Posting Rules    

EPIC Lists Posting Rules

These are EPIC's posting rules. Please note there's nothing here which is more than courteous EPIC-quette.

EPICBiz

The business list is for discussion of the e-industry, promotional opportunities, technology, EPIC business, committee/Board reports, and other business-related topics. This list is optional and you can subscribe as individual emails, daiy digests, or no-mail (in qhich case you can read the posts online)

EPICSocial

This list is intended to be the social meet-up of EPIC. That doesn’t mean that no business discussion will occur on here but that we can veer off of business and into other areas of life. This list is optional and you can subscribe as individual emails, daiy digests, or no-mail (in qhich case you can read the posts online)

FromEPICBoard

FromEPICBoard is the official announcement list used by the Board to communicate with EPIC members. Board reports, votes, and important information are posted on this list.

You MUST remain subscribed to the FromEPICBoard list and you MUST have your settings as individual emails or digests. As part of your membership agreement, you are NOT permitted to unsubscribe from the FromEPICBoard list, and you are NOT permitted to go "no-mail" on the FromEPICBoard list. This is the only way that the EPIC board can be assured of reaching all the members. There are very few emails, maybe a couple a month, coming on this list so it will not overwhelm you.

If you set your option to no-mail for the FromEPICBoard list, it will be reset back to digest. If you unsubscribe from the FromEPICBoard list this will be considered that you are quitting EPIC. The Secretary will contact you to be sure you want to quit EPIC. If you mistakenly unsubscribed, you will be re-added.

Committee Lists

Many committees have their own discussion lists. For more information, please refer to the section on Committees in the Policies and Procedures Manual.

Posting Rules (applies to all lists)

1. Signature lines are limited to 3 lines, excluding the sender’s name. Some leeway is given, since the text wrapping on the list makes a 3-line sig line in HTML appear as 5 on our list, but extensive sig lines will not be tolerated. Please, change it to a reasonable length or remove it before sending posts to the list.



2. Forwarding EPIC posts to outside lists or individuals is not allowed. This will result in immediate removal from EPIC lists, as it violates the trust of other members and copyright laws on electronic rights as well as being a violation of the Yahoo TOS. Likewise, forwarding posts ONTO EPIC lists without permission of the original sender will result in removal from EPIC lists.



3. When quoting material, identify the source. Links to the original URL, if it can be found online, are best. Do not repost an entire article/speech/etc. on the lists, even if germane to the EPIC population (new advances in readers, new electronic media propositions, etc.), unless you have permission of the original author to do so and it is not available in any other forum. Short excerpts of articles with source information is allowed and encouraged. However, book excerpts are NEVER permitted on lists. Since EPIC has such a diverse membership, book excerpts have the potential to be offensive. When posting information about your book, a blurb and review quote are fine. Links to excerpts are allowable. Do not post excerpts to the list.



4. Flaming is absolutely prohibited, and will not be tolerated under any conditions. If you are flamed, then do not retaliate. Instead, please contact the List Cops, List Maven, and/or Board of Officers to handle the violation. Mutual respect is expected in an adult organization.



5. Cross-posting is not allowed. If you need to send the same post to EPICSocial and to an outside list, please do it separately, so members of other lists don’t try to blanket join EPIC. Please, make sure whatever you are sending to EPICSocial is appropriate to the list and not a blanket announcement of no interest to the membership at large. In that vein, posting announcement of a book release is allowed on Social, but posting your full author newsletter is not. Please do not cross-post to both EPICSocial and EPICBiz lists unless it is something that MUST be seen by all EPIC members like reminders that registrations for EPICon are closing, in which case it is best to have an EPIC officer post it to all three lists and not try to do it yourself. Few posts need to be sent to both lists. Choose one and send it there. If it is a link to an article about new e-reader technology, send it to Biz. If it is an announcement of a sale at a publisher, send it to Social. Please, consider your choice carefully.



6. Advertising is NOT allowed. A mention of products or services in a sig line is acceptable, but notification of your full list of services in the body of a message is not.



7. NO POLITICAL, RACIAL, OR RELIGIOUS DISCUSSIONS ARE PERMITTED ON LIST. EPIC is made up of members from around the globe, in nearly every advanced culture and religion that exists. We exist as a forum of writers and industry professionals, regardless of race, creed or political affiliation. Screaming wars invariably occur when these topics come up; screaming wars and intolerance have no place on EPIC lists. If you need information of a political or religious nature, please post the question to the list and ask for replies off list. When a list cop calls a halt to a discussion that has crossed into political/religious ground, please understand that this is not censorship; it is a necessity of a working group of diverse individuals. There are plenty of other lists, author lists included, that allow these discussions. EPIC has not from the beginning and will not in the future.



8. Copy and paste the portion of the message you are replying to into your reply, so people can follow the discussion. If your e-mail program includes entire posts/digests when you reply, please turn this feature off or delete all but the pertinent portion you are replying to. This is very important, since members on digest should not have to see the entire digest several times to see your reply. Please, be courteous when replying.



9. Turn off your e-mail program’s HTML editor. Do not try to INSERT HTML into your text message. It only shows up for about half the readers, and it takes up a huge chunk of e-mail space to store it. It shows as garbage for another half. The list is text-only; please, don’t try to circumvent that.



10. Publishers who are also authors must post to the list AS AUTHORS unless specifically speaking from the publisher viewpoint, in which case they should state in their posts that they are “putting on the publisher cap” for a moment.



11. Change subject headers, especially when you are on digest! If you reply to a digest, make sure to change the header to the subject of your post. If you change subjects from post to post, change your header to make it representative of the post. INCLUDE a subject line on all posts. Do not press send until you check your subject line. Many people will ignore blank subject lines or digest subject lines. If you want someone to read and respond to your post, please take the time to do this.



12. Do not attach files to posts. Contact the EPIC Webmasters, Dan Reitz and Kathryn Sullivan, to have files posted on the web site...or contact the person the file is intended for off list and send it to them that way.



13. Please remember that reviews, release announcements, etc. belong on Social list and not on Biz list.



14. Partially quoted reviews are allowed. Please do not violate the copyright of reviewers by posting full book reviews. A snip accompanied by link to full is the best choice.



15. Keep press releases and promotional posts short. As stated, a review or release announcement is fine. A repost of your full newsletter is not.



16. While EPIC lists cannot be used for advertisement, members can share announcements of e-book related sales, discounts and contests on Social list. (Example: My publisher is having a buy one, get one free sale. Or... If you buy three books, you’ll be entered to win an eBookman.)

List cops/list mavens are willing to help you get acclimated. If you make a mistake, don’t panic. Everyone, even long time members, make mistakes in posting. Your current list cops are Karen Woods for Biz list and Brenna Lyons for Social list.

Violations of the Rules

The policing of the lists is up to the discretion of the List Mavens; they will occasionally post reminders of list etiquette and EPIC rules. The List Mavens will inform members BY PRIVATE E-MAIL if they violate list rules. After three warnings, members will be taken to no-mail on ALL EPIC lists for one week. If a member is put on no-mail five times, the next violation will result in suspension from ALL EPIC lists for 30 days. Continued violation of list rules after a 30-day suspension may result in removal from EPIC's membership.

Resolution List

If the Board receives complaints from 25 members about an ongoing discussion, the discussion will be moved to a Resolution List. Members interested in continuing the discussion will be subscribed to the list. A moderator will be appointed by the members and, after termination of the discussion, will compile a report about the problem and the recommended resolution for the Board.