These rules are a permanent Work in Progress. If you see something missing, or you just have a suggestion, please let us know by mailing us at mailto:spam-l-listmoms@spam-l.com . We take these rules a lot more seriously than we probably should, because we (the listmoms) believe that the death of the first Spam-L list was caused by a lack of basic ground rules and common courtesy. We ask that you treat them just as seriously as we do.
The rule of the Spam-L road is Collegial Behavior, no matter what. This is best expressed as;
- Don't attack *people*.
Attack a subject, a couch, or your car, but people are off limits. In the context of Spam-L, a "person" has the legal definition: A natural born person like you or me, a company of any kind ("DBA", LLC, Corporation, etc), or any "brand". A post which does nothing but attack serves no purpose other than to waste precious bandwidth, raise everyone's blood pressure, and needlessly fill an inbox - just like spam;
- Dont Be Mean. In this context, we include "collateral" or "indirect" meanness. So don't name names unnecessarily; don't make "certain people" comments which are sufficiently pointed that we all know who you're talking about. If you have a legitimate gripe, make it, but make it civil;
- Address your comments to the issues and opinions with which you agree or disagree, rather than the people with whom you are [dis]agreeing;
- Remember that everyone in here is effectively a Fellow in the College of Spam-L. Treat *everyone* in here with respect. Even if -- *especially if* -- you hate their guts, or their employers guts.
- Preface each post with a single word (maybe two at most) giving readers a general idea what your post is about. This word should be in brackets, for example:
[BLOCK] 1.2.3.0/19 snowshoe spammer
- or -
[OT] New Spammer Sentenced To 10,000 Years hard Labor
- In polite conversation, acknowledging that you have experienced something in common with another is proper etiquette, and expected behavior. On Spam-L and other mailing lists, posts that do not add anything to the discussion besides the acknowledgement of a common experience is considered bad etiquette. The problem is that this type of post clogs the limited bandwidth of the list (every post goes to hundreds or thousands of users all over the world!), adding needless size to recipient mailboxes, while not providing new and useful information.
In general, try to avoid the "Me Too!" type of posting.
- The Spam-L world can move *very* fast! Don't wait until your topic no longer matters!
- Relevance is tricky: Not everything on Spam-L is always about Spam, but everything should have at least some kind of nexus to the topic. Relevant topics here include things like cryptography applications, new RFC discussions, social implications and consequences of spam, and many other topics to numerous to cover as once.
When in doubt, either ask a listmom, or a friend. but ask before posting something you aren't sure of.
- Spam-L has subscribers from dozens of countries, ethnicities, and eccentricities. Please don't use the list to promote anything that is specific to any one person, country, religion, region, etc. Everyone loves holidays, but please don't use this list to make announcements about them. This is another way of stating the relevancy rule.