A bit of background here, regarding the off topic discussions, that might be helpful.
The list rules that are attached to this list on the Freelists server are the original rules that were put up when the list was created back in Bookshare's ancient history. Those rules have been amended, clarified, added to, etc. by the last three volunteer coordinators (and probably even before that). Anyone who wants can dig through the list archives and find all those posts, if you're enough of a masochist. (Kidding about the masochist bit. Well, sort of kidding. grin. Going through the list archives is a real pain).
Unfortunately, since Freelists (bluntly) stinks when it comes to doing administrative tasks for anyone who is a moderator of a list there, the version of the list rules that's listed on the freelist server was never changed to reflect those amendments, clarifications etc., making it quite outdated.
I'll paste below an excerpt from a bigger post regarding list etiquette regarding what's appropriate posting here, that Scott Rains laid out as the rules for volunteers to follow on the volunteer list the last time the off topic posts turned into an issue. Perhaps this might be useful as input for the review of how OT posts and more are handled going forward.
Judy s. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Bookshare Volunteer Discussion List Etiquette Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:39:38 -0700 From: Scott Rains <scottr@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>Finally, here is a review of some of the practices that we use to keep list communication efficient.
We use clear descriptions of the email in the "Subject" line.When a question has been answered we refrain from responding further and let the thread die.
Some messages -- such as Cindy's Books Being Scanned and the Wish List -- are for announcement only.
Other messages have some general interest to the group even after many responses but the topic tends to drift or shift slightly. Then we either change the title to more accurately reflect the new subject or prepend the capitol letters OT before the original subject to indicate that the thread is "off-topic."
Paradoxically, OT messages are not forbidden. There are any number of subjects that add to the life of the Bookshare volunteer community but do not address immediate technical problems in volunteering.
The letters OT tell us two things. First that we may safely skip the message without leaving a fellow volunteer stranded with a problem and second that each member of the list has an extra responsibility to let that thread fade out so that it is less difficult to find and answer on-topic issues of immediate concern to a volunteer's scanning and proofing.
This list is excellent with firsthand knowledge of technical questions about assistive technology as it is used in scanning and proofing. General questions about membership, administration, or AT are subjects for other Bookshare departments such as Membership or Customer Support: support@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
This list is also an excellent human repository of knowledge about the history of Bookshare from a volunteer perspective. All Bookshare policy however is determined by staff.
The list has a high volume of messages. On-topic messages tend to need rapid responses because on-topic messages deal with issues related to scanning and proofing that volunteers are engaged in at the moment. Often they can't move ahead with a project until someone responds. thanks to all who help by posting both questions and answers!
Scott Rains Benetech Fellow, Bookshare Volunteer Department
