Listserv "Netiquette"

Netiquette?!? What's that?
Remember that Golden Rule your kindergarten teacher taught you? "Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you." It still applies in the email world. There's great diversity in these caring groups of service providers who will be seeing your messages. (And one of them may be your next boss!) When you communicate through email, your words are written… they’re stored someplace, if not more than one place. The morale of this story is… play nice or your words could come back to haunt you!

What types of messages are acceptable?
DOs and DON'Ts of formatting.
How do I reply to a person and not the whole group?
Too many messages? Try a daily digest.
Going on vacation? Let us stop your group messages until you return.
System administrators.

Getting in, getting out and getting it down.

• Simply visit the listserv web page. (Here is a handy link to the Washington County service providers' group caofind.) Then click on the "Join this group" link. We'd love to have you join us. Having trouble joining? Just drop our Listserv Keeper a quick email asking for help.
• To be permanently removed from the list (unsubscribe), you can use the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom right hand corner of any message from the group to unsubscribe.
• Anyone who receives messages from the listserv can also send a message to the entire group. If you're in the "caofind" (Washington County) email group, just address your email message to "caofind@yahoogroups.com". Make sure it says yahoogroups.com so that it will go to everyone.

Lurk before you leap.
If you’re new to our email group, take some time to look around. Spend a little time watching messages or reading the archives to get a sense of how the listserv works. Then go ahead and join in.

Say what!?!
A few posting guidelines here…
We encourage messages about free or low-cost events and trainings which would be helpful to our clients, agencies or staff. We discourage solicitations and commercials requesting direct fundraising for an agency, or any for-profit sales pitches. We encourage questions trying to locate possible resources for people in need, but we discourage direct requests for monetary assistance for individuals.

When you send an email, you’re taking up other people’s time (or hoping to). It’s your responsibility to ensure the time others spend reading your message isn’t wasted. We’re all feeling the pinch of dwindling funding, so let’s respect the time and work being done by our fellow service providers.

How does this look? Getting down to basics.

• Every message should have a subject line which reflects the content of the message. This allows the folks who see 100+ emails each day to prioritize messages, and quickly identify yours as not being SPAM.
• A signature should be included in each message you send. It always helps to know who is providing that free meal for clients, or who posted that request for a crib... contact information is always helpful when you're trying to connect with others.
• Can't find that attachment the message refers to? Yahoo! now includes a link near the bottom of the message that will open the attachment in an internet browser window.
• When you're the one attaching a flyer to your message, here's another hint... If you really want folks to know about your event, it’s a good idea to include the basics (date, time, place, cost and a brief description) in the body of your email message. And don’t forget to include contact information for any readers who want to know more.
• When replying to a reply to a reply to a reply (no I’m not stuttering)… edit down your reply. Maybe you can remove parts of the previous chain of replies that don’t apply to your response. This removes the clutter and makes it easier to follow the conversation.

Hey! I know that name, and I've been meaning to get in touch.
Be cautious when replying to a message you receive through our email groups. A direct reply will be sent to everyone in the group. If you want to send a personal response to someone in particular (without embarrassing yourself and others), there's a special link way down at the bottom of the message just for this purpose. It says "Reply to sender" - how convenient! You can use this link and avoid telling *everyone* how happy you are to hear from them and that your dog, Froofy, misses them.

I think I'm going *ding* *ding* dingy!
Do those emails just keep popping up all day long? Ding. Ding. Ding. Maybe we can help with that, too. We can change your listserv membership to “Daily Digest” which will combine all the messages for the day into one email. The daily digest can cut way down on the clutter in your mailbox.

Woohoo! I just won a free two week cruise!
Did you set an auto-reply that will be responding to your email while you’re gone on that cruise? Maybe we can help keep your mailbox from filling up while you’re gone? Just send us a little note (email will do) telling us when you are leaving and when you'll be back. We’ll stop your listserv mail while you’re gone and start it back up when you return. Easy as pie... and you'll enjoy your trip more knowing your email box won't be so full when you return. (And the rest of us won't have to read your "out of office reply" every day.)

Need a little help?
Last but not least, we’re here to help. Remember, this is an electronic tool, meaning we can expect some glitches and hiccups. If you have questions or problems with this email group, just give me a call (503.693.3224) or drop me an email.

Español  •   This page last reviewed 07/09/11