GEN: A Friendly Etiquette Reminder

[Peter Milbury <pmilbury@ERICIR.SYR.EDU>]

Dear LM_NET Colleagues,

A friendly reminder from the LM_NET Etiquette document:

6. Never post a message to the group which would not be of interest to
   thousands of people. It is considered wasteful of the time of list
   members to be pestered with meaningless (to them) messages which are
   of value only to a small number of people. LM_NET is NOT a newsgroup,
   where people reply to each other routinely posting to the group.

   Please do NOT recommend products, services, or websites unless you
   have personally reviewed or visited them. See also Item # 9, below.
   If a vendor asks you to post a commercial endorsement or message on
   their behalf, please check with the moderator forst. Normally, we do
   not allow such postings.

   Copyright considerations: Please do NOT post messages containing
   content which is under copyright. That includes messages that are
   posted to other online groups. Obtain permission first.

TARGET/HIT->  AN LM_NET DISCUSSION TOOL
   Your LM_NET moderators are suggesting an additional way to focus our
   discussions, and make them more valuable in the process.  This may seem
   a bit more formal that is common on most lists, but it might serve us well
   as we grow (we now have more than 10,000 people reading the list.) We
   recommend that members specifically TARGET-> their queries, and use a
   HIT-> summary to share their responses received.

   That is, when someone wants information about a topic (e.g., online
   catalogs), they would ask for people to respond to them directly, and
   after a period of time, post a summary or compilation of responses. The
   originator of the TARGET-> question uses that term in the subject line of
   the initial question that is posted to the entire list.

   For example,  "TARGET-> Choosing Online Catalogs - March 1993." would
   appear in the subject line of the message.  In the body of the message the
   person might say something like the following:
     "Hi, this is Mike Eisenberg.  I would like to TARGET-> Choosing Online
   Catalogs.  I'd like to find out how others on LM_NET are choosing their
   Online Catalogs.  If people will respond to me, I'll compile your
   responses and post A HIT-> on the topic back to the entire LM_NET."

   Then, when enough responses are collected, the originator summarizes
   or compiles the responses, and posts the summary as a HIT->
   so everyone on the list can read, _if_ they are interested. This is a
   terrific way to add value to the list.  And it will cut down on some of
   the extra traffic.  It also still allows for stimulating discussions
   about key issues.

   The TARGET/HIT-> approach is particularly effective when someone has a
   specific question that needs a variety of suggestions, experiences,
   practices or sources.  It is not _always_ appropriate.  The intent of
   TARGET/HIT-> is to make LM_NET more valuable to its growing list of
   members.

SUMMARY:  TARGET/HIT-> is a four-step process:
   1.  The TARGET-> originator proposes the subject for answering/commenting.
       i.e., TARGET-> Choosing Online Catalogs.
   2.  Those interested in the subject send their responses to the
       _originator_ of the TARGET-> question. Please do NOT post the
       response to the group.
   3.  TARGET-> originator summarizes or collates the responses, and then,
   4.  Posts the summarized responses to the entire list, using the original
       subject of their message as a HIT->.
       i.e., HIT-> Choosing Online Catalogs.

   Thank you for your support of this innovation for Internet discussions.

Peter Milbury and Mike Eisenberg, LM_NET Co-owners


Peter Milbury, Co-owner of LM_NET          pmilbury@ericir.syr.edu
Now With 10,000+ Members       See: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/
................................................................
  See: Peter Milbury's Collection of School Librarian Web Pages
       http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~pmilbury/lib.html
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