[Balug-Admin] List "policy"/description tweaks

[Michael Paoli]

List "policy"/description tweaks.

These are changes I have in mind for the lists.  This isn't for the
(shorter) text that appears on our main http://[www.]balug.org/ web
pages, but rather on the more detailed Mailman list pages, e.g.:
http://lists.balug.org/listinfo.cgi/balug-talk-balug.org

What I show below is draft of text changes (I'd also do similar on
Balug-Admin regarding automagic subscrition to Balug-Announce).  The
text below doesn't include the relevant URLs (those would be linked
appropriately from the text), and there may also be some slight
tweaking of e-mail address configurations (most notably admins and
moderators for the lists, and any related @balug.org aliases - I'll
coordinate with Rick Moen to be sure anything we do there is and
works reasonably).

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Balug-Announce

This is a low-volume* announce-only (non-discussion) mailing list to
cover items of key interest to Bay Area Linux Users Group (BALUG) and
its members (e.g. meeting announcements/programs, important
announcements, BALUG "news" items of note, and items highly likely to
be of interest to many/most BALUG folks and related Linux community).

If you subscribe to any of BALUG's lists, you should subscribe at
least to Balug-Announce.

For more general BALUG and related discussion, see the Balug-Talk
list.

If you think you have something highly worthy of being sent to the
Balug-Announce list, send it to the Balug-Announce list moderators,
and we'll consider sending it along, including it, or providing a
short reference to it.  Note, however, in most cases it is typically
more appropriate to post an item to Balug-Talk, and if we deem it
appropriate to do so, we may then cross-reference the item posted on
Balug-Talk and/or include some of its relevant content on item(s) we
send to Balug-Announce.

Balug-Announce does not have the "digest" option enabled, as its
mailings should be important, and might sometimes be time critical.
Note however that the mailings may, however, be in a digest-like form
(e.g. a single mailing may include several items of note, and may
also have a very brief summary or subject of each noted near the top
of the e-mail's body).

Balug-Announce is publicly archived.

*approximately 1 to 3 e-mails per month - we aim to keep the average
at or
below 3 per month

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Balug-Talk

This is a public discussion mailing list for Bay Area Linux Users
Group (BALUG).  Items should generally be reasonably
appropriate/relevant to the group (e.g.  Linux and Open Source, in,
around, or including the greater San Francisco Bay Area, etc.).
Please try to use/update Subject: on mailings to reasonably summarize
what the posting is about.  If you feel compelled to post on
something rather to quite off-topic, kindly try to indicate so in the
Subject: (e.g. start it with "[O.T.]" or something like that).  And
of course, don't spam the list.  We intend to interpret the above,
notwithstanding the below, rather liberally.

Job postings - job postings/listings are disallowed*, with one
exception**.  Note however that there isn't a prohibition against
noting one's availability for job/contract work, posting a "position
wanted" item, or discussion about employment and employers, job
markets, recruiting/hiring/firing, whether or not not the list should
allow job posting and under what circumstances, how to and not to do
a job posting and where, etc.  The prohibition is to be interpreted
rather narrowly - just don't post a job listing or collection of job
listings, or something with the rather exclusive intent to refer to
your, your company, or your agency's job listing(s) or job site.

If you're looking for places where job postings are
permitted/welcomed, you may want to check some other resources (e.g.
SVLUG Jobs or BayLISA Jobs, or consult the policy regarding such for
SF-LUG).

Balug-Talk is publicly archived

NOTE: Subscribers to Balug-Talk should also be subscribed to
Balug-Announce.  If you're subscribed to Balug-Talk, but not
subscribed to Balug-Announce, you may find yourself automagicly also
added as subscribed to Balug-Announce.  If for some reason you don't
want that to happen (e.g. you use distinct e-mail addresses for each
to route/filter/sort more to your preferences), send an e-mail note
to Balug-Announce list admin indicating what e-mail address you don't
want automagicly added to Balug-Announce, and why, and we'll add it
to our exceptions list.

* Job posting policy (general prohibition) may be subject to
change/adjustment over time, mostly based upon majority (or at least
plurality) of wishes of users subscribed to Balug-Talk (e.g. policy
might be adjusted slightly or significantly, or BALUG might decide to
create a separate "jobs" list).

** If you have been scheduled and confirmed to give a
talk/presentation at BALUG, or have rather to quite recently given
such a talk, you are permitted to make a job posting/announcement to
BALUG-Talk.  It may be advisable to include short mention towards the
top of the e-mail that reminds folks how this specificly fits within
list policy (e.g. "Thanks for having me for the ... BALUG talk.  Per
the list policy, here are the currently open positions I'd like to
mention:").  Please, only one job posting e-mail per
talk/presentation.  It may be highly advisable to include relevant
links and/or contact information in the posting where folks will be
able to obtain updates on the position(s) (e.g. description changes,
position closed, additional positions opened, etc.) so one doesn't
feel tempted to "need" to make a follow-up posting to the list about
the position(s).

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See also, e.g.:
http://lists.balug.org/pipermail/balug-admin-balug.org/2007-October/000419.html
(starting about halfway down that item) for a bit of earlier
discussion on some of these items.