First and foremost, Lowlands-L is meant to be a forum for asking questions and exchanging information in a supportive, non-intimidating and friendly atmosphere. Its continued success depends on the cooperation of all its members. Lowlands-L subscribers are expected to follow these rules and guidelines:
Quick menu: Etiquette Subscription · Subscription choices · Unsubscribing · Resubscribing · Leave of absence Posting to the List · How to post · Keep discussions relevant · Keep subjects separate · Stick to the subject title · Edit quotes · Give credit · Identify yourself · Do not send attachments · Formatting · No troublemaking!
All exchanges must be in a courteous and friendly tone.
Personal communication should be conducted privately.
Participants may announce availability of pertinent publications, software, conferences, programs or employment, but no commercial advertising is permitted.
Results of searches conducted through Lowlands-L should be posted in summary form with acknowledgement of all contributions.
Specific policies and political events that have direct relevance to language and culture may be discussed. Without this direct relevance, political issues and opinions are outside the discussion scope.
There is free choice of language in Lowlands-L postings, but the following language varieties are preferred: Afrikaans, Dutch, Zeelandic (Zeêuws and Western. Flemish), Limburgish, Frisian (any variety), Low Saxon, English and Scots. You need not limit this to standard varieties; postings in any dialect are welcome.
Subscription choices Subscribers should consult the general user manual of Listserv® (http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8d/userindex.html) for instructions. Commands to invoke special settings must be sent to the address listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org. Special subscription settings (including “digest” setting) may also be requested from the list owner (admin@lowlands-l.net).
Unsubscribing Send the message "signoff lowlands-l" to listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org. If you have changed your address and have been forwarding your mail, the server will not recognize your new address. In that case you need to write to admin@lowlands-l.net and ask to be taken off the list, giving your name and your old address (the one under which you subscribed). What several subscribers have been doing instead of signing off is blocking email messages from the Lowlands-L address from being received by their email accounts. This is totally and utterly rude! It results in the list manager receiving numerous error messages and having to figure out who the person was in case they had changed their address. The names of these people go straight onto the black list, and if they ever reapply to Lowlands-L (which has happened) ... well, the word they will receive, if any, will most certainly not be "welcome."
Resubscribing It has happened many times that former Lowlands-L subscribers want to return to the List. They are most welcome, unless they had been previously expelled. They should apply like any new subscriber by answering the questions listed on the homepage or on the pages in the various languages.
Leave of absence Subscribers may take leave of absence (“vacation”) by invoking “vacation mode,” either by sending the appropriate command to listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org or by requesting the setting at admin@lowlands-l.net. Instructions are found in the manual (http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/lowlands-l.html).
How to post Only subscribers can post messages to the List. Posting is "controlled," i.e., postings go through an approval process and upon approval appear bundled with other postings in issues with specific subject lines. To submit a message for posting, send the text to lowlands-l@listserv.linguistlist.org.
Keep discussions relevant Please remember that we deal with the "Lowlands" area. This is not synonymous with "Germanic" but excludes German, Luxemburgish and the North Germanic languages (Scandinavian, Icelandic and Faroese). It is perfectly fine to mention these related languages, and any other languages and their cultures for that matter, especially wherever there are parallels or connections that are useful in understanding topics that are within our main subject area. However, the focus must remain on the Lowlands languages and cultures. It is all right to sidestep within a discussion, as long as the discussion returns to the original focus. However, this should not be seen as an excuse to start a new, extraneous subject line.
Keep subjects separate Do not submit a single posting in which more than one topic is discussed. ("Topic" equals "subject line".) This also applies when you respond to other people's postings.
Stick to the subject title If you start an entirely new discussion, you are welcome to create your own subject title. The administrator may or may not adopt that title. (The more general the title is the better is the chance that he/she will adopt it; otherwise he/she will generalize it.) If you respond or add to previous postings in an already existing subject line, please use the already existing title of that discussion thread as your subject heading. For instance, if the current title is "Language varieties" and you respond to what someone wrote about vowels in Flemish dialects, don't choose something like "Long o and u in the dialects of Southern Flanders and speech habits of young Belgians" as your subject heading; stick to "Language varieties," if you like it or not. This facilitates sorting submissions at the administrative end. If the administrator feels that the discussion has changed or a new discussion has branched off an existing one, it is the his/her job to give it a new title.
Edit quotes When you reply to what someone else has written, don't just hit the reply button and write your reply before or after the quoted text. Edit out whatever is not essential, most definitely the Lowlands-L masthead and footer. (They are going to stay, for good reasons.) Also, don't do what some do: they follow this rule nicely until they run out of things to say, and then they let the rest of the quoted text dangle behind their "signature."
Give credit Don't forget to say who the writer of the text is to which you are responding. (When you hit the reply button your system most likely credits the administrator or "Lowlands-L," the sender, even if they did not write it.)
Identify yourself Anonymous postings are not permitted and will be ignored if anonymous submissions keep being sent despite a warning. Readers must be able to see who wrote a posting. Many people use automatic "signatures;" they are great, as long as they are not attached. (No attachments allowed!) Otherwise, your name must appear either with your email address or at the end of your contribution. It is all right to have your surname appear in one place and your given name in another place within the same posting.
Do not send attachments Attachments (i.e., attached documents or pictures), including signature attachments, are unacceptable. The list server strips most attachments off submissions and would probably remove the rest during final distribution if the administrator did not remove them already. Anyway, sending attachments without prior approval from recipients is a big no-no in "netiquette." So, please put everything you wish to convey inside your email submissions.
Formatting Please bear in mind that submissions will be posted in plain text format and that special colors and formatting are likely to disappear. Also please do not use only capital letters in your submissions.
No gratuitous postings please. The LOWLANDS-L forum does not serve as a chat room. Messages (“postings”) from members are published bundled by topics newsletter-style. Interspersed lighthearted comments are welcome to enhance a friendly, welcoming atmosphere. However, in order to keep the volume of mail within a reasonable range, postings must be based on substantial points of discussion and relevant information sharing. Purely social interaction ought to be limited to private communication outside the forum.
No troublemaking! Any evident pattern of deliberate troublemaking will result in dismissal and banning of the offending party. This includes “trolls,” namely people who subscribe to discussion groups in order to incite “flame wars” by posting flauntingly provocative or offensive statements or arguments (“flame bait”) designed to attract predictably incensed responses (“flames”).
By all means, please feel free to submit postings to Lowlands-L, even if you have never done so before. If you make a gross mistake, the administrator will tell you so privately and will have you resubmit it correctly before anyone else sees it—which isn't the end of the world. If the mistake is not so bad, the administrator will correct it once or twice in the hope that you will eventually get the hint.
If you have never posted but are considering getting into it, it's a good idea to watch the "masters," the "old hands" or "veterans" on Lowlands-L, namely those subscribers who contribute frequently and have been around for a long time (a handful of them since the very beginning in early 1995!)
Good luck, and keep us posted!
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