I'd add one that seems appropriate for most listservs:

Keep it short.

By this I mostly mean truncate long messages when replying. For instance, I've chopped about 5-6 pages of reply after reply after reply from the bottom of this message. I generally find it useful to keep the last e-mail and sometimes the prior if it is pertinent to defining the discussion to-date. But keeping 10 pages of responses appended to the end is excessive. If people need to see prior comments, they can go back and re-read the prior e-mails or look through the group archive if one exists.

If responding to a long e-mail, just keep the comment(s) to which you're responding. It's a little trickier when responding to multiple comments in the same e-mail. Some prefer to keep all responses at the top of the e-mail referring back to the complete text below. Others prefer to intersperse their comments with the original comments. If doing it the latter way, it's best to identify who is speaking when, lest someone think at a later time that one person wrote all statements.

Ohh, and generally, I tend to think that responses should come at the TOP of an e-mail, rather than at the bottom. So the newest information is the first to be read without having to scroll through sometimes several pages of text...

Again, these are just some general technical comments regarding utilizing a listserv. Not necessarily social guidelines. So, depending on what kinds of "guidelines" you were looking for, maybe they're not applicable?

But, that's just me.
~Michael Gmirkin

On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 8:04 PM, Helen Lipson <[address removed]> wrote:

On the whole, I think your etiquette document is very appropriate (though since it will be read by hundreds of people, you might want to change "a couple years experience" to "a couple of years' experience").? Over the past two years, I'm amazed at the number of people who cross the line between?or how did you get that impression" or "this is why I disagree" to something very close to "you are a blithering idiot."? But if both parties want to keep that kind of?exchange going, "taking it outside" for extended, mutual headbashing actually is very easy:?All you have to do is right-click on the name in the "from" line of the email, then click on properties, to get an individual email address.? (That seems to be standard in almost?all listserves.)?

?

As for?those brief "I agree," "LOL," etc., sorts of responses, what's the problem???It's good to get some recognition that one's post was?read and appreciated, even if?the respondent really has nothing of substance to add.? Especially considering that?longer responses are often?negative.??I think having to glance at and?a delete a few extra messages that?don't?add to the substance of the discussion is a small price to pay for that kind of positive feedback.?

----- Original Message -----

From: Kurt

To: [address removed]

Sent: September 03,[masked]:34 AM

Subject: [cfi-bam] listserv etiquette ... any additional suggestions?

Keith, thanks for pointing those out.

On our new listserv I created a listserv etiquette document that if people followed most the time would make our listservs flow better. Can anyone think of anything I missed?
http://groups.google.com/group/CFIPDX-list/web/listserv-etiquette

-Kurt

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