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What Is an E-mail Discussion List?

An e-mail disscussion list is a way to keep in touch, via e-mail, with people who share a common interest. The CICSIG-L e-mail discussion list lets consultants and contractors ask questions, exchange ideas, and share information, with all the other CICSIG-L members. The e-mail disscussion list comes in three "flavors":

• Regular (real-time) email as the messages are posted
• a daily digest
• an index of messages posted (the subscriber then can go to the CICSIG-L website, to read whichever messages they wish).

Discussion List Etiquette  

This e-mail discussion list is a professional forum for issues dealing with technical communication, specifically for independents. Please treat this forum, the several hundred members it serves, and the volunteers who maintain it with respect.

While this list is unmoderated (your messages are not screened before they are posted to subscribing members), the list manager and SIG manager do monitor list activity and have the authority to stop threads that they deem are inappropriate for the forum, as well as to suspend and revoke posting privileges.

As a general rule, if the matter is about technical communication and if you wouldn't mind if your next client saw your post and knew it was from you ... it's probably okay to post. When in doubt, ask the .

Message formats, signatures, and quoting

Some list members receive messages in digest form, which means they receive one long message each day. That message contains all messages posted the previous day. For the benefit of these list members and to help avoid security issues, please follow these guidelines:

• Create your messages as plain text, not HTML. HTML messages can contain malicious code. HTML messages also repeat lots of text and code in the digest.
• Sign your messages with your first and last names. We’re all colleagues, and it’s nice to know who you are, especially if you post a question and want useful responses.
• While it is helpful to have the context of the question you are responding to, quote only the specific questions or issues. At a minimum, delete the full series of messages that may be appended to the end of your message, keeping only the last message that you are responding to.

Posting Rules for CIC SIG  

To post a message to the CIC SIG discussion list, send e-mail to .

What Is Okay to Post?

Anything related to technical communication and working as an independent is okay to post. This includes, but is not limited, to:

• Questions related to working as an independent technical communicator (taxes, expenses, contracts, dealing with client issues ...)
• Questions about matters of interest to technical communicators (tools and techniques, portfolios and resumes, prying information out of SMEs ...)
• Requests for brainstorming on technical or design problems

What Is Not Okay to Post?

Like most other high-quality discussion lists, our list has rules. List members who violate the following list rules will be removed from the CIC SIG list, as explained in Posting Rule Violations:

• Do not post announcements of events (meetings, seminars, workshops, conferences, new product introductions, special product pricing ...). If you know about an event of interest to CIC SIG members, send a message to our Webmaster with the following information:
  • date, time, location, and a short description of the event (no more than 50 words)
  • a link to a Web site with more information.
  We will add your announcement to the calendar page of the CIC SIG Web site. Announcements that do not meet these guidelines will be rejected.
• Diatribes about anything may not be posted.
• Do not post negative comments about individuals. Also, do not take legitimate topics into personal realms.
• Off-topic posts are not permitted (For example, don't discuss gardening.)
• Do not post humor, personal opinions, or other information that is not directly related to the response to a question posted by another SIG member.
• Obnoxious posts will not be tolerated. An exchange of ideas is encouraged; rudeness and flaming are prohibited. If a posting makes you angry, please wait 24 hours before responding. Avoid personal insults.
• Do not copy (:cc) other mailing lists in your postings to the CIC SIG list. If you wish to post the same message to several mailing lists, send the post to each list in a separate message.
• Simultaneous posts to multiple lists encourages nonmembers to post to our members-only mailing list. This generates numerous error messages for the list owner, and tells nonmembers the address to our private list.
• Do not reply to everyone on the mailing list if you just want to reply to the person who sent the posting. Please look carefully at your email reply and make sure it is going to the recipients you intended.

Posting rule violations

Anyone who violates the posting rules will receive one warning from either the list manager or the SIG manager. A second violation will result in permanent removal from the list.

Creating a summary of postings

When you post a question to the list, you usually receive lots of great responses. We want to capture these responses and post them to the summaries page of the Web site.

As the original poster, you are responsible for compiling a summary of all responses you receive, both those that were sent to the list and those sent directly to you, and sending the summary to the list. SIG volunteers then do a light edit of the content and post the summary to the summary page.

A Word of Caution

Remember that the Internet is a very, very public place - and that words posted cannot be revoked. You never know when a colleague today will become a client tomorrow.

If You Are a New Subscriber...  

Subscription to the CICSIG-L list is available only to members of the SIG. If you are a SIG member, our Web interface to the list makes it easy to subscribe.

The address is: http://mailman.stc.org/mailman/listinfo/stccicsig-l. Fill out the online form, the click the Subscribe button.

If You Already Subscribe to the E-mail Discussion List...  

The list now has a convenient Web interface, located at http://mailman.stc.org/mailman/listinfo/stccicsig-l. Using this interface, you can access the discussion list archives and edit your subscriber options.

If you have any problems logging on to the Web interface, please send e-mail to .

Summaries of CICSIG-L topic discussions are now avaialble. These summaries are compiled by the original poster, and are lightly edited for relevance, grammar, etc.