ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE: The things you shouldn't do on Cybalist

Dear All,

Cybalist is not moderated in the sense that the moderator has to approve
all the messages before they are posted to the members. New members are
"moderated" (it is one of those default settings that I am not
authorised to change), but I normally switch their status to "not
moderated" as soon as they start posting regularly.

It is my ambition to maintain a decent level of discussion on Cybalist
and to make sure that out debates are conducted in a civil manner. The
purpose of the group is to popularise Indo-European studies and to help
people who are interested in the various linguistic, cultural and
historical aspects of IE scholarship. As the moderator of the list, I
reserve the right to judge whether your postings are conducive to that
purpose or not. If I find that a particular poster’s behaviour is
wilfully counterproductive, I shall react by issuing a warning off-list.
If the warning has no effect, I shall restrict the poster's privileges
by changing his or her status to "moderated" for about two weeks.
Recidivists may expect a longer probation period. Since I want
administrative and disciplinary problems to be handled as discreetly as
possible, any complaints, concerns or suggestions regarding such matters
should be sent to me off-list.

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DON'T DO IT

Here is a list of things that are explicitly forbidden on Cybalist.
Infraction will result in disciplinary action on my part, from an
off-list notification to immediate removal from Cybalist, depending on
the seriousness of the offence. It is recommended that Cybalist members
should save this list for future reference.

(1) Spam

Anyone caught spamming (that is, posting off-topic commercial
advertisements or other unwanted junk) will be removed from Cybalist
without warning.

(2) Pseudoscience

While the discussion of controversial issues is welcome on the list,
there are certain limits that I should like to be observed. I am not
going to encourage amateurish decipherments of ancient scripts, racist
propaganda, speculation about the language spoken in Atlantis,
demonstrations that Latvian and Sumerian are practically the same
language, or anything that _obviously_ sinks below the level at which
serious discussion is possible.

(3) Idées fixes

Please do not treat Cybalist as your private forum. Posters who attempt
to publicise their private obsessions had better look for some other
audience. Anyone who tries to dominate the discussion by sending an
immoderate number of messages on a single topic will hear from me
off-list. In the interest of the group I may shut down a tired thread.
In such cases, if you want to protest or ask me to re-open the thread,
please get in touch with me off-list.

(4) Flaming, trolling and ad hominem attacks

Please avoid deliberate rudeness, aggressive language, addressing the
personalities of other members rather than their arguments, and other
forms of disruptive behaviour. Posters who seem to enjoy irritating
other participants or provoking violent exchanges will be given time out
at short notice. If you feel provoked or insulted by somebody else,
please don't hesitate to complain to me off-list rather than repay
insults in kind.

(5) Flogging dead horses

I also wish to discourage attempts to resurrect an old or closed thread
if the poster has no fresh ideas to contribute. The list archive is
searchable (at least in theory), and before you raise a topic you should
at least try to check if it has not been discussed in the past months.

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TECHNICAL RECOMMENDATIONS

(1) Post plain-text messages rather than HTML. Fancy backgrounds,
colours and fonts are dispensable.

(2) To minimise readability problems, use "West European" encoding (that
is, the "Latin-1" or ISO-8859-1 character set) whenever possible. If you
find it necessary to use something more sophisticated (e.g. UTF-8), do
so sparingly and don't forget to warn the list.

(3) Avoid sending attachments with your postings. Any pictures, Word
documents, PDF files, etc. that you'd like to share with other list
members should be uploaded to the Files area instead.

(4) When responding to others' postings, quote only those fragments of
the original message that you want to reply to. In particular, do not
quote whole threads. Make sure that the quotations are properly marked,
so that one can easily see who wrote what.

(5) If your reply drifts away from the original topic, change the
subject line (e.g. "IE loanwords in Hurrian [was: The Indo-Iranian
homeland]").

The above prohibitions and recommendations are tentative. I welcome any
suggestions concerning further improvements -- off-list, of course!

Yours,

Piotr