ADMIN: Responsibilities, Autoresponders, Tolerance, and More

[Eric Ray <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>]

Gang,

First, yes, it's fairly irritating to have autoresponders
returning mail to the whole list or to anyone who posts
to the list. When cases of that are brought to my attention, 
I remove the offending names from the list. This is not a 
punitive step--it's just the easiest way for me to fix
the problem, and it shifts the burden of identifying and
resolving the problem to the person who caused it. 

Second, far more irritating than those mistakes (for
I don't think that anyone really believes that a 
subscriber would deliberately misconfigure their vacation
program just to bug the rest of the list) are people who
are arrogantly intolerant of others, then trump that with
demanding that I immediately remove the person who
goofed from the list. 

Quite frankly, I'm tired of being subjected to 
misplaced, uninformed, and belligerent rants, and am 
reasonably sure that most other subscribers are too.
(My email runs 100s to 0 against bad attitudes.)

As a rule, this list is relatively helpful and useful, but
I strongly object to the outbursts of (off-topic, by the
way) hostility. I will unsubscribe the individual who wrote
> Only the very brain dead would fail to realize that setting up an automated 
> response like the one below would generate a response
> to every posting received on every list he/she/it subscribes to, and that 
> response in turn would be sent out to every single list subscriber. I hope 
> there is a special place reserved in hell for people who do this. Also, the 
> list manager should instantly unsubscribe anyone who does this. 
from the list. I'll reinstate him after I've been adequately assured 
that this behavior (and the resulting flood of complaints
into my email) will permanently cease.

For all, please review the Responsibilities message below.
And think about it. 

Eric
ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com
TECHWR-L Listowner




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--New on 31 July 1998--

TECHWR-L RESPONSIBILITIES

In the ongoing effort to make this list as useful
as possible, I've recast the Posting Rules (which
do still exist) in terms of responsibilities in a
number of areas--I think this offers a more 
constructive way of looking at the list and can, 
I think, help make things run a little more 
smoothly. Additionally, this reflects my
philosophical view of how the list _should_ run--based
on responsibilities, not explicit rules. 

With that...

TECHWR-L LISTOWNER RESPONSIBILITIES

* Make sure that the list continues to run and
	be a valuable information resource. This 
	includes stopping inappropriate discussions
	and silencing posters who cannot or will not
	respect other list members' needs and time.
* Help members and potential readers learn about
	and use the list. 
* Help members with administrative problems, like
	changed email addresses or similar issues. 
* Handle off-topic messages, spam, and inappropriate
	or unprofessional messages, through either
	private or public means, as needed. 
* Forward (anonymously and confidentially) questions
     and messages for the list that could be 
     career-limiting or embarrassing if the name of
     the poster were known. Sending private replies
     back to the original poster is unfortunately not
     possible. 


TECHWR-L MEMBER RESPONSIBILITIES

To Other List Members:

* Be nice. Attack ideas, not personalities, and
	stay nice in off-line commentary as well. 
* Be concise and clear in your postings, and
	edit unnecessary content before sending.
* Stay focused on the topic. Other people didn't
	subscribe to this list for anything other
	than professional discussions about
	technical communication, and it's your
	responsibility to do everything in your
	power to remain focused on that topic. 
* Post only appropriate messages. If it's not
	clearly about technical communication, it's
	not appropriate for this list, regardless
	of how critical or vital it may seem to
	you. Make the connection explicit if necessary. 
* Respect other people's time. If the correct
	usage/word/information is in a standard
	reference book that you have, look it up
	rather than asking 4000 other people to
	look it up for you. If you've already done
	your homework, then say so explicitly. 
* Post only accurate information. If you're posting
	verifiable technical information, tips, or 
	instructions, take the time to ensure that 
	they're accurate. If you don't have the time to 
	ensure that your message is completely accurate 
	using authoritative sources, don't post it. 
* Use the archives and don't post questions 
	that have been beaten to death recently. 
	If it's been posted, it's in the archives,
	so don't ask others to do the archive 
	research for you. 
* Remember that few absolutes exist--for every
	_rule_ of technical communication that you 
	have always followed, someone else always
	follows a contradictory rule. What you post is
	usually an opinion, and will be better 
	received when presented as one. 
* Fix your email problems on your own or with the
     help of the listowner. The other list members
     have better things to do than to delete your
     test message. 


To Yourself:

* Remember that your postings go to potential
	employers, co-workers, and friends. Additionally,
	they're archived forever in several places. 
* Post valuable messages. I know of well over 100
	list members who have gotten jobs as a direct
	or indirect result of their techwr-l postings,
	and they're all people who send substantive,
	well-thought-out, constructive contributions.
	(Yes, these are the people who post the messages
	that you print out and file.) 
* Post good questions. Although there is truth in the 
	old saw about "the only dumb question is the one
	unasked", posting the same question that was
	addressed at length in each of the last 4 weeks
	(and thus answered at length in the archives),
	is a dumb question. 
* Learn to use your email program well, including
	taking advantage of mail filtering, searching, 
	sorting, and filing features. Send only plain
	text messages and no attachments to the list. 
* Learn to use archives and online resources
	effectively, both for technical communication
	information and for other information. 


To Listowner:

* Keep the list instructions and use them. 
* Keep the list rules and follow them. 
* Contact the listowner if you have problems,
	questions, or issues. 
* Send list messages to the list, send administrative
	messages, questions, commentary, or complaints
	to the listowner.