Guidelines and Rules for Posting to Banjo-L

Before posting to Banjo-L (or any list, FTM), please consider the fact that what you write will be directly emailed to over 1,500 people, and will be permanently stored in our archives.

Are there rules? Yes, our Founder and first List Owner, Sean Barry said: "We started out with none, but experience has shown the wisdom and necessity of a few rules."

Look! The rules: (as of 23 Oct, 2002)

THE RULES OF BANJO-L

  1. To post a message to Banjo-L, mail it to banjo-l@list.mail.virginia.edu. Only list subscribers can post to the list.

  2. Banjo-L posts should be about banjos, banjo players, and other on-topic (banjo-related) subjects. Posts must be free of attachments and should be submitted in plain text only. Never allowed: flames, inquisitions, negativ-isms (race, sex, etc), third-party personal data (other peoples' non-business e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc), copyright violations or solicitations for them, chain letter "virus warnings" and related off-topic material, and classified ads,* "offers to sell," solicitations for products and/or services to purchase, auction notices, or commercial posts. Generally allowed: posts about other peoples' banjos for sale, other peoples' shops, other peoples' auctions, other peoples' work, etc, ALWAYS with a "standard disclaimers" notation.

  3. Businesses may include a conventional business signature at the end of on-topic posts. Festivals and workshops/camps can be advertised up to twice on Banjo-L (sometimes more at the listowner's discretion). Personal appearance schedules and one-person workshop schedules should be posted to a website, not to Banjo-L, but a one-time (per month) post to the list that points to the website is OK. Contact the listowner for further clarification and details on any of the rules, before you post potentially barred material to the list.

*Classifieds and auction notices can be posted at the Banjo-L website.

In addition to our List Owner's hard-and-fast rules above, please consider quite seriously the following suggestions from this site's author:
  • Stay on-topic. This is a Banjo list; discussions of autos, favorite teams, etc. do not belong here. Sometimes discussions that start out being very much topical stray off down side paths. When this happens, please consider taking the conversation off-list by emailing other interested parties directly. Ask yourself, "Does my post contain the word 'banjo'?" and "Will over 1,500 other banjophiles be the slightest bit interested in what I've just written?" If you have any doubts, don't post.
  • Avoid personal replies via the List. Oftimes, someone will post a comment that you feel should be answered, but here, too, please ask yourself "Will over 1,500 other banjophiles be interested in what I've just written?" If you have any doubts, don't post. Posts such as "Yes, Billy Bob, I'm going, too, and I'll see you there." are simply not germane.
  • Resist the temptation to snap back zingers or "me-too" posts. (And especially don't do it by quoting back an entire post.) The over 1,500 subscribers to Banjo-L don't really want to read "Oh yeah, well so's your old man" or "Amen to that" messages; take them off-list.
  • Do not post personal attacks. While everyone is encouraged to express his opinions ("Billy Bob, I have to take issue with your statement that the only good banjo player is a bluegrass banjo player, and I'll tell you why....") please keep your statements objective and eschew personal insults ( "Billy Bob, you are the stupidiest *@&(^&^_ ) ugly *&#@% that ever %$#$%#ed a banjo for even suggesting that the only good banjo player is a bluegrass banjo player!")
  • Do not post advertisements. One of the biggest problems on some of the newsgroups is the advertising, and many (most?) of us Banjo-L subscribers resent overt solicitation in our discussion group. Please note that if you have instruments for sale, or who has a music-related business or service, we'll be happy to put your advertisements on our website. Please see our For Sale pages, and then use the link to the classified ads to instantly post an ad on this site.
  • Keep quoted text to a minimum. Most mailers provide the option of quoting the text of an article to which you are replying. Please quote only those passages that are relevant to your own comments. Where you have edited out irrelevant text ("snipping"), you can indicate your editing by ellipses in brackets, thusly: [...]
  • OTOH, Be sure you have quoted enough text that readers new to the thread will have some inkling of your topic. Posts containing nothing more than "I have to disagree, Mastertones are definitely not this way." don't tell us a whole lot.
  • If you reply to a digest version of the list, please, please, please take care not to quote the entire digest back to the List!
  • Don't post in all capital letters. It's not only hard to read, but it's considered "SHOUTING!"
  • Above all, listen to the Listowner. When Marc suggests that "maybe it's time to move along, people." he's oh-so-politely asking us to shut up and let the thread die. Take the hint.

    Jeff Chumley posted some very reasonable guidelines vis-_-vis courtesy on the List. I heartily recommend their reading. BTW, I have added a posting from rec.humor.funny, concerning the nature of posting to list servers; I found it amusing...

    Thanks for your support.