Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00495)

In the last few days, Brigitte has posted perhaps half a dozen 
messages asking people to join the Universal Seekers list.
The latest suggestion came out today:

>In any case for those of you who prefer a less confused list, 
>with a wide variety of topics, the Theosophical Universal Seekers 
>also at Yahoo, is much better and offers more quality: 
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UniversalSeekers 

While it's good to know of other things that are going on,
so an occasional notice may be welcome, it's inappropriate
to have a sustained effort to recruit people to go elsewhere.
That crosses the line between appropriate discussion and spam.

Some lists totally ban such postings, and will immediately
unsubscribe any violators. At this time, I don't see a need
for such strict control. As long as people behave themselves, 
there's no need for rules. 

In this particular case, though, I'd say the following:

--------------------------------------------------------------
- Postings announcing other lists, sites, magazines, etc., -
- should appear only once a month, preferably written by the -
- owner of the list, site, or magazine, but acceptable from -
- someone else if not otherwise provided. -
- -
- Whatever referred to should be of "theosophic interest" -
- and the reference should not involve attacks on people -
- on attacks against this list. -
--------------------------------------------------------------

This policy is more open than some lists, like the BN lists,
where I cannot post a monthly notice mentioning theosophical
mailing lists and magazines, though less open than others,
like theos-l, where there's no guidelines nor control of 
any kind whatsoever.

There are several lists on mailing list management. I'm
attaching below some excerpts from a discussion of this
type of situation, to show a sampling of what list owners
think about it.

-- Eldon Tucker (listowner)

---- excerpts follow: ----

Person A:

Here's something that pops up occasionally on my list: one of the
members starts her/his own group and announces it on mine. I try
not to be competitive or a bitch, so I allow one announcement and
permit the url to be included in a footer and inform the member
of this. However, subsequent invitations to join result in the
poster being moderated, with an explanation why I am taking this
step.

Person B:

You are being more than fair, imo.. I do not allow any sort of
group/list promotion on any of my lists, period. I don't
advertise my lists on other people's lists, and I fully expect
the same courtesy from them. People do not join my lists to
learn how wonderful Sue's list is, or Tom's list.. Sending list
announcements to lists that are not set up with that as a function
is nothing more than spamming, imo. There are lists just for
that function, if people want to advertise.

Person C:

In a discussion list, as part of a real discussion, another list
might be mentioned in a way i would think legit, depending on the
list policies.

For example, when someone is making an on-topic comment s/he
might add something like "I saw an interesting thread on this is
on list <xyz>" or "This issue is often discussed on list <xyz> as
well". When this is a true attempt to steer people to another
useful resource, particularly when posted as part of true
on-topic discussion for the list, i personally would be inclined
to allow it - - of course, each listowner will feel differently. 
And If I were a participant on a list, i would feel free to post
a resource in this way, unless the listowner had an explicit
posted rule against it -- note that I am not talking about a msg
whose sole or primary content is a list announcement.

Person D:

I *do* have a problem with someone trying to repeatedly promote
their lists on mine...we had a fellow once who wanted to send a
very high-pitched sales-type promo every week or so and we put a
stop to that...it was basically just spam.

Person E:

As a moderator of five lists, I don't have a problem with a
single post announcing another list which may be of interest to
my group members. This is providing that the announced list is
of a related topic.

In addition, there are instances of posts that refer to another
group in passing (such and such a topic was discussed at length
on this other list)...life is too short to worked up about such
things although I know that some owners are likely to blow a
gasket.

Person F:

My "policy" on this is laid out in the list rules for every
list... Every member gets the list's rules upon joining, and
they are expected to read the rules for the list, and follow
them.

"No advertising on the list, without prior written permission from
the list owner."

These are discussion lists, and no one is permitted to engage in
"mention" advertising.. That is clearly playing games with the
defined list rules. There are far too many people trying to make
money on-line to permit people to advertise...If you allow them
to advertise other lists, where do you draw the line???
Permitting advertising on-list is akin to opening the flood
gates, and advertising can get a list closed, we have seen it
happen more than once..

The last time I permitted someone to send a list announcement to
one of my lists, I received no less than 3 dozen complaints by
list members of being spammed.. That send a pretty clear message
to me that the people who populate my lists do not want to see
advertisements.