The following was posted on ,[email protected] and I thought this list might find it helpful. I have also added the list of "Do's and don'ts referred to in the message. Jim Farrar Those Do's and Don'ts for getting responses to your E mail on the genealogy lists are getting discussed a lot --And folks have really been adding to them. Seems like everyone has a pet peeve about what other people post, and wish everyone else would write their E mail they way they do!!! Don't know how many people have sent me messages saying "right on!" and "ya'll'' forgot an important Do or Don't!"If you have missed what all the commotion is about, go to http://www.usigs.org/signal/signal.htm That is the URL for the current issue of the biweekly newsletter for USIGS - United States Genealogical Society. Therein is published a really great list explaining Mail List Etiquette that we all would do well to commit to memory. Me included! Anyway, we plan to add to this list in the next couple of weeks, based on your responses. So go look and then write me what you think. love' joan Wood County WVGenWeb County Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvwood/indexa.htm Visit my Home Page at: http://www.angelfire.com/fl/HeathHouse/index.html AND at: http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/h/e/a/Diana-K-Heath/index.html ICQ#: 21444624 Mailing List Rules for All Mailing Lists •DO - read your e-mail before sending it. If it doesn't make any sense to you it won't make any sense to anyone else. •DON'T - send derogatory comments about others on the list. This is called 'flaming', is rude and disruptive, and can get you kicked off of some lists for such bad behavior. •DO - remember that the only impression you leave is via your e-mail, so if you are rude or derrogatory in your e-mail, that is the impression others get of you. •DO - read and SAVE the software-generated welcome message you get when joining a mailing list. It has important information, such as how to unsubscribe. Too often people don't read this information and end up sending e-mail after e-mail complaining about not being taken off a mailing list. If you unsubscribe properly, you will be unsubscribed automatically with no fuss. •DON'T - send attachments over a mailing list. This forces (and can overburden) a listserver to copy that attachment (no matter how large it is) to -every- member of the list. A server can crash attempting to comply with such a request. And all list members may not be able to read, use, or WANT some attachments. The attachment may require special software to view. A large, unwanted attachment can be too large for someone's personal machine and foul their e-mail que at their server when their machine will not download it. Save attachments like word processor and picture files for PRIVATE e-mail when you know in advance the person wants the attachment and will be able to use it. •DON'T - reply over the mailing list to someone if the information you are passing back is not of general interest to most members of the mailing list. In other words, don't carry on conversations with other parties that is of no interest to everyone else. •DON'T - put personal information in e-mail. Any personal information about yourself or others can be used by the unscrupulous to steal from you or others. Your own identity is precious. Safeguard others' identities, too. •DON'T - put any Social Security numbers in your email. These numbers for anyone, either living or dead, can be misused the same as personal information can. This rule should also apply to web pages. •DON'T - reply back to a query and send back the other person's whole e-mail message. Cut out the portions that are not pertinent to your reply, as you can. This will save disk space, bandwidth, and message up/download time. An experienced mailing list user can often be identified by how well (s)he edits their replies to include only the portions of another's message required to explain their comments. •DON'T - reply to a message with a "me, too", implying you also agree with something. NEVER quote entire messages and add "me, too". If you want to indicate "I would be interested in that information also", reply to the message privately. •DO - read all of your queued e-mail before responding to someone's e-mail. Someone else may have already responded just as you want to. This is espcially important if you are rarely able to read your e-mail in a timely manner. Don't punish others with your answer until you are sure no one else responded. •DON'T - type your entire message in capital letters. This is considered to be shouting and rude. •DON'T - send test messages when you think the list may be down. It probably isn't. And refrain from answering such test messages unless you reply privately. •DON'T - point out other individuals' spelling errors and/or typos. Some people may not be able to spell or type as well as you do, and we -all- make mistakes occassionally. •DO - keep the subject lines succinct and pertinent. That is, do not compose a subject line so long that it does not display in your mailer's index. Do not endlessly repeat a subject from reply to reply after the actual subject of a message thread changes. Do regularly -change- as necessary the subject lines to reflect what YOUR message is about. Avoid subject lines like "Looking for information about my grandfather Andrew Jackson GROVE". In a mailer's index you will never see the pertinent part of that subject line. All will know you are "looking for ..." so just use "Andrew Jackson GROVE" as your subject. Never begin your message in the subject line and expect others to understand your message (Subj: 'Trying to find details on the family of Meriwether'; Message body: 'LEWIS and the families of other...' And, finally, avoid listing surnames in the subject line that are never repeated in the body of the message. Good subject lines make for much better genealogy mailing list messages! Mailing List Rules Specifically Pointed To Genealogical Lists •DON'T - send your lookup requests to multiple lists simultaneously. This is called cross-posting and over-uses server resources, wastes message archive space, and results in a number of people doing the -same- lookup for you. •DO - give complete locale information: include city, county, state, and country (when known) in addition to a date, such as: "Married in abt 1823, Miami Co., OH". If unknown, an estimate will help, such as, "second half of the 19th century" -or- "probably in Georgia or Alabama" •DO - include some information about what you have already searched. •DO - put all surnames in capital letters for more easily scanning messages and to distiguish surnames from other words (when there