[Buddha-l] Fwd: ADMIN> Basic points for posting on H-Buddhism (Muller)

[Richard Hayes]

Dear denizens

It look as though buddha-l is not the only list with a highly educated but oddly ineducable writership. I applaud what Chuck Müller has written in the following forward message and would like for buddha-l subscribers to comply with the same guidelines mutatis mutandis.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Charles Muller <acmuller at JJ.EM-NET.NE.JP>
Subject: [H-BUDDHISM] ADMIN> Basic points for posting on H-Buddhism (Muller)
Date: January 20, 2012 21:50:22 MST
To: H-BUDDHISM at H-NET.MSU.EDU
Reply-To: H-NET Buddhist Scholars Information Network <H-BUDDHISM at H-NET.MSU.EDU>

Dear Colleagues:

Since I took control of the list last Sunday, amazingly, more than 4/5 of
the mail that has come in has been either:

(1) Sent to me at my personal email address,

(2) Sent without a full signature,

or,

(3) Top-posted.


Rather than doing it like the above, please:

(1) Send your mail for H-Buddhism to <h-buddhism at h-net.msu.edu>.

(2) Sign your mail with your name and some sort of indication of your
affiliation or geographic location.

(3) Do not leave the remnants of previous discussions at the bottom of
your mail. Unless you are specifically referencing some documenation,
your signature should be the last thing at the bottom of your mail.

Up to now we have been responding to these errors of sloppiness with a
kind request to the senders to revise their messages. But with the time it takes us to do
this for each message, eventually we're going to feel like giving up and
just deleting the messages. I'm definitely not in favor of going the
other direction and turning H-Buddhism into an "anything goes" list.

Most subscribers to H-Buddhism are people with advanced degrees. I
don't see why this has to be so hard.

Regards,

Chuck

----------------------

:End Forwarded Message

I think the reference to the "other direction" for becoming an "anything goes" list may be an oblique reference to buddha-l, which has a well-deserved reputation among Buddhist studies scholars for anything-goes-ness. Myself, I love H-BUDDHISM and would find my life impoverished without it, but I also cherish the deeply annoying "anything goes" qualities of BUDDHA-L.

Forwardly yours,
Richard Hayes
Chair, Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico