Dear Colleagues,
The guidelines for the Information Systems Forum are shown
below. They
are sent to every new member and also posted periodically to
the
group. They've gradually evolved since 1999, which is when
I created
the Information Systems Forum.
De facto, this is the form of "freedom of speech --
with controls"
that we have here. There aren't a lot of checks and
balances built in
- there's just me (plus John McNutt, who serves as
alternate
moderator).
Most of the time, using these guidelines seems to work, but
I'm open
to input about how to do better. What are your thoughts?
Best regards from Deborah
Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
deborah_elizabeth_finn post.harvard.edu
http://blog.de
borah.elizabeth.finn.com
==================================================
Dear Colleagues,
Just a few thoughts on the kinds of posts that we strongly
discourage
here on the Information Systems Forum:
1) Flames, or rhetoric that might incite flames. Sometimes
members of
the group have perfectly good points to make, but choose
language that
is inflammatory. Posts that are simply attacks on someone
else's
religion, operating system, ethics, ancestry, internet
service
provider, or attitude are usually deleted without comment.
2) Advertisements of products or services. Obviously, I
delete the
blatant spam before the rest of the group ever sees it, but
there are
some borderline cases. For example, each newcomer is invited
to
introduce him/herself to the group upon joining, and it's
appropriate
to mention any IT products or services that he/she sells to
the
nonprofit sector. That's fine, but thereafter it's best to
let your
satisfied customers in the nonprofit sector recommend your
product or
service. Another borderline case is announcements about IT
conferences
and workshops. These are fine if they are specifically
tailored to the
needs of nonprofit organizations. Bulletins about IT
workshops and
conferences given by nonprofits for other nonprofits are
usually
approved; posts about for-profit organizations that offer
these events
are approved on a case-by-case basis.
3) Solicitations of cash donations for organizations or
individuals.
Requests by nonprofits for in-kind donations of either
products or
services are approved on a case-by-case basis.
4) Off-topic questions, out-of-office auto-replies, and
personal
messages that were never intended to go to the whole list. I
try to
catch these before they go out, and they are usually deleted
without
comment.
In general, I'd say that while there is no such thing as a
question
pertaining to nonprofit technology that is too rudimentary
for this
forum, there is such a thing as a question that is devoid of
relevance
to both the nonprofit sector and the field of information
technology.
I hope that this reminder will help Information Systems
Forum members
understand what sort of messages are out of bounds. If you
have any
comments, questions, or concerns, please feel free to email
me
off-list.
Many thanks and best regards from Deborah
=========================================
The Information Systems Forum is an opt-in, low-traffic,
flame-free distribution list for discussions of information
technology for nonprofit organizations.
To post a message, prepare a regular email and send it to
Information_Systems_Forum@yahoogroups.com
To join the Information Systems Forum, send a blank email to
Information_Systems_Forum-SUBSCRIBE@yahoogroups.com
To leave the Information System Forum, send a blank email to
Information_Systems_Forum-UNSUBSCRIBE@yahoogroups.com .
Please note that there may be a lag (of hours or days)
between the moment that you send the command and the moment
that you stop receiving messages from this group. Your list
administrator apologizes for this flaw in the YahooGroups
configuration, but has been unable to shorten the lag from
her end of things.
To send a message to the list administrator (Deborah), email
it to deborah_elizabeth_finnpost.harvard.edu .
To view the message archive, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Information_Systems_Forum
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Information_Systems_Forum/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Information_Systems_Forum-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.c
om/info/terms/
|