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Mailing List
Introduction
History
How to subscribe/unsubscribe
Other
Introduction
The Watford Mailing List is for the exchange of news,
views and gossip about Watford F.C. It is a forum
for fans and has no official connection to Watford
Football Club, or the GloryHorns.co.uk forums.
The List may be compared to a discussion being held
across a wide community with shared interests in which
anyone is encouraged to participate. Its members are
expected to behave in a relatively civilized manner:
to observe minimum standards of courtesy, to follow
some basic guidelines (see below) and not to try deliberately
to wind other participants up.
As well as involving many members based locally,
WML is a lifeline to our overseas members who are
to be found in almost every nook and cranny on the
earth's surface from Bangladesh to the southernmost
point of New Zealand. Watford FC is its common theme,
with the occasional discussion of issues affecting
football more generally (by which we mean the round
ball game and not the version they play in America
or Down Under with egg-shaped objects). If you post
to WML, please bear in mind that your readers are
widely dispersed in their location, their age and
their view of the world.
This page provides Guidelines for the List. If you
have just joined WML, or are thinking of joining,
then read through it thoroughly in order to get an
idea of how the List works.
History
WML was begun on August 7th 1994 by Gary Smith from
South Africa. In April 1995, Tim Brennen took over
the running of the List, and in November 1995 it went
automated. As of July 1997, the List moved to its
current home at WFC.NET and is administrated by Leo
Mindel. The number of subscribers is increasing by
the day and as of September 2001 stood at around 1,100+.
How to get subscribed (and unsubscribed) to WML
You can subscribe to the List by sending an email to:- watfordml-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk. Your subscription will require approval by WML Admin so it may take a short while before you can join the List. Alternatively, you can use your web browser to go to the List's home page at Yahoo http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/watfordml/ and click on "Join This Group", which will require you to sign up as a Yahoo member (this is free but slightly tedious). Again as approval is required by WML Admin, it is not an instant process. Normally requests for subscription are dealt with within hours rather than days. By default, you will receive all mails individually. You can change this to the daily digest by logging in to your Yahoo account, going to the WML group and amending your preferences. If you do not have a Yahoo ID you can e-mail the WML Admin (watfordml@yahoo.co.uk) requesting the change.
Unsubscribing
To unsubscribe from the list, send an e-mail to:- watfordml-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk
making sure that the e-mail address that you are sending from is the same address as the one you subscribed with.
Other
So there you go. The Watford Mailing List. It is
good. Yes.
WAG and the Content Checkers: What is their purpose?
How to contact them
Watford Advisory Group (WAG) is a group of members
of WML who have been on the List for some time and
are considered to have experience on their side. WAG
has been established to assist the List owner (Leo
Mindel) with the administration of the List and to
deal with problems that occur from time to time.
Membership of WAG is not closed but is restricted
to approximately 20 members at any one time. WAG can
be contacted at wag@bsad.org.
If at any time you have an issue that needs to be
clarified with WAG or you wish to seek their advice
before posting to List please contact WAG.
As part of WAG, there are normally three individuals
who monitor the content of WML and are responsible
for enforcing these guidelines. The role of the content
watchers is not to beat you with a big stick, but
to try and co-ordinate the 1,100+ voices who form
the community so that our mailboxes are not filled
with abuse and trivia every day.
As in any informal discussion, wit and humour is
welcomed. Occasionally, however, it can become excessive
and you will be asked to continue such exchanges off-list.
At the present time, the content watchers are:-
Marc Proctor, based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Peter Goddard, based in Liverpool, England.
-- One vacancy --
Guidelines to behaviour on the List
a) The List does not tolerate spam, blatant attempts
to incite an argument, flaming or abuse, as these
activities will inevitably cause the List to lose
its purpose. Swearing is also outlawed, partly because
some subscribers' email systems have content filters
that reject such messages but also because messages
can often be read by young children (use ast*r*sks
if want to express the strength of your feelings).
Please do not send virus warnings to the List but
only to WAG, who will check whether they are genuine
before passing them on to the List. It is a matter
of some pride that with over a thousand subscribers
WML is relatively smooth-running.
b) Do not attempt to impersonate anyone. Emails have
to have your name as the author, or you must sign
the email with your name, or you must be prepared
to give your name to WAG, who will keep it confidential
if requested.
c) Impersonation of any member of Watford staff,
players, directors or of former staff members or players
will be met with an instant Red Card (see Discipline)
and you will no longer be permitted to post to or
receive the WML.
d) If you are asked by someone acting for WAG to
take a thread off-list or (for example) to apologise
for something, you must comply or accept any punishment
that WAG deems justified.
e) If you are unsure whether something should be
sent to WML, send it to WAG first for their review.
f) Although OCCASIONAL non-WFC related messages may
be acceptable, WAG reserves the right to warn individual
listees off if WAG feels that they are abusing this,
or if WAG are simply in a bad mood.
g) Libellous comments are not to be made on WML.
In all respects you (and not WML) are responsible
for the content of your own postings.
h) WML is NOT a democracy and is not a free and fair
society... WAG is acting on behalf of the list owner
Leo Mindel and in all respects WML is a private list
and will remain so.
Discipline
Depending in their seriousness, breaches of these
guidelines will lead to WAG taking one of the courses
of action set out below:-
1) Warning from WAG. This can take several forms
from a slap over the wrist with a wet bus ticket to
a big black dog with heaps of teeth. You are asked
to follow any warning that is given as it will avoid
further problems.
2) Yellow Card. This is a warning to behave yourself,
and essentially says that if you misbehave again you
will be given a Red Card and banned from the List.
A Yellow Card also suspends you from posting to or
receiving WML for 7 days. A Yellow Card remains on
file for six months, after which it will be wiped.
3) Red Card. This is a final warning and will see
your membership of WML withdrawn. To date only one
Red Card has been issued other than for impersonation.
It is a measure that WAG do not want to use, but will
used if necessary.
Appeals Procedure
If you feel that you have been unfairly treated by
WAG in being issued a Red or Yellow card you may appeal
against the decision within 24 hours by sending an
email to wag@bsad.org. Your email should set out the
grounds of your appeal clearly. On receiving an appeal,
the membership of WAG will consider the circumstances
carefully and hold a vote before making a final decision
as to whether to remove you from the List permanently
or temporarily.
Netiquette on the Watford List
Netiquette is the chummy neologism that acts as the
umbrella term for Dos and Don'ts on the Internet.
Some of the points below should be taken as suggestions
for how to act on WML. These are a bit like the offside
law: if you contravene it you will annoy people, but
are unlikely to be sent off. Other rules must be followed:
break them, show no repentance, and it's an early
bath for you.
1. Save this document for future reference.
2. A tip: When you first join WML, get a feel for
the List for a few days before sending your maiden
message. It is a pleasant courtesy if you then send
a few lines describing (say) yourself, the length
of your Watford support, your personal Watford highlights,
etc.
3. A common occurrence is that when someone sends
a message expressing a view, others write back with
a message saying something like "Couldn't agree
more". This sort of message is a waste of time,
bandwidth and energy. Worse, such messages are often
compounded by the person quoting the whole of the
initial message. Include only those bits of the original
message that put your reply into context. Remember,
some people pay by the byte for their Internet access,
so such messages waste their money.
4. On the Internet, words in capitals are taken to
equate to SHOUTING. People rarely respond positively
if you shout at them. So do try to keep it down. Some
of us are trying to sleep!
5. The World Wide Web site, "Blind, Stupid and
Desperate" (BSaD) contains masses of information
about the club and is updated very regularly. Before
asking WML for information, check to see if it is
available on BSaD at http://www.bsad.org. BSaD also
has no official connection to Watford Football Club.
While WML gives you the latest news and views, BSaD
is a high-quality online fanzine, containing detailed
match reports, funny bits, serious bits, along with
much else. Thus the two complement each other to keep
fans up-to-date with the state of Watford Football
Club.
6. When you post an article to WML from a newspaper
or magazine, online or not, make sure you mention
your source so that your readers can assess its credibility.
7. Whenever a subscriber's mailbox develops a problem
(problem No.1 = full mailbox), all list messages bounce
back to Leo from that person's address. When this
carries on over a prolonged time period, the address
is removed from the List. If this happens to you,
simply resubscribe when your mail system has been
sorted out.
If you are not going to be checking your email for
a couple of weeks or so, you can prevent Leo from
having to wade through hundreds of bounces from your
address by unsubscribing from the List.
8. Keep arguments civil. If you are going to send
crude insults to people, do it off-list.
9. Apparently, some people need reminding that one
subscriber (or any fraction of the List) cannot and
must not speak on behalf of the whole List. For example,
if, in a fax to the club or an article to a magazine,
you mention WML, it must be made clear that you are
not speaking on behalf of the List.
10. Occasionally a List subscriber writes an article
about the mailing list for some publication. WAG would
be a good place to send it for advice, because there
is a lot of "list experience" there. This
can be done through Leo if you prefer.
One more thing...
Messages you send to the watford-L address are automatically
forwarded to List subscribers. There is nothing Leo
or anyone else can do once you have pressed the Send
button. So, think before you send: it is not unknown
for messages to be dug out months and even years later,
in order to point out hypocrisy, superb (or wretched)
predictive skill, etc.
Another heavy consequence of this: YOU ARE SOLELY
RESPONSIBLE FOR MESSAGES FROM YOUR ADDRESS. Neither
Leo Mindel nor WFC.NET nor Inference nor Helios nor
WML takes any responsibility for what you write.
Thus, if messages from your address are praiseworthy,
you get the praise. Whereas, if they are appalling,
libellous or in any way illegal, you also take any
consequences.
If you think that shouldering all the responsibility
for your own messages is too burdensome, kindly unsubscribe
from the List.
The Happy Ending
You may have got the impression from the above that
WML is a swarm of angry Hornets insulting each other
on a daily basis. It isn't. In fact, we will tempt
fate and tell you that only one person has ever been
chucked off the List for bad behaviour. Long may it
continue.
Enjoy.
Leo and WAG
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