Greetings and thanks for your contributions! This is a periodic msg for
anyone authoring msgs to the LO list. [Usually, I try to distribute this
about once a month... somehow I missed a few months! ...Rick]
The list address (for msgs to be distributed) is
learning-org@world.std.com --or-- learning-org-digest@world.std.com
Msgs should be plain text, no attachments, and the primary language for
learning-org is English. Msgs in other languages are OK; I'll try to
obtain a translation before distributing these.
1) After posting to the list, you may receive a strange notice saying
"Your msg undeliverable to..." please just ignore it. It generally means
that your msg did not get to one or a few subscribers. When you receive
*your* copy of your own msg, that confirms it went out to everyone. If in
doubt, just *forward* confusing notices to me.
** IMPORTANT ** -- Please DO NOT RESEND your message to learning-org; it
could easily be distributed a second time.
1a) If, in response to your msg to LO, you receive someone's automated
reply, "I'm on vacation till..." please forward that to me. These are
*not* supposed to go to msg authors.
2) Please sign your msg with full name and email address at the bottom.
This is required; some people's mail programs do not display the "from"
address on msgs from mailing lists. It's also good practice anywhere on
the net.
Question: Why do many msgs have two "sigs"?
Ans: Here on LO and generally on the internet, the "right" way to sign
your msgs is
hyphen hyphen space return return signature-text
If you have anything else at the bottom of your msg, my software tries to
create a "sig" based on the "From:" line in your msg header. That's where
the duplicates come from.
Your signature-text should include name and email-address plus whatever
else you want, but should be short; four lines is suggested. See my "sig"
at the bottom of this msg for an example.
3) When replying to a msg, leave the subject line exactly as it was,
including the LO### in the subject line. My software does the rest (it
assigns a new LO### for your msg and inserts the line "Replying to
LO###").
Digest readers: If you are replying to a digest msg, you'll have to cut
and paste the subject line from the msg; your email program will try to
use the subject line "learning-org-digest V1 #1234" which is not
desirable.
If you want to change the subject line, that's fine, but make it
recognizably different. In any case, include the old LO### as the last
element in the subject line.
4) When replying to a msg, quote **just enough** of that msg to establish
the context for your readers. Don't quote the entire previous msg (if you
do, I'll delete it or cut arbitrarily). Distinguish the text you are
quoting from your own new text.
How to distinguish quoted material:
a) Recommended: Add a line, "John Doe said:" and put a > as the first
character of each quoted line. This is the "official" internet style for
quoting. Most e-mail programs will do this for you (including AOL, Eudora,
pine and others).
b) 2nd Choice: Use quotation marks, as in ordinary English writing.
c) 3rd Choice: If necessary, say "*** end of quote ***" after the quoted
material.
Leave a blank line, then start your comments. Do not put a > on lines you
write; the > character means that the line was written by someone else.
4.5) FOR AOL users -- Your software will handle quoting very nicely...
Here's how:
If you select parts of a message and then hit reply, AOL will
automatically quote the selected text.
However, you must first change your mail preference settings. The AOL
default is to use chevron brackets <<...>> to indicate quoting, and this
causes problems here on LO.
Change your preference settings to select "Internet style" (> in front of
each quoted line) by: click on Members, then Preferences, then Mail, and
then select and turn off "Use AOL style quoting in mail." The default is
"ON" and for the LO list it should be "OFF."
5) The > character is OK, but please DO NOT use the opposite angle bracket
anywhere in your msg except for email addresses and web URLs, like these:
Richard Karash <Richard@Karash.com>
<http://www.learning-org.com/>
6) When you reply to a message, please consider whether you want your
reply to go to all the LO subscribers... Or just one-to-one to the other
person. Every brand of mail software can handle this; please figure out
how to control this in your software.
7) Your msgs come to me for review and then are distributed to all
subscribers. This is a 24 hr cycle, so there will be a delay before you
see your own msg.
In reviewing msgs, I may make the following changes...
- re-format to lines which are 75 characters wide
- shorten or delete your quote from the previous msg, especially if
you've quoted *all* of that msg
- when your subject line is close to that of prev msg, correct it
- I may change the subject line to make it more clear (for example, if
your subject line is "Please help!!" I'll extract a subject from within
your msg)
- shorten an overly long "sig"
- fix obvious spelling/typo mistakes, but only if I feel certain
- insert a quote if you have not quoted *any* of the prev msg
- insert a [Host's Note...] in brackets
8) Learning-org msgs stay in the archive, accessible on the web, for a
*long* time and may show up in internet searches (e.g. AltaVista &
Lycos). If you decide later you'd like to remove anything from the
archive, please let me know (by LO### please).
8a) SPAM -- Unfortunately, when you post to the LO list, your email
address becomes visible to the public, and you may begin receiving "junk
email."
9) Graphics!!: Yes, graphics are possible, but can only be seen via the
web. Contact me if you are interested in authoring a msg that references a
graphic. If the graphic is not already on the web, you can fax it to me.
9a) URLs: Just mention the URL to reference any page on the web. Most
readers will be able to click on the URL to see the page.
9b) Attached files: Sorry, no attached files on msgs to the LO list.
10) My Moderator Role: I review msgs for relevance to the list and for
tone consistent with the learning organization principles we are trying to
live. I do receive a few msgs that I decline to distribute; in such cases
I contact the author.
I do not attempt to judge whether any msg is "correct," valid, or helpful.
Distributing a msg is NOT an endorsement of its content by me or anyone
else.
11) Confirmation of your msg: You'll receive a copy of your distributed
msg. If you don't see it in 48hrs, write me (personal address appears at
the bottom of every LO msg). Please DO NOT write to the list address.
Please DO NOT send any msg twice to the list address; it could easily be
distributed twice to everyone.
12) Commercial msgs, announcements, etc. are OK, provided they are
- relevant to our topic of organizational learning
- short (e.g. 50 lines of text)
- have an email address and contact name for further info; a web pointer
is recommended as well
13) Please write *me* with questions, comments, problems, admin items,
etc. Please DO NOT send these to the list address.
Thanks again for your contributions! Email me any time with comments,
questions, or problems.
-- Rick
--
Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash>
Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer | email: Richard@Karash.com
"Towards learning organizations" | Host for Learning-Org Discussion
(617)227-0106, fax (617)523-3839 | <http://www.learning-org.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com>
Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>