Project Wombat: Project Wombat Posting Guidelines

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Posting Guidelines

How the Guidelines Are Applied

If a subscriber to Project Wombat repeatedly sends messages to the list which violate these guidelines, they will be added to the watchlist on the “Classic” list, which means that future posts will always be held for moderator approval. (Subscribers who are violating the guidelines will be notified by private e-mail.)

Since all messages to Project Wombat are sent to all three lists, a message sent by a subscriber to Project-Wombat-Open may still violate guidelines and result in a notification. The watchlist only effects the Classic list, not Project-Wombat-Open. Messages by all subscribers are automatically passed on the Open list. Therefore subscribers to the Open list who are not interested in the Classic list may feel free to ignore notifications of violated guidelines.

Please keep in mind that the Guidelines apply only to messages posted to Project Wombat. Messages sent off-list cannot, by definition, violate the list guidelines.

The Guidelines

Creeping “Me-Too”-ism: Please don’t send messages to the list which can be condensed to “me too”. They serve no useful purpose for most of the people on the list.
Demands: The subscribers to this list volunteer their time to read the list. Do not make demands of them.
Internet Detritus: Humorous discussion and references are, as you may expect, allowed on Project Wombat. The posting of lists of jokes, urban legends, virus alerts, or other Internet Detritus is not. (We don’t want to get our computer virus information from each other because there are lots of good free comprehensive sources online which won’t be taken in by hoaxes.); (You can certainly post a question about some particular piece of Internet detritus, should you have one. Just don’t distribute the stuff itself via the list.)
Dead Threads: If a discussion appears to be getting out of hand, the Project Wombat advisory board or the moderators may declare the relevant thread(s) dead. Replies to a thread which has been declared dead will be filtered from the Classic list by subject line, so they are not a problem. (This is necessary to allow free conversation on the Open list.) Attempts to bypass the filter using altered subject lines, however, will be considered against the guidelines.
Flaming, Rudeness, and Other Social Crimes: It is very hard to decide what constitutes an insult over e-mail. It is a medium without vocal tone or facial expression. (Beyond smileys, of course.) Please avoid, when possible, sending messages to the list which could be construed as rude. The advisory board will use its best judgement when considering this issue, so it can’t hurt to be as polite as possible most of the time to give us a standard by which to judge.
Politics and Morality: Posts taking a particular stance on politics or morality are frowned upon. (They are a major part of the reason for the Open list.) Do not polemicize if you wish your posts to reach the Classic list.
Violations of Confidentiality: Sending an e-mail to the list which quotes directly and without permission from a message sent to you privately is usually objectionable. Please don’t do it.
Job Offers: Do not send job offers to this list. If the offer is geographically specific, then it will not apply to most of the people on the list and therefore constitutes an annoyance. If it is not, then it probably falls under the heading of spam, for which see below. You can, however, send these messages to Project-Wombat-Open, if you so desire.
Genuine Spam: If you send commercial e-mail over this list, then you are beyond helping and we will do our best to track you down, report you to your ISP, or do whatever else is available to get you in trouble. If you’re a spammer, go away.
Complaints About Posts: If you feel that someone else is violating the guidelines on this page, please don’t send messages about it to the list. Send it to the moderators, or to the advisory board.
“Letter of the Law” Nitpicking: If you are asked to stop doing something, please do not attempt to “prove” you were not doing it by invoking the denotation of individual words in the Guidelines, ignoring context and connotation.