NON-PD re. List Management: long -- "the fat lady sings"

[Mary Yost <myost@xxxxxxxx>]

About our "kurfluffel":  I would like to "de-lurk" long enough to throw out
yet two more perspectives from two different sources.

First, there is a fine message from Simon Coles on the "Life Cycle of
Mailing Lists" from February 18, 1997 in the archive.  We seem to be at #5:
 "discomfort with diversity", soon to proceed to #6 which could lead either
to "smug complacency and stagnation" or to "maturity".

Second, I also belong to the "Vocalist", managed by Mark Hotti in Finland.
It's  mostly for classical musicians, or wannabe musicians like me.
Today's topics varied from "the joy of singing" to "a discussion that
turned to judgement" to "castrati"!   Every week he broadcasts a
"netiquette" list, which seems to be respected by most people but ignored
by a few,  typical of any interest group.  It might be helpful for us to do
something similar. Here it is below, as an example of what another group
experiences.


As our Joe would say, "Cheers!"

Mary Yost, diagnosed at age 42 in 1990; proud carepartner of a 2-foot
ceramic pink piggy bank getting heavier and heavier with pennies for
Parkinson's and keeping healthy by eating "greens" including some $20
bills; politically leaning towards "peace at any price" -- life is too short.

EXAMPLE FROM ANOTHER LIST OF THEIR WEEKLY NETIQUETTE POST:
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 00:38:13 +0300 (EEST)
From: Marko Hotti <mhotti@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: ADMIN: VOCALIST Netiquette (Updated: July 28th, 1999)


General guidelines for posting to VOCALIST / Netiquette         July 28th,
1999
=======================================================

The mailing list address is:    vocalist@xxxxxxxxxxxx

There are over 800 subscribers receiving VOCALIST and VOCALIST-DIGEST
daily. More than 1000 messages are read daily using the VOCALIST's message
archive interface. Consider that a large audience will see your posts.
That may include your present or your next boss. Take care in what you
write and remember that your words may be stored for a very long time in a
place to which many people have access.

  * Read both mailing list and WWW archives for couple of days to get
    an understanding of the culture and the atmosphere of the list.
    If you want to ask a question, please check the archives to see
    the question has not recently been covered.

    VOCALIST WWW Database and Search Engine can be found at:

        

    VOCALIST Digest Archives can be found at:

        

  * Messages to VOCALIST should be brief and to the point. Please
    do not wander off-topic - change the subject heading instead.

  * Subject lines should follow the conventions of the group (see below).
    Always change the subject header whenever the topic of the thread has
    changed. This is to help readers choose only the messages they are
    interested in. In other words, keep the subject header as informative
    as possible.

  * Commercial advertising, chain letters or virus alerts are strictly
    forbidden in VOCALIST. Forgeries, spoofing or spamming are not
    approved behavior.

  * When replying to a message, consider the following:

        * Personal replies should ALWAYS be sent to the originator
          of the message using *private* e-mail. VOCALIST uses
          a set reply-to: header pointing to the list address and
          you may accidentaly send a personal response to a great
          many people.

        * Do not quote entire postings! It's a good idea to summarize
          the original at the top of the message, or include just enough
          text of the original to give a context.

  * If you should find yourself in A DISAGREEMENT with one person,
    make your responses to each other via private email. If you are
    debating a point on which the group might have some interest, you
    may summarize for them later.

  * Finally: Treat other people with RESPECT. Don't start arguing
    or flaming someone publicly. You will just make a fool out of yourself.
    Do not send mail or post messages solely to point out other people's
    errors in spelling or the way they think about things.

  * If you are caught in an argument or a 'hot topic', keep the discussion
    focused on issues rather than the personalities involved.

Subject labels:
================

  * Please note, that these labels are optional and the classification
    is not strict. If you come up with a good label, please drop a note
    to the list owner.

        CLASS: for classical singing issues
        POP:   for popular singing issues
        ROCK:  for rock music singing issues
        JAZZ:  for jazz singing issues
        VOICE: for voice study issues
        TECH:  for technical issues
        MED:   for medical issues
        ANN:   for event announcements
        REP:   for repertoire issues
        MISC:  for miscellaneous stuff
        ADMIN: for administrative postings

Suitable topics of discussion:
==============================

  * VOCALIST was started to get together singers all over the world
    and offer a forum of discussion on teaching and studying singing.
    Solo singing in different styles as well as ensemble singing are
    covered here.

  * We don't want to restrict the topics to any particular style,
    musical period or skill level - everyone is welcome to contribute.

  * We have frequently talked about singing repertoire, technique and
    interpretation. Your questions are welcome - there are dozens of
    professionals, semi-professionals and active singers on the list
    who may help you.

  * Other topics might include: Auditioning technique and actual
    audition announcements; working with a director or a coach;
    working with accompanists; concert reviews and ads; jokes;
    voice and food/drinking; shaping up one's voice etc...

VOCALIST Netiquette will be posted to the subscribers every week

With regards, Marko Hotti <marko.hotti@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Oulu University Faculty of Medicine
Oulu Polytechnic Department of Social and Health Studies
Oulu - FINLAND