic posts to a minimum, but

if you do post something that's off topic, put OT before the subject so that

people who only want to read on topic posts can ignore it. The only exception

to this is that on Fridays, we try to send TGIF messages to lighten things up a

little. People send bits of good news, jokes, poems, etc. These

should have TGIF in front of the subject, and

don't need an OT tag.

4. Don't say anything here that you wouldn't say

in public. Although the archive is only available to members, it's very easy to

become a member of the group. We have no way to check out the background of the

people who join the group, so your doctors, friends, relatives, employer, etc.

could possibly be members, or become members and read anything you post here.

(A while back I did a Google search on PSC and the first hit was an email from

me to my mother. It had ended up posted on the web after she forwarded it to another

list-server)

5. If possible, use plain text for your emails

rather than HTML. Many people have problems viewing or responding to HTML mail

(my mail program won't automatically quote an HTML mail when I respond to it,

for instance), so although it's nice to have all the pretty fonts and colors,

it's not a good idea to use them when posting to a large group

like this. Your mail will probably not get read by

some of the members. HTML also adds to the size of the emails which lengthens peoples

download time (more that just an inconvenience for some of our members who have

to pay by the minute for their internet connection).