DC Web Women Mailing List Guidelines

To keep the DC Web Women community as productive, friendly and useful as possible, we enforce the following List Guidelines. Please send all questions, suggestions, and comments regarding these guidelines to the Head Listmom at listmom@dcwebwomen.org.

A team of listmoms monitors the list to help members follow the guidelines. If you don't follow a guideline, a listmom will send you a reminder. You may get notes from more than one listmom if you violate two different guidelines in the same posting.

If you continue to violate the guidelines, you will be put on probation for two weeks. During this time you can lurk, but may not post. This is to allow you time to review the guidelines. In cases of severe violations or continual abuse of the guidelines, you will be removed from the list. Please be sure to respect these volunteer listmoms – they are just doing their jobs to ensure our list remains a fabulous resource!

1. Two Lists – Two Sets of Rules?
2. Quick! What Are the Rules? I want to get started!
3. So, Who Reads These Lists, Anyway?
4. General Netiquette
5. Guidelines for Recruiters
6. Guidelines for Classes/Training

#1 Two Lists – Two Sets of Rules?

DC Web Women offers two lists: the main list and the social list.

The main list is really the heart and soul of DC Web Women. It's a technical discussion list geared towards helping women in the DC area stay involved and current with new media and the business that supports technology. All postings to this list should be of a technology and/or business nature.

In response to the growing number of OFFTOPIC postings to the main list, we created the social list. This list can be used as a way to maintain our wonderful sense of community. We encourage you to use the social list for OFFTOPIC postings like roommate searches or non-tech job listings. You can also use the social list to post things you want to sell, pets for adoption, etc. (but NOT jokes). The guidelines apply to both lists.

If you want to read and post to both lists, you need to subscribe to both lists separately.

Before you post, please choose the one that's appropriate for your post. Do not post the same message to both lists! If your message is technology-related, put it on the main list. If the topic is anything else, put it on the social list. If you think it might apply to both, choose one. Only Steering Committee members are allowed to post the same message to both lists.

Please visit Mailing List Frequently Asked Questions for more info.

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No Email Harvesting.
We're astounded that we have to say this, but responsible members of a community like this do not harvest emails for spam or spam-like purposes, or for any type of "mass-mailing" or "bulk email." Because email harvesting violates every possible privacy and community consideration, repeated violations will result in immediate and permanent expulsion from the list. And, incidentally, it's stunningly imprudent. You may, some day, want a job in the field. Doing something like this will annoy people for a long time.

Use an ALL CAPS Header
Each post to the list should contain an all-caps header in the subject line. Using a CAPITALIZED HEADER makes it easier for members to scan and read or delete posts, as they prefer. Examples are:

• QUESTION or Q (for posting questions or answers),
• DISCUSSION,
• JOB (for job postings),
• SUMMARY (to summarize answers which have been posted to a question),
• SITESEEING (to recommend a site), and
• INFO.

Look at the headings used in other posts and you'll get the idea.

Example: [DCWW] QUESTION: What is XML?

The headers ADMIN:, WORKSHOP:, and MEETING: are reserved for Steering Committee members only.

Post A Summary
When you receive answers to a question you posted, you owe the list a summary. Use the capitalized header SUMMARY; remove the responders' names and contact information.

No Email Attachments
Instead, provide the data as text in your post, offer to provide the data to those who request it, or put it up on the web. Not everyone has the ability to read attachments or wishes to download them.

No Marketing
Many of us would like to market to this great target audience, but we can't allow it because of the size of our membership. Marketing includes postings that ask for a job or job leads, present your resume, promote your company, or doing any of these items for friends, sisters, or boyfriends. However, there are some ways you CAN market to DCWW:

• Attend a meeting, workshop, or social event and pass out your business cards.
• Send your resume to the resume wrangler to be included in our biweekly resume posting.
• When you post a question, comment, or response, include your URL or a one-line description of your services beneath your signature.

Because it is SO unfair to those members who follow the marketing rule, anyone who violates the rule will immediately be put on probation for two weeks. During this time, you can lurk, but may not post.

No Pricing Discussions
Rather than try to recite all the good reasons we don't allow pricing talk, please check out:
http://www.dcwebwomen.org/legalease/20040830.html

Additional info:

• http://www.sfwow.org/join-the-sfwow-mailing-list/pricing-discussion-faq/
• http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/pricing_faq.html
• http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/guidelines/211578.htm

Software Sharing
This list is not to be used to share software (this includes fonts which are essentially small software programs). Why? It's illegal, and it's unfair to the people who spend their time creating the software. Want more info? See http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/antipiracy/fonts.html.

No Negative Remarks About Businesses or Members
The DCWW list is meant to be productive and helpful. It is not a forum to bash a person or company you do not like. Please keep your posts positive. Don't insult others.

Out-of-Town Job Postings
Although we appreciate job offers, we limit job postings to jobs within an hour or two of DC.

No Jokes/Chain Letters/Junk Mail/Offtopic Discussions

It's tempting, but please…not on this list!

No Virus Warnings
Send suspected "scare mail" to our list administrator who will verify and forward legitimate threats.

Subjects That Generate More Heat Than Light
Occasionally, a subject comes up that generates lots of posts because of its controversial nature. If the discussion threatens to overwhelm our mailboxes or becomes nasty, we will ask those interested in discussing it further take the discussion off the list.

Keep Your Posts Short and Trimmed
When replying to a post, quote only what's absolutely necessary to help readers understand your response. Delete the rest. If sharing an article, post a brief excerpt, then provide the URL where those interested may view the rest. On ALL replies, eliminate automatically generated footers (DCWW, Yahoo, MSN mail, and others) from the quoted previous post. In addition, please trim email system headers and extra signature lines. Need an example? Visit http://www.dcwebwomen.org/mlist/trimsample.html.

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The list archive is a permanent record of email communications within DC Web Women and of the group's activities and functions. We do not remove or edit archived posts.

Your post could be forwarded to a non-member. Your boss might be on the list. People you interviewed with may be on the list. A good rule of thumb is this: if you don't want to see it on the front page of The Washington Post, don't post it to the list. If a DCWW member chooses to volunteer any personal information on either list, she is doing so at her own discretion.

By providing these services at no charge for DCWW members, we hope to foster a highly responsive and interactive community for women working in new media.

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When first joining the list, we encourage you to "lurk" for a week or two before posting. This way you can get to know the list and the type of posts that are acceptable.

• Don't send subscription commands to the list. Please visit the Subscriber's Corner to make changes to your subscription settings and to unsubscribe from the list. If you have questions or experience a problem, email the List Admin.
• Lots of communication on the list can be accomplished through personal email. Don't reply to the list unless you think your mail would be helpful and of interest to the majority. It's the responsibility of the recipient to post a summary of the answers they receive.
• Take time to make your message clear. Hundreds – maybe thousands – of women are taking the time to read it.
• Be civil! We don't tolerate rude or mean behavior.
• Do not forward any posts to this list without the permission of the person posting the note. This list is confidential and the topics discussed on the list are meant only for DC Web Women members. If you post, though, realize that although we don't condone forwarding, you are posting to a large group of women and we can't control who will see your note.
• We encourage you to post a SUMMARY to QUESTIONS!

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One of the goals of the list is to help women find exciting internet jobs. Therefore, we do permit recruiting on list if a specific job opportunity is presented. However, as with all postings, we ask that recruiters follow a few guidelines:

• Because recruiters' postings could inundate the list, please post no more than once every two weeks.
• Keep the posting as short as possible – no more than two screens. If you have other jobs, list your URL so members can visit your site for more information.
• Participate in our community in other ways – attend a meeting, answer a tech question, volunteer to help with one of our events.
• Follow other posting guidelines such as including a header (JOB: HTML freelancer)

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Training benefits the list in the same way that recruiters benefit the list so it is the one type of marketing we allow. Again, there are some guidelines:

• Participate in the community in other ways (attend meetings, answer questions, etc.).
• Use a capitalized header such as TRAINING. Do not use WORKSHOP or MEETING in your header; these are reserved for use by the Steering Committee.
• Make it clear that DCWW does NOT support or endorse the class.
• We encourage you to offer a discount for DCWW members.

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