Organization Development Network

ODNet Email Discussion List Norms & Netiquette

1. Our lists are self-managing, especially our norms, which we all jointly create and enforce.
2. We welcome your thoughts, ideas, and feelings about organizations and OD here on ODNet. We hope this medium supports the expression of the fullest sense of who you are and what you believe.
3. We welcome all views, especially the ones that seem to contradict the prevailing wisdom or consensus.
4. Please do not copy the whole list on your short messages, such as, “Me, too,” or I agree.”  Messages like that should be sent directly to the sender and not to the whole list. 
5. Please be generous in sharing your praise and respectful in voicing your criticisms. You are encouraged to confront the ideas with which you do not agree, but not the people personally who hold those ideas or their motivations.
6. Please include only a few lines of text from the incoming message in your response.  It's especially helpful to delete the header or footer from the incoming message, and all of the other unrelated material if you’re responding to a digest.  Our lists use the standard “>” convention at the beginning of a line of quoted text, which most email programs insert automatically when you “reply” or “reply to all.”  Guidelines for embedding your responses in an incoming message are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_posting#Inline_replying (opens in new window)
7. Please make sure that the subject line of your message accurately reflects the subject of your message.  If you are replying to a message in a digest, please ALWAYS create a subject line that reflects the subject of your message.  If you are introducing a substantially different angle on the original subject, please add a few words to the existing subject line, but please don’t change the subject line just because you're offering a different idea on that subject."
8. Please flag ads in the subject line by starting with the word "Ad.”  In the interest of transparency this should always be done if you are posting about any service, workshop, website, etc. that involves any cost, non-profit or not.
9. Our lists allow the attachment of small 100kb pdf documents, to enable the sharing of information and resources among members.  Attachments are saved on the server, and a link is included at the bottom of the message for those subscribers who might wish to download the attachment.
10. Our lists are also self-managing in terms of the technology.  Please manage your own account for changes, unsubscribes, vacation holds, etc. To do this,
    • Go to http://www.odnetwork.org/resources/discussions/
    • Select the list name on the left side of the page.
    • Click on “Member Options”
    You can also reach our list servants from the list's page.