[HANASHIR:16765] Hanashir List Netiquette--The Chai Principles

[Adrian Durlester <adrian...>]

Chaverim:

I thank all of you for your comments, suggestions and thoughtful input. By
an overwhelming majority, most subscribers felt that the hanashir list
should continue to operate in as unfettered a manner as possible, allowing
for the free flow of information and ideas. Nevertheless, many of you
expressed concerns that need to be addressed. Careful synthesis of your
input with my own thought has yielded this updated set of guidelines for our
online community.

Hanashir List Netiquette--The Chai Principles

This list exists to serve the greater Jewish music community of songleaders,
songwriters, composers, performers, cantors, rabbis, soloists, educators,
music educators and anyone else with an involvement or interest in the
transmission of Jewish faith, knowledge, and practice through music. To
insure the continued free flow of ideas, the list is not moderated, and any
subscriber may post a message at any time. Therefore, it is inherent upon
all of us to be respectful of all of the other members of this online
community at all times, and to employ the suggestions for "netiquette" that
follow.

1. Announcements of interest to a limited subset of the list, i.e.
        Specific geographic location
        Specific community
        Specific types of professions/professionals

The SUBJECT LINE of such messages should indicate the TARGET INTEREST GROUP
at the beginning of the SUBJECT LINE. Please direct the reader to reply to
you OFF LIST for more information.

Example Subject Lines:

NJ/NY Metro Area Concert May 22
Symposium for Synagogue Musicians Apr 5 DC Area

2. Announcements of events that are not truly germane to the purpose of the
list are not permitted. If you're hosting a music symposium, that's
relevant. If your institution is sponsoring adult Hebrew classes, that's not
relevant.

3. Because we are a true community, announcements of personal simchas,
triumphs, tragedies, etc. are considered appropriate, but please don't abuse
the privilege.

Example Subject Line:
Sharing My Simcha

4. Booking/Block Booking/Gig Requests-these fall somewhat into the category
of "announcements of interest to a limited subset of the list." Therefore,
they should also use the SUBJECT LINE to indicate the TARGET INTEREST GROUP

Example Subject Line:
Block Bookings Wanted Mar 10-15 SF Bay Area

5. Announcements of upcoming performances--must be written as **personal
messages** from one member of this online community to all the others.
Please do not submit text simply cut and pasted from your commercial
promotions, or text prepared by your agent, etc. If it's worth sharing with
the list, it's worth your taking the time to write it up personally to share
with your peers. Please direct the reader to reply to you OFF LIST for more
information. Please don't post announcements for other list subscribers.
Again, if it's worth sharing, it's worth someone taking their own time to
post.

6. Product Announcements-information about new CDS, songbooks, books, etc.
which could be of interest to the group. As we asked with performance
announcements, we ask that product announcements be **personal messages**,
and not advertisements prepared either by yourself or by others. If you have
an advertisement, please put it on your web site, and simply provide a link
to it in your e-mail so people can see your nice, pretty, slick
advertisement. Consistent with the long-standing practice of this list, we
would ask you to limit yourself to one "shameless self-promotion" for a new
product (or series of products) and direct list subscribers to contact you
OFF THE LIST to place orders or for further information. Please direct the
reader to reply to you OFF LIST for more information.

7. Plain Text messages are the preferred format for list messages. HTML and
Rich or Enhanced Text messages can be posted to the list but use more space,
aren't always readable by everyone, and often make things really difficult
for those who receive the list in digest format. Please avoid fancy,
graphics-intense stationery, signatures, backgrounds, extra-large and fancy
fonts, colors, etc. on the list. Use them elsewhere if you must, but please
not here.

8. No attachments of any kind may be sent to the list without the prior
approval of the list owner. If you have a file attachment you feel should be
shared with the whole list, please contact the list owner at
adrian (at) ehavanashira(dot)org first. In many cases, it would be better to 
have
your file posted at one of the affiliated web sites (or your own) and simply
include a link to it in your e-mail.

9. Think before you hit that send button--always double-check the "to:"
field before sending. If your reply is not intended for the entire list,
please be sure you send it privately and off the list. Remember that the
list defaults to "reply-to-list" and not "reply-to-sender" because the basic
premise is that most responses will be of interest to the entire list. So
you will have to manually delete the list address and replace it with the
correct private e-mail address. It's also good practice to check the cc:
field as well.

10. Make it truly relevant. Remember that putting specific info in subject
lines to alert subscribers that the message may be of limited interest to
them are great for those who receive individual messages, but many of our
subscribers get the list in digest format. In such cases, their digest is
going to include all those messages--they don't have a quick way to simply
ignore or delete. That's why it's really important for all of us to think
before we send something to the list. "Attaboys/attagirls" and compliments
are nice, and I don't want to completely discourage them, but ask yourself
how much your comment really contributes to the discussion. Should you send
your kudo privately, or do the hundreds of subscribers to this list need to
hear from you as well as ten others that "so and so" is great? Also, in
general, short messages like "Todah Rabbah" or "See you there" or "Mazal
Tov" are probably best sent privately. Again, I do not want to totally
discourage this, as part of what makes this community work is how we all
encourage and support each other. Let's just all try to keep the whole
community in mind when we post.

11. Hanashir is more than just an e-mail list. This list is a great resource
for all of us, but it is just part of an extended online community which I
encourage all list subscribers to use to their advantage. This list is
supplemented by the web site, www.ehavanashira.org. In addition, there is a
loose confederation between Judy Caplan Ginsburgh's Jewish Entertainment
Resources website www.jewishentertainment.net, Robin Selinger's
www.HotShabbat.com and www.TotShabbat.com web sites, Aura Lipski's
www.hebrewsongs.com, the Hava Nashira web site www.ehavanashira.org, and
this list. We encourage you to avail yourself of all these resources.

12. Limit yourself. If you've posted ten messages to the list today, you're
probably spending too much time at your computer reading and responding to
the list. Allow others the chance to speak, and limit yourself. Speak only
when you really feel it necessary to speak. If you need practice at this,
try attending a Quaker meeting some time.

13. It's OK to suggest YOUR OWN work. There's nothing wrong with humbly
offering your own song when someone asks for suggestions and you have a song
that fits the request. Just keep the style more like a personal message, and
less like an advertisement.

14. It's OK to suggest SOMEONE ELSE'S work. Again, keep the style personal,
and be sure of your information. A message that says "I think so and so has
a song that might fit" is probably better sent off list.

15. Don't respond instantly. Take the time to look over messages threads,
and be sure you've read up to the most recent posting on a topic before
responding. This avoids needless duplication.

16. Take the time to eliminate extraneous text. It's not necessary to
include all the messages from an entire thread in your reply. You don't even
need to include the whole message you are responding to unless it is
necessary to give your reply context. Include as much as needed, and delete
the rest. It's customary, when truncating someone else's messages, to
indicate so by writing "[snip]" at the point of truncation. And please, if
you get the digest form, don't include the whole digest in your reply, and
do remember to change the subject line to that of the specific topic to
which you are replying. Otherwise, your subject line will just read "Re:
Hanashir Digest........"

17. Learn to agree to disagree. We are a diverse community with diverse
opinions. In your discourse, focus on the idea and not the individual.

18. Remember that all we do here on this list is ultimately "lashem
shamayim" (for the sake of heaven, i.e., for a sacred purpose.)

Now, let's get back to being the valuable, caring, informative online
community that hanashir is intended to be.

B'vracha,

Adrian

Adrian A. Durlester, 
List Owner, hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org; Jewish Songleaders/Performers List
www.ehavanashira.org



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