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Forum FAQ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following paragraphs describe how to get the most out of the Forum.
They are a mixture of rules (ie. how to make life easier for others) and
hints (ie. how to make life easier for yourself!).  Please read them and
keep to them.

This document is available at http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/hints.txt
and can also be fetched from the list server by sending:
    get forum hints
in the body of an email to majordomo@greenbelt-forum.org.uk

This document is a shortened version of the full Forum FAQ, which can be
read online at http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/


1) GUIDELINES AND RULES

All members of the Forum must read, understand and at all times comply with
the Guidelines.  These are:

 * Think twice, post once.
 * Do not make "ad hominem" arguments.
 * Respect that the Forum is a broad community.
 * Respect that the Forum is a broad church.
 * Don't crusade or troll.
 * Don't dominate the space.
 * Don't spam or advertise.
 * Follow Forum Etiquette.
 * Take care with how you express yourself.
 * Don't be offensive.
 * Self-moderate.
 * Choose your identity with care, and don't sock-puppet.
 * Confidentiality and off-Forum communication.
 * Above all respect the space and the community.

The full text of the Guidelines is here:
http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/guidelines.html 

Some of the other FAQ documents here expand on the basic rules with further
examples, and therefore have the same weight as the Guidelines themselves.

Members should be aware that contravention of any of the Guidelines may
result in sanctions being applied, up to and including suspension or being
banned from the Forum.  However, this isn't as heavy as it sounds: in
brief, the Guidelines may simply be summarised as "be a good neighbour",


2) UNSUBSCRIBING

To unsubscribe from the forum, send a blank message to
forum-unsubscribe@greenbelt-forum.org.uk

You may be sent a confirmation token: if so, follow the instructions that
come with it.  Please do NOT send "please unsubscribe me" messages to the
list or anywhere else, as they will be ignored.


3) PRIVACY

The Forum is currently open to anybody to subscribe, and there is
no vetting of applications.  However, the content of all messages is to be
considered private and for the eyes of members only.  All members must
take care to preserve the privacy of messages as far as they are able.
In particular, Forum messages must not be forwarded to any other public
mailing list without permission.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/privacy.html


4) ATTACHMENTS

Email is a text-based medium.  The most common mail programs will allow
prettily formatted or graphical messages to be sent, and in a one-to-one
dialogue email can be a good way of sharing files; but only plain text is
appropriate for a discussion list like the Forum.

Please turn off HTML or "rich text" email, and don't add any "vcard"
signatures either.  HTML will be removed from the message before it is
distributed.  Any other attachment (including "vcard" signatures, or the
"MS-TNEF" object sometimes added by misconfigured installations of
Microsoft Outlook or Exchange) will cause the entire message to be
rejected by the list server.

If you wish to draw the attention of the Forum's subscribers to a picture,
sound clip, or web page, please send only the web address (URL) where it
can be found, not the entire object itself.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/format.html


5) REPLYING

Please edit your replies, so that only the relevant parts of the original
message(s) are quoted, and put your reply below the quoted part of the
original message.  All mail programs will allow you to do this, but
unfortunately they tend not to encourage it.

Ensure you reply to forum@greenbelt-forum.org.uk, and not
owner-forum@greenbelt-forum.org.uk (the first goes to everybody, the
second goes just to the list manager).  If your mail program insists on
sending to owner-forum, you can sometimes fix it by arranging to have a
"Reply-To" header added to every received message.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/replies.html


6) DIGESTS

If the number of messages gets overwhelming, you could consider switching
to "digest" mode.  You will then get fewer emails, but each one will be
much longer, as it contains all the messages from the previous day/week!
When replying to a message in a digest, please ensure you change the
"Subject" line to be appropriate to the particular thread, and be
especially careful not to include the entire digest in your reply.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/digest.html


7) TAKING A BREAK

When you go away on holiday (eg. for Christmas!), it is quite common,
particularly with work addresses, to set up an auto-reply system.  If you
do this, you MUST ensure that it is configured not to reply to list
messages.  The easiest method is for it only to reply to messages which
are addressed personally to you.  Most auto-reply systems behave this way,
but there are a few which do not.

If you cannot configure your auto-reply appropriately, or if you want to
stop receiving forum emails temporarily for any other reason, you can
either unsubscribe, or tell the list server to suspend your subscription
for a time.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/break.html


8) ARCHIVES

If you are a new member, or if you have just taken a break, you may wish
to catch up with recent messages.  There is an email archive system
(although not a web-based one yet), which you use by sending one or more
instructions in the body of a message to majordomo@greenbelt-forum.org.uk.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/archive.html


9) CHANGING EMAIL ADDRESS

With so many cheap and free Internet providers, it's becoming quite common
to change your email address from time to time.  Also, companies will
sometimes modify the exact form of staff email addresses.  If your email
address changes, even slightly, please remember to update your
subscription.  Apart from ensuring that you continue to receive forum
messages, it is only subscribed addresses which are allowed to send any
messages to the forum.

You can unsubscribe and re-subscribe from the new address.  Alternatively,
there are ways which allow you to keep using both addresses for a time.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/change.html


10) GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

Generally the Forum operates reasonably happily on a day-to-day basis with
self-moderation, ad-hoc informal efforts by individuals and the occasional
light nudge in the right direction from the list owner.  However very
occasionally issues crop up that don't seem to be able to be resolved
adequately in these ways.

In order to resolve these rare but serious issues, a mechanism has been
developed.  This consists of a small Panel of long-term forumites,
including the list owner, who will work together to achieve resolution of
such issues.

For more details, see: http://www.greenbelt-forum.org.uk/faq/grievance.html


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