SUGGESTED GUIDELINES to HELP GET ANSWERS by Tim Carter If I am going to be a writer and try to get your attention so that you will help me, I must be courteous to you; I must be thoughtful enough to present materials in such a manner as to get and keep your attention; I must write my material in a way that makes it fast, easy, and pleasant to read. With these thoughts in mind, consider that the following are NOT RULES, but they are SUGGESTED GUIDELINES for use by genealogy researchers. Also, if you are a member/user on a list which has an owner or moderator who specifies how to post to that particular list, please, try to post to that list in accordance with his/her instructions. 1) What are you talking about? What is your Subject? 2) Are you shouting at the reader? 3-7) Typing names so they are easy to read. 8) Where and How to Reply. 9-10) Flaming. 11) Are you less considerate and more disrespectful than the flamer? than the sympathizers? 12) You want to reply, but, Are You Ready? 1) Do you really want me to read your message? Many users of the lists use the subject line to speed up their search. Messages with blank subject lines are deleted in bulk before any reading is attempted. Both the sender and the receiver have "lost" when a connection they have for each other is not made because of a subject omitted. 2) Generally, type everything in lower case (small) letters. Typing everything in ALL CAPS is considered SHOUTING AT THE READER. 3) ALWAYS type SURNAMES in upper case (CAPITAL) letters. 4) When listing SURNAMES only, enter a comma and two spaces between the names. This makes for faster, easier reading: CARTER, DELOACH, KIRBY, LEE, PEDRON (PLEASE, do not space between letters of the name, and do not use special characters within a name) 5) DO NOT use the asterisk * or the slash / as a separator of SURNAMES. Use this same rule for applying other special characters in your writings. This is hard on the eyes, and some of us won't read it. Therefore, you and I might miss a perfect opportunity to find a connection to one of the names we are both researching. 6) Generally, type names as follows: SURNAME, First Second Third "Nickname" Title (Although it won't always work out this way, try to make it a standard way of writing names.) Example: CARTER, Elisha Joseph Goodwin "Joe" Rev 7) When listing SURNAMES with locations, try to make the listings as columns if possible. At least enter some spaces to make for easier, faster reading: CARTER > NC, SC, MS, AR LEE > NC, SC, TN, AR JONES > FL, AL, TN, GA OWENS > NC, GA, LA KIRBY > AR WOOD > TN,AR Realize that the progression of states is not meant to be alphabetical, but represents the general movement (or migration) of the family or individual being researched, and are the locations being searched. 8) When you reply (respond) to a message received on a list, PLEASE, be aware of where your reply is going "before you send it.". Some of the lists are set up so the REPLY automatically returns your message to the list. Other lists automatically return your replies to the originator of the message. AGAIN, PLEASE double check the return address where you are sending the answer to that post. A BIG THANK YOU for your help on this. 9) Please, do not flame someone (put them down rather rudely) for something they have done. The individual may be new and did not realize what was correct and proper. Or, an individual can be in a hurry and just do things wrong. (Personally, I do not wish to reduce <degrade> myself to the low level of flaming someone. I have been flamed and know how bad it made me feel, even though I had not intended to hurt or upset anyone.) Consider that in most instances the act is not on purpose, but accidental. If you must reply, be courteous, polite, and positive and send them a private note. 10) Above all, DO NOT flame someone publicly on one of the lists. It is bad manners on the part of the person doing the flaming, and shows disrespect toward all other members of the list. (They do not want to hear the flamer's whining about what someone has supposedly done to the flamer or to them. That is why there are always so many rude, ill-natured replies afterwards.) 11) Do you reply to the flamer, and send it to the list? Then, you have been more disrespectful to fellow list members than was the flamer. You have become a part of the continuing nuisance to the list. Does someone have a loss, and accidentally post it to the list? Are you one of the sympathizers that also post your condolences to the list? You have become a part of the continuing nuisance to the list. Are you one of those that posts to the list in anger or dismay, trying to get the sympathizers to stop posting? You have added fuel to the fire - you helped increase the problem. Please stop and think before posting ANY OFF SUBJECT REPLY to a list. 12) Do you really want to flame someone? Go look in the mirror. That person you are looking at knows exactly how you feel and what you are thinking. Therefore, that person knows exactly how to take what you are saying. Furthermore, if that person in the mirror smiles at you, you are going to have to smile back. And, if you smile at the person in the mirror and that person in the mirror does not smile back at you, you are not ready to write to anyone yet. Now, let's work together and find some genealogy answers. Thank you. Charles E. ("Chuck") Carter <[email protected]> Listowner [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.