Suggestions for making the most out of Dairy-L.
Dairy-L is a forum dedicated to providing factual information to its
subscribers with a minimum of speculation, grandstanding, and pushing of a
one sided agenda. All points of view are welcome, however, repeated
pressuring on a point and flaming are undersirable aspects of some lists
that we seek to minimize. This has resulted in the operation of a well
respected source of information for the global dairy community.
Dairy-L membership now exceeds 3,000 accounts from 40+ countries, all 50
U.S. states and all 10 Canadian provinces, as of July, 1998. It is
growing by about 10 subscribers per week. There are approximately 15
messages per day. That provides for a wide diversity in dairy management
interest and expertise as well as computer experience and points of view.
We must remember that courtesy, the avoidance of personal attacks (flame
wars) and a little tolerance will go a long way. Over and above that,
certain guidelines have been established by the membership of Dairy-L
which are appropriate to this list, even if they are not practiced on
other lists. They are as follows, and we reiterate, these are not the
moderators' rules, they are guidelines developed by the wishes of
longstanding Dairy-L members. If you see something that is needed, then
please contact one of us.
PURPOSE:
"Dairy-L was established to provide an electronic forum for the seeking
and dissemination of factual-based information relative to the managing of
dairy cows and dairy herds for people advising the dairy industry." There
is wide latitude for interpretation of this purpose and we have tried to
be very tolerant in interpreting what does and doesn't fit. What doesn't
fit is the innuendo, speculation, name calling, and messages that are
private in nature or provide for financial gain for an individual.
Additionally, Dairy-L is for dairy cow/herd management discussions, not
dairy food production discussions and a whole other myriad of
agriculturally related discussions that are only marginally related to
managing the cow or the herd. Granted, there is wide latitude for
interpretation, but common sense usually prevails and we would like to
keep it that way.
Guidelines of etiquette:
1. AVOID FLAMING which is name calling, discussing the merits or otherwise of
a person's family history, you get the picture. If you feel strongly about
something that someone said, think about it and respond the next day
under a cool head instead of in the heat of the moment.
2. STICK TO THE FACTS or at least label speculation as such. Please do
not use Dairy-L as a platform to grandstand political agenda or
emotional issues. We respect that there are opposing points of view and
people have a right to espouse those points of view. We encourage
critically constructive discussion. However, discussion should be based
in fact and not become shrill and emotional or make uncomplimentary
remarks about individuals. That is not the purpose of Dairy-L. The
moderators reserve the right to cut off discussion on topics when
discussion is no longer constructive, no new information is being added,
or the discussion otherwise gets out of hand.
3 KEEP MESSAGES SHORT. Two screens of text is a good thumb-rule. About 50% of
our membership gets access to the Internet and Dairy-L through private
subscription services. They pay for there service not only through
connect time but also by the number of messages they receive & often
by the number of words in a message. DO NOT INCLUDE THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE
IN YOUR RESPONSE. Refer to the original message instead in
the text. Also, please think about which messages are of most interest
to all members of the list and which ones are really better being sent
privately to one or a few individuals.
4. READ ALL OF YOUR MAIL before responding. Often times somebody else has
already given the response you re going to. And in case of a flame war,
if the flame war has died down, and you have not read your mail in 10
days, and you respond to an old message, it has the effect of
reigniting the flame war needlessly.
5. BE CAREFUL HOW YOU WORD YOUR STATEMENTS. If you would not say it to your
mother or in front of a church congregation, maybe you don't want to
say it at all. Messages sent out on the Internet have a way of going
public even when you thought it was being sent privately to an
individual. Believe me, we have personal experience on this one.
6. READ THE HEADERS ON MAIL to determine whether the mail came from an
individual or the list and the date it was sent. This will help in 4.
and 5. above. Also when replying to the a Dairy-L message, a notice
will appear at the bottom of your screen saying WARNING.. this
message is not going to the original sender. This should help warn you
if you think you are sending a private message and you are not.
7. Please avoid the use of all Caps unless you are trying to emphasize a point.
ALL CAPS HAS THE EFFECT OF SHOUTING AT THE READER.
8. IDENTIFY YOURSELF BY NAME, E-MAIL ADDRESS AND LOCATION IN THE BODY
OF ALL MESSAGES. It is frustrating responding
to a person anonymously. While some addresses contain the name
embedded, many do not. Most people create a special file that's a few
lines long. That file is termed a "signature", and it automatically
appears at the end of each e-mail message. With aliases and nicknames
proliferating on the INTERNET, if you do not provide a signature on your
message, it may be very difficult for someone to identify who you are
if they want to send you information privately. Our personal experiences
are that for every one response on Dairy-L, we receive 2 or 3 privately.
To facilitate this mode of receiving information, it is important you
let people know who you are and how to reach you. Most all mail systems
we are aware of have a signature function which will attach your
signature and desired information at the end of every message you send.
Ours is at the end of this message.
9. USE THE SUBJECT LINE- Please use the subject line when originating a
message to Dairy-L. In this way readers can tell by reading the index
whether the note is about something they are interested in. In addition,
when people respond back to the list using the reply function, that
subject will always appear.
10. USE THE DELETE KEY LIBERALLY - If you are overwhelmed with mail there is
no need to read every message. Most all mail programs that I am aware of
allow one to delete mail from the index list without having to read the
message.
11. USE THE DIGEST OPTION - If you wish to consolidate your mail to be more
manageable, there is an option available which will consolidate all your
Dairy-L messages from one day into one message sent at midnight EST.
Most of the header information is stripped off each message and they
are strung together in a digest. The digest is preceded by an index
so that you can tell the subject of each message in the digest and
approximately where it is. If there is nothing of interest to you
there, it only takes one stroke of the delete key to eliminate the
entire day's volume of Dairy-L messages.
To activate the digest option, send the following message to
listserv@listserv.umd.edu (NOTICE: NOT TO THE DAIRY-L ADDRESS but to the
LISTSERV address.)
SET DAIRY-L DIGEST
12. SEARCH THE ARCHIVE before asking a new question. You can search the
archives by e-mail or interactively by Gopher or World Wide Web client
software. For more instructions on searching the archives, send an e-mail
message to listserv@listserv.umd.edu and put the following line in the body
of the message:
GET ARCHIVE TXT
You will receive instructions by return e-mail message.
13. TO MANY MESSAGES? SET DAIRY-L TOPICS. You can receive messages on
the topics of interest to you. For more instructions on setting topics
send a message to the listserv@listserv.umd.edu address and put the following
line in the body of the message:
GET DL-TOPIC TXT
You will receive instructions by return e-mail message.
Again, these are not rules, but guidelines established by the long time
members of Dairy-L that has kept Dairy-L functioning as a useful list for
8+ years. As our numbers grow, these guidelines are even more essential if
the character of Dairy-L is to remain intact and for Dairy-L to be touted
as one of the most effective listservers on the Internet.
Dairy-L is currently a public (anyone can join) list. Out of respect for
other's interest and differing points of view, we the moderators would like
to keep it that way. However, we do have the option to make it a private list
at any time. In so doing we would control who could or could not be a member.
We do not want to do that, but if circumstances warranted such action, we
would not hesitate to use it to protect the integrity and activity of the
list. A tuned in active membership is necessary for the continued success of
Dairy-L.
Thank you for your continued interest in Dairy-L and your consideration of the
purpose and wishes of the vast majority of Dairy-L members.
Warren Gilson
Univ. of Georgia
wgilson@arches.uga.edu
Teresa VanWagner Mark Varner
VanWagner Holsteins, FL Univ. of Maryland
vwdairy@atlantic.net varner@umd5.umd.edu
8/13/02