The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Dear list, I think the list is working excellently at the moment with many valuable and interesting threads of discussion. However, at the moment there are on average 30 messages each day to the list; this is above the limit that most of us can cope with. I certainly don't have time to read them all and I know that many others do not either. Now - before anyone fires off an angry message to me - I am not suggesting that anyone should cease contributing to the list. BUT I would urge that in this time of crisis, when there is almost limitless information that could be sent out to the list, you exercise more self-editing than usual and NOT simply fire off messages to the list without a second thought. In particular, you might like to ponder the following questions. Please read them carefully, especially the first! 1. SENDING ARTICLES - HAS THE ARTICLE BEEN SENT BEFORE?! Before firing it off, please check to see whether someone has already posted it in the last few days. 2. SENDING ARTICLES - is this article so important that it cannot wait to for the weekly news digest sent by Peter Brooke? If it can wait, please send it to him for inclusion. I would suggest this category should include all articles that are not either important breaking news or insightful new in-depth analysis pieces. If it really cannot wait, are you going to find another essential article in another hour's time? If so perhaps you could wait until the end of the day and send them all in one message? 3. Am I answering a simple factual question that has already been fully and properly answered by someone else? If so please don't! 4. Am I forwarding or replying to a message from another email list? (Al-Awda members please note!!) If so am I including enough information so that those on the CASI list who are *not* following the discussion on the other list can understand why the message is relevant? On the whole these messages tend to be fairly obscure, and as a rule should be avoided. 5. Should I be sending an answer to an email to the whole list, or would it be sufficient to send an answer directly to the particular author of the message? Jocular two-line responses to emails tend to fall in this category. At a less busy time for the list these would be less of a problem, at the moment they are just unnecessary distraction. 6. Am I engaging mouth before brain?:-). Far be it from me to suggest any particular examples, but sometimes it might be worth putting an email on hold for an hour, re-reading it and thinking 'do the 200+ people on the list really need my thoughts on this issue? Have I said this before? Am I repeating what someone else has said?' I personally bin at least two or three of my own messages every week having answered 'no' to this question. This particularly applies to angry/irritated messages! 7. List manager particular plea - turn OFF your HTML option in your email software and DON'T SEND ATTACHMENTS OF ANY KIND! C. 2/3 messages are day are intercepted by the list software for these reasons, which wastes both my time having to send them back and explain what the problem is, and yours having to send the message again in appropriate format. 8. That's it. I am NOT targeting any particular individuals here. I would merely suggest that those contributors currently sending more than 2 messages a day to the list might take particular note of the above suggestions. Many thanks for bearing with me. Also please note - if I do not reply quickly to messages at the moment (or intervene instantly if a list crisis develops), it is because i have hurt my back and so can only spend limited amounts of time sitting at the computer at the moment. Abi CASI list manager _______________________________________ Abi Cox Clare College Cambridge CB2 1TL _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk