AuckLUG being an informal entity does not have rules of association or similar. The Acceptable Use Policy outlined in this document therefore reflects commonsense. Its also open to feedback, critique and modification from AuckLUG members. Get in touch with the List Admins per details provided below.
General Acceptable Use policies for Mailing Lists worldwide are based on RFC1855. However AuckLUG conceeds that much of the information in RFC1855 is out of date and doesn't represent the realities of todays Internet. (But it was a lovely thought.)
As such whilst we encourage participants to read the above RFC it should be treated as largely educational and serve as a guide to the intention behind these policies.
The overriding consideration behind this policy document is 'consideration for others'. If in doubt, use this as your primary concern.
Subject Guidelines
- Discussion on Linux and Linux Related topics is appropriate.
- Discussion of things completely unrelated to Linux is inappropriate.
- Subjects with a vague or passing relationship to Linux are appropriate in moderation and subject to the general mood of the list at the time.
- Requests to move off-topic conversations off-list should generally be honoured depending on circumstance.
- Posts of a blatantly commercial nature are not permitted. Posts advising of new linux related products are acceptable, but should try to remain objective. Links to vendors websites, etc, are appropriate.
Posting Guidelines
- Posts to the list are only accepted from subscribed
addresses.
- If you need to post from a non-subscribed address, alternate addresses can be subscribed with no delivery as an option.
- Crossposting to multiple lists is discouraged but not disallowed. Persons doing so should carefully consider the audience and whether the post having its multiple recipients visible for eternity is appropriate or not. Also consider the proportion of recipients likely to receive multiple copies as a result.
- Post in Plain Text. Using HTML or Rich Text formatting explodes the size of a message and for people who still use low bandwidth links, this is disruptive and unnecessary.
- When responding to messages, quote relevant portions of the text such that the conversation can be followed.
- Do NOT overquote. Usually 2 levels of quoting above your own is sufficient.
- Do NOT quote irrelevant material*.
- Top-Posting is generally frowned upon. Replies should be added below the quoted text not above, unless this is particularly suitable for the message in question.
- Additional responses should continue to adhere to the quote method (top or bottom post) of previous messages. Mixing quote types can rapidly make a thread very confusing to follow.
- Add a double-carrier-return between quoted material and your new text. This helps differentiation. It also helps compensate for some mailers which may lose a carrier return during processing.
- If you wish to start a new conversation (on a new subject), create a new message (as opposed to replying to an existing mail thread). By replying to an existing thread and simply changing the subject line (usually performed in order to save having to manually type the list address into the To: Box), your message will be automatically threaded by the mailing list software archive (and many mail clients) as a part of the previous conversation. If the material being posted is irrelevant to that conversation, this will not be appreciated by participants of said thread - who may be confused as to the relevance. It may also cause your message to be overlooked, filtered incorrectly, or to simply be ignored.
* Useful keystrokes include Ctrl-Shift-End (Highlight All and Jump to end of Document). Allows you to delete all remaining text in a window in about 1 second. This applies to most GUI interfaces including most web-based mail systems.
Content Guidelines
- Postings that include Foul Language, Character or Company assassination, or show a lack of respect for other participants , are unacceptable.
- Deliberate flaming and abuse is not tolerated.
- Participants are advised not to post email addresses into the body of their messages, to reduce the risk of the address being harvested for spam purposes.
- Use appropriate case, punctuation and paragraph formatting. Please try to maintain a reasonable level of spelling and grammar.
- Posting File attatchments to the list is discouraged (and infact, depending on the situation, these may simply be stripped from your message). If you need to refer to a document/image please provide a suitable URL. The use of propriatory file formats is discouraged.
- Reproducing copyright material without permission is unacceptable.
- Job Advertisements specifically relating to Linux are welcome, but these should be focussed and not full of 'marketing-speak'. They should also only be posted once. Ideally, a brief precis could be posted, perhaps with a suitable URL containing more complete information.
- Advertising of Linux related events in the region is
generally OK. Events not directly related to Linux but
otherwise of interest to the community may be acceptable,
however please contact the Mailing List maintainers to
clarify and gain permission first. Advertising of a
commercial nature is not permitted.
Remember, all posts are archived. Think before you post. Some comments may come back to haunt you or may even bring harm to the GNU/Linux and/or Free Software/Open Source Movement.
If you are new to the mailing list or have any questions you may also like to review the mailing list etiquette FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document which can be found at http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-etiquette.html.
Complaints about any aspect of AuckLUG or its members should in the first instance be directed to the List Admins (Currently Mark Foster and Scott Newton). The List Administrators are contactable via the link provided on the Mailing List Members Info Page.
Thanks -The AuckLUG Admin Team.
Last Update 19 August 2009.