Anyone who supports our mission statement and agrees to follow our List Guidelines can join Seattle Writergrrls. By subscribing to this discussion list, you acknowledge that the List Managers have the authority to enforce these guidelines.

1. Show respect and courtesy to all subscribers, and foster an environment of support and professionalism.

Remember that we have over 1000 members, which could include your employers and coworkers—both present and future.

Encouraged topics include the following:

• Introductions. New members are encouraged to send a brief e-mail to the list to say who they are and what they're looking for from the list.

• Questions and answers about writing, editing, grammar, and usage.

• Requests for feedback on your work, resume, or Web site. Provide a link or a contact e-mail address, but don't post the whole item to the list.

• Requests for input on work-related issues.

• Job postings.

• Announcements about relevant upcoming events. See the "Can I promote my services on the list?" section of the FAQ for guidance.

• Good news. If you just got published, for example, we encourage you to share your good news so we can celebrate.

• Housing. This off-topic post is acceptable only as long as you're a Writergrrl who is (1) trying to sell / rent a place to other members (2) looking for another Writergrrl as a roommate (3) looking to buy / rent housing from another member. This is NOT for general classified ads. (No "I have a friend of a friend who has a place..." or "I saw this ad in the paper....")

Discouraged topics include the following:

• Spam (jokes, chain letters, off-topic posts, advertising). The Writergrrls list has been set up to block spam from outside sources; you determine the quality of what circulates from within. The discussion list is as useful and supportive as you make it! Help us maintain list integrity and keep it a useful list for all of us.

• Virus warnings. Some virus warnings are hoaxes; some are not. Send any suspected warnings to the List Managers, who will forward the verifiable ones to the list. See our FAQ for more information.

• Pricing talk. Any discussion of setting rates and prices for products and services rendered can be seen as price fixing, which is currently illegal in online forums such as our discussion list. The only acceptable mention of specific pricing on the Seattle Writergrrls discussion list is the inclusion of cost in announcements of classes, workshops, or seminars. For sharing salary and rate tips, we encourage you to offer a link to a salary survey or a guide to setting your rate. See our Price Fixing FAQs for more information.

• Political debate Political news about writing practices, copyright issues and other issues that directly pertain to writers is ok, but pontificating on other political topics and points of view is not.

• "Me, too!" e-mails. It's great to show support for someone else's opinion, but ask yourself if it gives value for the whole list to read it.

Descriptive subject headers help us in several ways. They make the archives easier to search. They help people filter their messages by topic. They also make it easier for people who respond to your post to trim it, thus keeping message size in check.

Some examples of helpful subject headers:

• (introduction) new list member

• (discuss) Is it Web site or website?

• (compile) Answers: Is it Web site or website?

• (job offer) copyeditor at XYZ corp

• (job seeking) freelance web producer available

• (event) Northwest Bookfest

• (news) just got published in the NYT!

• (admin) from the List Managers: news, virus warnings, general list information or reminders

• (housing) seeking a roommate: Cap Hill

To "flame" is to use angry, emotive language against someone in an online forum.

When writing, remember that this is a list of 500+ people who probably don't know you personally and may not understand your sense of humor. When reading, give folks the benefit of the doubt; we generally mean well here.

As writers, we have the tools to communicate our ideas clearly and respectfully. In addition, we how easy it is to try to express one idea, but actually write another. What you meant to write and what people interpret can be quite different. E-mail lacks the nonverbal communication cues of conversation, so you may need to use emoticons or side notes like ~joke~ to spell it out.

Remember, your e-mails to the list are also stored in the archives, where they can be viewed by any member. The abusive message you send today might be read someday by the person interviewing you for a job or reviewing your manuscript.

If your topic generates more heat than light, don't send it to the list.

When you find an article you'd like to share, don't paste the entire article into your posting. Instead, send a link and a summary. This helps to keep your post short. People who get their e-mail over slow modems will thank you!

Pasting in the entire article also runs the risk of infringing upon the author's copyright.

If your posting is short and to the point, you greatly increase the odds that others will read it in full and respond.

To "snip" a reply means to excise all text quoted from the original message except for what is truly crucial. You can snip the entire original post from your reply if its subject heading is descriptive enough (for example, "Is it Web site or website?").

When you forget to snip and you include the entire original message, all members must download a larger message. Remember that some members subscribe to the list in Digest mode, which also means that they get daily compilations of that day's traffic; those members are greatly inconvenienced when they must scroll through multiple copies of the same message.

Get written permission from the author to forward anything to people not subscribed to this list.

Likewise, if you get a personal response to a post or any other private e-mail, don't forward it to the whole list without getting permission first.

E-mail viruses and worms are most commonly spread through attachments. To protect the list from the spread of e-mail viruses and worms, our list is configured to block attachments.

Our list is configured to convert HTML messages to plain text for two reasons: to prevent the spread of viruses and worms, and to make the messages readable by all e-mail clients.

E-mail viruses and worms are often imbedded in HTML scripting, so Stripmime (the filter that we added) strips out the HTML. Also, many e-mail clients can't read HTML, so Stripmime converts the HTML formatting to plain text.

If another poster asks that a subject be taken off-list, do so immediately. If you fail to do that, you'll face censure by the List Managers. See the Censure Policy at the end of this list.

Go to My Settings to temporarily stop your Seattle Writergrrls mail delivery before you go on vacation or turn on any sort of email autoresponse from your subscribed account.

Disabling your Seattle Writergrrls mail also keeps your subscription intact—our mailing-list software is set up to unsubscribe members after a certain number of messages to them bounce. If your automated response causes a certain number of your messages to bounce, you may come back from vacation and find yourself unsubscribed. It's nothing personal—just re-subscribe and you'll be good to go.

Review these Guidelines and the FAQ if you have questions.

Censure Policy

• First time: an informal caution from the List Managers, sent to you privately.

• Second time: an official warning from the List Managers, also sent to you privately.

• Third time: removal from the list for one year.

All Cautions and Warnings are kept strictly confidential. Don't ask us who got one, we're not going to tell you!

Only the List Managers can issue Cautions and Warnings; a designated Steering Committee member can also do so if the List Managers are unavailable.

By subscribing, you agree that you can live happily by these guidelines.

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