[Nobbc] Guidance from the Administrator

Thu Oct 6 14:24:24 MDT 2011

No problema with either of the last two e mails.  Marty Rayman '53 TD

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Greg Tatarian <gtwincams at gmail.com> wrote:

>  Hello Folks,
>
> I'd like to weigh in here as the administrator of this email forum. One of
> the founding ideals of this club was that there were no rules. That works as
> long as we behave in a civil manner and treat each other with respect. As we
> all know, email as a means of communication has its limitations, and email
> forums such as this do require that we adhere to, if not rules, than let's
> call them "reasonable principles of behavior".
>
> It took me a year of cajoling Ron to establish an email forum for the club
> so that members could communicate together, and when we had bumps in the
> road or minor scuffles on the forum, Ron and I talked by phone and email
> about how to respond and what direction we wanted to influence the
> discussions. We as members are very good, on the whole, at
> self-administering our posts, and Ron always avoided laying down any firm
> ground rules, in the spirit of the club's philosophy, but also because Ron
> felt that we would all work things out as we went along. Despite this, there
> were several times where Ron had to take action by sending a personal email
> asking for a different approach or for a discussion to be ended, or in the
> case of hacked emails and/or email threats, temporarily unsubscribing a
> person when needed.
>
> Since I have volunteered to take on this and other administrative
> responsibilities, I'd like to present some ground rules - or reasonable
> principles of behavior, for this forum. They are not oppressive and will not
> stifle free expression that is appropriate within the boundaries of this
> forum and our club. If you disagree with them and want to express sound
> reasons why, please do so - I am always open for discussion.
>
> 1) When replying to an email, please delete the original text whenever
> possible. This saves bandwidth both for the server and for everyone's email
> systems.
>
> 2) If you want to change a discussion, post under a new topic (subject
> line) - don't just hit reply to another topic.  Please do not hijack someone
> else's topic and veer the discussion away. This is basic email forum
> behavior; it is the only way for computer-based systems to allow accurate
> topic searches. It also is proper etiquette to allow an original post to
> stand on its own.
>
> 3) All the normal rules of acceptable behavior towards other posters apply
> here, such as; no abusive language, no ethnic or sexist slurs, no unfounded
> accusations, no flamewars, no threats. If you wouldn't say something to
> someone's face, don't write it in an email on this forum - send it
> privately, at your own peril. As I said above, we have been very good about
> this, but now it's being clearly stated.
>
> 4) Commercial advertising is not appropriate here. Again, this hasn't been
> a problem, I'm just stating it.
>
> 5) Personal advertising for items related to British cars is appropriate.
> That means occasional posts about a car or parts you are selling that have
> appeal to the membership. Repeated postings in a short time are not
> appropriate. Although many of us share other interests, I don't think it is
> appropriate to sell unrelated items on this list.
>
> 6) Spam - ah, yes, what constitutes spam? We have all noticed that some of
> the more trivial discussions on this list tend to go on and on and on, for
> days. I guess when we don't have something to say about the important stuff,
> it's easy to talk about the trivial, but my position is that posting
> information that relates to British cars is appropriate, while long
> discussions about totally unrelated topics is not. Posting information about
> laws, events, conditions or other things that impact us as drivers of
> British cars, is appropriate, but we start to stray afield when we flog a
> subject for days, or when we post information of a very general nature.
>
> 7) Beware of including unverified links in your posts. We don't want to
> spread viruses or other malware to other members. If you are unsure about
> the URL, don't post it, just suggest we Google the subject for ourselves.
>
> Using recent postings as examples, while I understand and appreciate Andy's
> intentions to warn the club of potential hazards, this material is general
> in nature, and in fact, is re-hashed internet lore with no citations or
> references. As other posters pointed out, these warnings have been
> established as urban legends, and aren't really on topic for this email
> forum, despite the good intentions.  Why? Because there is no verification
> of fact or truth. As Steve Plath pointed out, snopes.com is a good
> resource for recognizing rumors and misinformation before posting to 138
> members. It also happens that Andy posted this material right after Rick
> Adams' hacked email posted a link to the list, making everyone a bit
> nervous.
>
> Using Andy's recent post in response to John, John's use of the list to
> advertise concert tickets is not appropriate in my opinion, since it is not
> on topic for our club. If we start doing this, I have a ton of crap I'd like
> to sell to you all... ;-) . John's advertising of his car storage facility
> is probably OK, since it is specific to our cars and is being offered to
> club members.
>
> Last, if you object to what you are reading in posts on this forum, don't
> just take your marbles and go home - let people know. We are a very
> democratic club, and everyone should get a chance to use this forum. Rather
> than unsubscribing, perhaps you can start by deleting emails with topics
> that are not of interest to you (see, Principle #2 has merit!), or as we
> often do, let people know that the dead horse has been flogged enough.
>
> Hmm. Perhaps I've reached that point... ;-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Greg Tatarian
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>

-- 
*Martin Sinai Rayman, D.D.S.
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