(meteorobs) PLEASE READ: List Etiquette (Posting Guidelines) for 'meteorobs'

[Lew Gramer]

Certain recent threads of discussion on 'meteorobs' have been very informative 
and interesting - to me, and I'm sure to many of our readers.

However, it seems an appropriate time to review the Etiquette of our list, 
which is VERY STRICTLY enforced, for the convenience of our 700+ subscribers 
and thousands of other online readers...

First, what is 'meteorobs'?

 1) 'meteorobs' is about meteors: any discussion directly relating to meteors 
(including meteor photography, fireballs, meteor showers, meteoroid streams, 
meteor spectroscopy, radiometeors, questions about basic meteor observing and 
recording, etc.) is ALWAYS WELCOME here.

Certain other topics (comets, asteroids, weather, observing equipment etc.) 
are also welcome, if they are at least indirectly related to meteors, and if 
our list is not currently too busy with our main topic - which is meteors. :)


2) 'meteorobs' is a diverse community - meteor science and other astronomy 
professionals, experienced meteor amateurs, and rank newcomers (as well as 
members of the press) are all welcome and very much present here. And our 
membership encompasses most of the countries of the world. Some readers have 
older mail systems that don't handle HTML well. If possible, post plain text.


As a consequence of both of the above points about our forum, our rules of 
decorum MUST BE ENFORCED on this list: otherwise, a community like ours could 
not survive, let alone thrive as it has done over this past decade...


With that said, here are some things which are NOT welcome on this list:

 o discussion of the relative merits of one astronomy club or another;

 o short-comings (real or perceived) of an individual observer or group;

 o discussion of individual member opinions on "what this list is for";

 o ANY COMMUNICATION which is - or may be SEEN as - disrespectful to other
   list members, e.g., profanity, "lighten up, Mac", religion, or politics.


Any of the above discussions may be directed to the List Administrators at any 
time (except the profanity! :>). We  (the "list elves") will always listen 
respectfully to your views. Here is the address for the List Administrators:
  owner-meteorobs at meteorobs.org

Please take note of this address!


However, if you choose to direct any of the above UNWELCOME communications to 
the LIST itself, and you persist in doing so after having been notified, we 
WILL moderate your posts - and if it persists, we will remove and ban you.

I have done this last only very, very rarely: I do not enjoy it, at all. 
However, it IS sometimes necessary, in order to maintain our community. I 
hope that all of our members will understand and support that necessity.


If you have any questions, concerns or comments about any of the above - 
please DO let me know at "owner-meteorobs at meteorobs.org". And please do 
NOT reply to this message directly over the list, with any such comments.


Thanks to all, and clear skies around the world!


Lew Gramer
owner-meteorobs at meteorobs.org
http://www.meteorobs.org