[TCML] Reminder about Off-list posting

["Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>]

Dear TCML subscribers,

One of the things the moderation team spends a lot of time on is rejecting posts that should be sent off-list to a single individual.  For those of you that understand the difference between on-list and off-list and when to use each, we thank you. (Hint - subscribers who do not often need to be reminded are typically granted more leeway.)  For those who do not, let's try to break it down.

If someone posts that he is selling an item, he will hopefully include enough basic information about the item (specs, condition, price, geographic location, shipping arrangements, complete eBay URL, etc) that prospective buyers have a reasonable idea if this is something they might be interested in.  The reason that this is an appropriate post is that the number of potential interested readers (buyers) is greater than one.

Now if a reader sees this post and has something ask the seller, it may or may not be appropriate to send the question to the List.  If the question is to clarify something of interest to ALL potential buyers that was not made clear in the initial for-sale post, it may be appropriate to post the question to the list, so that others will see the question and hopefully, the answer.  However, we would encourage the seller to make every effort to make the original post as complete as possible, as we really don't want to encourage list traffic based upon for-sale posts.  If a seller makes a habit of posting insufficient selling information and generating unnecessary traffic, we may reject them.  Questions to/from the seller about if an item is still available should be off-list.

If the question you have is only pertinent to you, (i.e. will you take this item in trade, what is the shipping cost to Mytown, etc) you need to send the question off-list.  This means that you should not hit REPLY, unless you immediately replace the To: field with JUST the seller's email address.  It's silly and wastes everyone's time to reply to all 700(?) TCML subscribers to say that you might be interested in buying something.  No one but the seller cares if you're interested.  Except for announcing a for-sale item, if you find yourself saying in a post that some individual should contact you off-list, odds are that YOU should be contacting THEM off-list.

The TCML is a technical forum, not a social network or chat room.  While we encourage civility, the moderators face a difficult choice in balancing social chit-chat with the goal of staying technical and minimizing inbox-fluff.  Please help us by asking yourself:
. Can your post stand on its own?
. Is it of general interest to all, or just one person?
. Have you added anything to the discussion (beyond "cool", "me too", or "I agree")?
. Does your post deserve to be archived?
If not, please consider sending off-list, rather than have us ask you to.

Thank you for your cooperation,
The Mod-squad (Chip, Gary, Greg & Dave)

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