ADMIN: Posting Dos & Don'ts (A refresher course)

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 20301

Hi everyone --

Trying to spare you all Flying Ford Anglia in a hairnet or John with
Rock #47, here's Penny with a few friendly Do's & Don't's when posting
messages.  But first, a special note for our Digest Users.

Digest Users: PLEASE take care not to have RE: Digest Number ___ as your
subject heading.  This doesn't tell anyone what your message is about. 
People who have limited time to read the groups' voluminous messages may
very well just delete messages that have a subject heading of RE: Digest
# such & such (:::cough:::).  

SUBJECT HEADINGS

DO be sure your subject heading reflects what your message is about

DO change the subject heading if the subject has veered on to something
else from the original topic (if it was about grindylows but now the
message is about the Mirror of Erised for some reason, don't just hit
reply & have it say "RE: Grindylows")

DON'T send a message that says RE: Digest #34 in the subject line

QUOTED MATERIAL

DO include enough quoted material to give context to your message (if
you're replying to something someone else said, include enough of what
they said so that others can follow what you're talking about)

DON'T include all of someone else's message in your reply if it isn't
necessary; Edit out the parts that don't have any bearing on your
message

DON'T forget to delete all the unnecessary footers, etc. underneath your
own message when you've replied to someone else's message

SIGNATURE LINES

DON'T include really really long signature files at the end of your
messages. A signature file of a few lines or a favorite quote is fine,
but remember: Less is More

MULTIPLE REPLIES

DO combine your short replies into a single message (change the subject
heading to reflect all the subjects you're addressing though)

DON'T send multiple short "one-liner" messages to the list (see above --
COMBINE into a single message)

OFF-TOPIC MESSAGES

DO post Off-Topic messages to our sister group, HPforGrownups-OTChatter
(link on our homepage)

DON'T post a message to the main group that says "This may be off-topic
but ..."

Okay, that's it for the brief refresher course.  That wasn't so painful,
right?  Thanks for listening!

Penny