TN-L NETIQUETTE

RULES AND GUIDELINES 
FOR TN-L MEMBERS

The TN-L Mailing list provides an extraordinary opportunity to connect with others who walk or have walked in the dark valley of facial pain.

Along with membership comes a responsibility to the TN-L community.   Some of these responsibilities are listed in the following Netiquette Guidelines. Please save or print out these guidelines and review them periodically. Make an effort to adhere to these standards so our community can continue to thrive and be of service to all those struggling with a facial pain disorder.

Use good judgment and respect when helping someone who consistently doesn't follow our Netiquette rules. Keep in mind that everyone can be forgetful at times, especially given the meds that many of our members take.  Also remember that many of our newer members may know very little about the Internet. 

SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCRIBING

1. Save the welcome message you receive when you join the list.
     
2. For commands on how to unsubscribe see:


http://facial-neuralgia.org/commands.html
 
3. If you really cannot figure out how to unsubscribe, write to the TN-L List Administrator: tn-l-request@listserv.uark.edu 
     
4. Set your membership to NOMAIL when on vacation or if you temporarily will not be able to check your email regularly.

REPLYING

1. Don't include the entire length of the original message in your post when you reply to a message. 
   Take the time to use your delete key and either select the small part that is pertinent to your letter or summarize it in your response. Otherwise, our server gets clocked with repetitious postings and the TN-L Digest, with its several hundred subscribers, becomes large and difficult to read.
   
2. Avoid posting "Me Too," "good post," "thanks"  messages to the whole list  unless you expand on the discussion in some meaningful way.  It is better to send these types of messages by private mail to the original poster.
     
3. Don't quote email headers in the body of your email when you forward mail.
   Rather than posting the entire header, just indicate the source of the forwarded mail and the date.

CONTENT & SUBJECT LINE

1. Use concise, descriptive subject lines. 
   Readers searching for answers on a certain topic, and readers of both the digest and the archives, use these subject labels to select messages to read (or not to read). Your post will reach a broader audience with a good subject header. 
          e.g. Subject: Gamma Knife: Side-effects?
     
2. Topics that refer to Politics, Religion or Sex are not allowed on this list. Our experience of being online for many years has taught us that these topics only generate arguments and are not appropriate topics for a health-related Internet mailing list.
     
3. ADS should not be posted, nor followed-up to this list.
   Please don't advertise or try to sell your products.
     
4. Don't mention your economic needs here in any requests for help or information.
   If you want to discuss your personal financial needs, please do so in private email. 
       
5. Use CHAT in the subject line for non-TN related subjects.
   Many TN-L members enjoy exchanging email about non-TN related subjects. However, some members only want to receive List mail related to facial neuralgias. The CHAT option can be used to control non-TN related mail if list members use a few guidelines.

All members should put CHAT: as the first part of the Subject line for all mail to TN-L that is not directly related to the experience of facial neuralgias. 

It doesn't matter whether the word "CHAT" is in upper or lower case but the topic keyword of CHAT: must end with a colon, followed by a space, before adding your own particular subject keywords. Examples of CHAT subjects include funny stories, cheery notes, and happy birthday or get well wishes or other off-topic messages. 

e.g. Subject: CHAT: Want to Laugh?

All TN-L memberships are initially set to receive CHAT messages. Those TN-L members who do not want to receive CHAT email can set their membership to exclude these messages by sending the following message to: listserv@listserv.uark.edu

Set TN-L other

To set your membership back to receive CHAT messages, send the message

Set TN-L All

RESPECT OTHERS' TIME - KEEP BANDWIDTH LOW

1. Keep TN-L mail volume reasonable and relevant.
   The exceptional information that our members offer sometimes gets lost in the clutter of off-topic posts, personal mail, inflammatory posts, and unedited replies. It's important to remember that our purpose as a group is to provide information and support. New members, people asking for help, and important issues don't get the response they should when members are overwhelmed by mail.

BE COURTEOUS

1. Take care in what you write. 
   Remember that several hundred people will read your post and it will be archived for a very long time and available in the TN-L archives.
     
2. Consider your audience.
   Many of our members are people with serious pain issues. Try not to give offence or be easily offended yourself. When you make your points, keep your tone polite. Respond to the issues not to the personal attributes.
     
3. Remember that often an email sounds harsher than it is because there are no accompanying gestures or facial expressions. 
   Be careful when using sarcasm and humor. Without face to face communications your joke may be viewed as criticism. When being humorous, use emoticons to express humor. (tilt your head to the left to see the emoticon smile)
   
                       :-) = happy face for humor

AVOID FLAME WARS

1. Flaming is unacceptable and could result in your membership being set to NOPOST (you can receive mail but not post anything) or being removed from the list.
   Flaming means sending harsh abusive mail. It includes such things as name-calling, public criticism of another member of the group, personal attacks, baiting, raising issues or responding to posts in a deliberately inflammatory manner. You may have different opinions than others on the list but please address everyone with respect.  The best way to stop a flame war from happening is to ignore the folks who try to start them. Please notify the listowner if you feel that the discussion is getting out of hand or oppressive.
     
2. Persistent disagreements with another person/s should be moved to private email and off the list.

KEEP PRIVATE EMAIL PRIVATE - AND OFF THE LIST

1. Never repost private email to the mailing list (or any other forum or media) without permission of the original author.
   If you have permission to repost a message or information, please credit the author and show their email address.
     
2. Don't post your phone number or address to the list.
   Such information can be read by anyone with Internet access. It is better to send personal information by private email.

MAKE YOUR MESSAGES READABLE

1. Never send attachments to the list. 
   Attachments don't translate properly and create serious problems for TN-L Digest subscribers. You may describe attachments or any other item you want to share on the the list and suggest that list members email you privately for a copy
     
2. Capitalize words only to highlight an important point or to distinguish a title or heading.
   Capitalizing whole words that are not titles is generally termed as SHOUTING! *Asterisks* surrounding a word can be used to make a stronger point. Don't write an entire message in lower case, either.
     
3. Don't send text to a mailing list in mime or HTML format. 
   Keep your email formatting set to ASCII Text so that everyone can read it.
     
4. Limit line length to approximately 65-70 characters and above 55 characters 
   Use your automatic word wrap if available.
     
5. Keep the length of your signatures modest. 
   One or two lines is about right.

* Thank you for your contribution to our unique and wonderful community *