Rules of List Management

Updated 2006.02.03

The goal of each of our mailing lists is to create and maintain helpful user communities. The following policies have been established for the Low End Mac mailing lists. They may be revised as necessary.

Dan Knight, list mom < >

Terms in italic type are defined within this document.

Definitions

• Ban. When a subscriber is banned, the email address is retained on the server, prohibited from posting to the list, and blocked from receiving email from the list. We view banning as a last resort, and it is possible for us to reverse a ban if we have acted in error.
• Block. When a subscriber is blocked, the email address will continue to receive messages from the list, but the subscriber is prohibited from posting to the list.
• Flame. Incendiary postings, these often involving name calling.
• Global ban. A permanent ban from all email lists. Global bans have been rare.
• List mom. The top level list manager or list owner.
• List nanny. An assistant to the list mom, also called a list manager or assistant list manager.
• Moderate. Google Groups gives the list managers a useful, easily accessed tool - switching a subscriber to moderated mode. Moderation is used for infractions of rules and netiquette that don't call for banning, such as continued top posting, excessive quoting, and overly long sigs.
• Off topic. Anything not covered by the primary focus of the list. In general, computer, OS, software, and peripherals questions are on topic. So is discussion of the list and list policies. Religion, politics, automotive preference, and the price of gasoline are a few things considered off topic on our lists. Pro-Windows postings fall under the category of trolling.
• Temporary block/ban. Usually a 72-hour cooling off period during which you are blocked from posting to the list.
• Troll. To throw out a topic in hopes of beginning a flame war, such as stating that Windows is great and Macs suck.

Grounds for Action

• Posting the URL for Apple service manuals or for a page linking directly to Apple service manuals. Please share this information privately; posting it on the list is likely to lead to the information being moved or removed.
• Trolling or flaming. This includes heaping abuse on the list managers either on the list or privately.
• Continuing a discussion long after is has been closed by the list mom or nanny. (We realize that you may not receive and read the message ending discussion immediately.)
• Blatantly offensive or excessively long signatures (anything over 10 lines is excessive, and 6 lines or less is better).
• Blocking email from the list mom or nanny.
• Using an "opt in" antispam service that requires list members to confirm their email addresses if they want to correspond with you off the list.

Responsibilities of List Managers

• The list managers are responsible for encouraging good citizenship on our email lists by reminding members of the rules of the list and taking whatever action is appropriate and necessary to deal with disruptive members. Most of this action takes place behind the scenes.
• We will send personal notes to those who don't follow the guidelines established in the list FAQ, netiquette page, and policies page. (Subscribers may receive such reminders from more than one of us. If that happens, we're not trying to pick on you. It's just a consequence of having managers in different parts of the world accessing the lists on different schedules.)
• We recognize that not everyone receives and reads their email immediately, so we provide some leeway for dangling threads on closed topics.
• The list managers generally confer by email, both privately between the nannies for a specific list and globally on a closed list set up for list managers, when there are doubts about the most fitting response to a situation.
• Except for cases that demand immediate action, the managers will confer before banning or blocking an email address. In immediate response cases, we will let others who oversee the list know of our actions.
• In situations that call for immediate action, list nannies may step in on a list where they are not designated as an official nanny.
• We will always notify those who are moderated, blocked, or banned, explain why we have taken this action, and tell them how long the penalty will be in effect.
• We will let the other list managers know when someone had been banned and why we have taken that action.
• Global banning is reserved for those who consistently troll, flame, go way off topic, or persist in other actions that are disruptive to the list community. Such banning is extremely rare and may carry over to future subscription attempts by the same individual using other email addresses or attempting to join other Low End Mac email lists. Banning is almost always handled on an individual list basis.

Responsibilities of Subscribers

• Read the list FAQ/policies page and netiquette page - and follow the rules of the list.
• Understand that you may receive reminders from more than one manager when you break the rules.
• Understand that blocking or bouncing emails from any list manager is grounds for banning. We must be able to contact you to do our jobs.
• Take it seriously when a list manager declares a thread closed for further discussion. We recognize that you won't know it until you read the posting closing the topic, but once you've read that posting, drop it.
• Bannings may be reversed on appeal. State your case clearly and send it to the list manager who banned you. Don't call us names; flaming list managers is one of the leading causes of permanent banning. If a nanny rejects your appeal, you may bring your case to the list mom.

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