Etiquette Guidelines for Posting Messages

Meaningful Subject Line

When sending messages to a Mailman mailing list, make sure the entry in the Subject line is clear and descriptive.

Include a Signature

Be sure to sign your full name at the bottom of your posting and include your affiliation(s) and email address. Some subscribers may receive their email messages with the header information stripped away by their local system and therefore cannot know the author of a particular posting.

Provide Context

Every posting should begin with a clear introduction to the topic, or offer some kind of reference to the topic or a previous posting. There are often several "threads" of discussion going on simultaneously, which makes unreferenced postings confusing to readers.

A popular way of providing context is to quote verbatim from the original message. However, keep the quotations *short* and *relevant*. Quoting whole messages, signatures and all, can be inconsiderate.

Humor

Humor is appreciated, but please remember that humor in email can easily be misinterpreted. One way to express emotion is to use smilies. For example: humorous :-) , ironic ;-) , or sad :-( .

Censorship

Some Mailman mailing lists are "unmoderated" lists. This means what members post goes directly to other members. To keep lists uncensored, it is important that only pertinent messages are posted to the list. Members whose messages do not meet minimum expectations may be notified by the list owner or site administrator, and may be excluded permanently from future participation.

Personal Mail

Just as it is important to try to share public information with the whole group, private correspondence should remain just that -- private. Send personal messages directly to individuals, not by way of the list.

Quality of Communication

If you find something posted on the list objectionable, you have every right to voice your objections -- but not in public. Please express your complaints directly to the person responsible. If enough complaints are received, it is unlikely the offender will post those kinds of messages again. You can also, of course, simply discard (not read) all mail from an offending writer. If you would like to contact the list owner, you can do so by sending email to listname-owner@u.washington.edu where listname is replaced with the actual name of the list.

Note that this does NOT address harassment or illegal activites. Such instances should be reported to Computing & Communications by sending email to help@u.washington.edu.