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Guiding_UK's info.txt document in full Guiding_UK Information Message - with thanks to the owners of WAGGGS-L Welcome to Guiding_UK, an electronic mailing list for adult members of Girlguiding UK. Most of our members are based in the UK, but we do have some members from overseas. This message is long,
but it is very important that you read through it, and perhaps print
it out for future reference! It gives you important information about
the history and focus of GuidingUK; how to post messages to the list;
how to change your list settings and most importantly some "netiquette"
guidelines for GuidingUK. It is not intended to be a set of hard and
fast rules, but more a guideline so that as many people as possible
This message has the
following sections:
GuidingUK was formed
in May 1999, by Abi Grant (the group owner). Kim Dobson (now the group
moderator) had created a web-based Guider's forum, but this was rather
slow and not very stable. Abi had a vision of an email community, chose
onelist as a host for it, and so the group was born. Our host has Guiding_UK is not an official email group run by Girlguiding UK, although some of our members do have both voluntary and paid positions at CHQ.
This group exists to promote discussion about any issue related to Guiding in the UK and overseas (BGIFC). It is less appropriate to post to Guiding_UK about other topics but if you wish to, please add "OT" (off-topic) to the subject line of your post.
Guiding_UK is hosted by Yahoo! Groups. Yahoo! Groups is a free service that allows you to communicate with other people via one email address, and a website. You can use the Yahoo! Groups service at the web site or through any email program. You can choose to read Guiding_UK messages either in your email inbox or via the web. To change your settings, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/guiding_uk/join Under "Message Delivery" select the option you require: - Individual emails
- Send individual email messages (this allows you to easily delete messages
that do not interest you, but can result in a very full inbox!). All members have access to previous messages at the website as well, and these are searchable. It is often a good idea to search the archived messages before asking a question - you may find someone else has already asked it for you! If you wish to leave the group, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/guiding_uk Make sure you are signed in (your Yahoo ID will show on the page) and then click "Leave Group" on the right hand side of the page. Alternatively, send a blank email to guiding_uk-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com, from the email address you use for the group. 4. POSTING MESSAGES TO GUIDING_UK - On the web: To view messages at the website, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/guiding_uk/messages On the left hand side of the page, click "post" to send a message to the group. - By email: To post a message
to everyone in the group, send an email to guiding_uk@yahoogroups.com 5. GETTING HELP Yahoo! Groups has a comprehensive help section at: http://help.yahoo.com/help/groups/ If your question is
not answered there, please email the owner (kim@guidinguk.com) 6. SHARING GUIDING_UK Feel free to share
ideas you get from the group with other Guiders you know. However, do
be careful about sharing any personal information about members that
is posted to the group, and also remember that ultimately copyright
for any message posted to the group remains property of the original
poster. You can find out more about Girlguiding UK's internet safety
guidelines at Invite your friends to join, and feel free to share information about how to subscribe to this group in your local publications. In the spirit of sharing, the Best of GuidingUK website http://www.guiding_uk.com was set up to be a permanent home for many of the ideas posted to the group.
The group relies on members' good will and good "netiquette" to run as smoothly as it does. In general, the following principles help make the electronic discussion continue: - Be patient. Everyone can post their ideas and opinions on this group, and sometimes you may not agree with them. It is very easy to quickly send out an angry reply, and later regret it. Please take time out to consider your response, and use the Guide Promise and Laws to guide your postings. - Sign your messages. Try to put your name and e-mail address at the bottom of your posts. Yahoo! Groups will disguise email addresses if you read messages on the web, so add a strategic space somewhere to confuse it! - Explain terms or abbreviations. Please remember that terms and abbreviations vary around the country, so try to explain anything that may be unfamiliar. - Use appropriate subject headings. If you receive the group messages in digest form, you'll need to change the subject heading when you reply to the group. Your subject heading should reflect the topic(s) you discuss in your posting. If your message has wandered off the original topic, please try to reflect this in your subject heading. - Consider the subject matter of your post before sending it. GuidingUK is a public forum, and it is impossible to be certain who will view your message. Avoid sending personal details (your own or anyone else's) or confidential information to the group.
The group generates a high volume of mail each day. In order to keep the volume of mail manageable, we ask that members think carefully about whether a particular post should go to the whole group, or only to a single member. If you are reading your mail several days behind, please read through all your mail before responding to the whole group, since you may find that others responding to Guiding_UK have already posted what you were thinking. Having said all that, the informal chatter is part of what makes Guiding_UK so much fun, so we would hate to lose it completely. If you are reading messages on the web, click "reply" at the top of the page to reply to the whole group, or click on the poster's email address (it may be slightly disguised) at the top of the message to reply to the sender.
- Don't quote previous messages. When replying to a message, only include those portions of the message which are absolutely necessary to make your own posting clear. Also, try to delete the Yahoo advertising footer from the bottom of previous messages, as this will be added to your message too. If you are receiving the group in digest mode, please be especially careful to include only the relevant bits of the previous message, and not the entire digest. - Although we all use abbreviations to get the message across more quickly, try to use good English, as the easier spelling, punctuation and grammar are to understand, the more likely you are to get a good response to your message. Remember to read them through before you send them, because it's too late once your message has gone to realise it doesn't make sense.
We should all remember that Guiding_UK is a public discussion, and that e-mail is not always private. Messages sent via e-mail might be shared with others, and posters have no control over the final destinations of their messages. While the sharing of craft ideas or recipes poses little problem, the sharing of posts about personal experiences or local problems can cause personal difficulties. We ask Guiding_UK members to be considerate about sharing personal posts without the author's express permission. We want Guiding_UK to be a place where people can communicate openly and honestly about any problems they are having in Guiding. Members should not be afraid to ask about difficult issues, although posts about local problems might tactfully delete identifying information about individuals, and sometimes about locations, in order to minimise potential embarrassment. There are very rarely any major problems with flaming (sending an unpleasant message to someone with whom you do not agree) on Guiding_UK, but if you do experience any unpleasantness, please inform one of the moderators. We do have the ability to remove / ban members from the list, but in the last five years we have never had to use it. Have fun!
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