Posting Guidelines

This mailing list is moderated, which means all e-mail sent to the list goes first to a moderator for approval. If the moderator identifies a post as off-topic or inappropriate, the moderator will return the post via private e-mail with an explanation. Note: moderators do not edit or alter posts.

Our goal is to moderate the mailing list fairly and impartially. Still, moderators have to make judgment calls and, yes, we do make mistakes. If you feel that your post has been wrongly returned, you can discuss it with the moderator on duty, or ask for a second opinion from the other moderators.

Appropriateness

Do not send off-topic or inappropriate e-mail. Email may be returned by the moderators for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Nothing about bare feet or barefooting.
   1. If a post does not focus on barefooting in some way, or if a thread has drifted off of the topic of barefooting, the moderators will return the submission with an explanation.
   2. "Barefooting" means "of interest to those living (or trying to live) a barefoot lifestyle." It does not include pointers to pictures of bare feet for the sake of bare feet.
2. Sexual or fetish oriented in nature.
   1. In general, this includes anything of an erotic or fetish nature (as a main topic or other reference). See What we are not.
   2. Members of the SBL include children and parents of children, so please do not submit anything that you would feel uncomfortable writing to a 12-year old member of your own family.
3. Personal attacks, accusations, or incendiary language.
   1. This is intended to prevent "flame wars." If somebody writes something you don't like, you are, of course, welcome to respond politely to that person via private e-mail.
   2. Name-calling is not allowed. Disagreement is fine, but do it politely.
   3. We also recommend that posts avoid sweeping statements or generalizations about entire groups of people (especially if derogatory). Our members include a diverse group of people representing many ethnic, national and religious backgrounds.
4. Unnecessary profanity.
   1. Limited use of profanity can be accepted if it appears essential for relating a thought or experience (e.g., quoting someone), but we recommend using "dash-out" letters, e.g., "s---," etc.
5. Little new information.
   1. Posts that simply repeat or restate what others have already written will generally be returned with an explanation. This includes responding to a piece of e-mail with only, "I agree," or "Me, too!"
   2. A good question to ask when posting or responding to e-mail: "Do I think that over 900 people will find this interesting?" If you want to respond with "I agree", please also tell us why or relate a similar experience (i.e., tell us something new).
   3. If a thread under a subject heading drifts to a new topic (but is still relevant to barefooting), submitters are encouraged to change the Subject line to avoid confusion.
6. Excessive quoting.
   1. When replying to a post, please provide enough context to allow a reader to follow the flow of conversation. This can usually be done by including a short quote (only a few lines) of the previous text, though the Subject line can sometimes suffice.
   2. Posts with excessive quoting will be returned for editing. Excessive quoting generally means including more than several lines of quoting from the previous post or including its headers and/or footers. Quotes should generally be shorter than the reply. (Some email programs automatically add the full text of the previous message at the end of a reply. Make sure you edit or remove this, as appropriate.)
7. Quoting somebody's private e-mail without permission.
   1. It's generally considered inappropriate to quote private e-mail without the author's permission. If you obtained permission, you should state this.
8. Email that is really a private reply to one person.
   1. Sometimes a submission is actually a private reply to only the person who sent the original post. These should be sent directly to the poster via private email.
9. A frequently asked question.
   1. This means asking a question that has been asked many times and is answered in the Frequently Asked Questions list.
10. Language of the entire text other than English

Attachments and Text formatting

1. Attachments are automatically removed by the Yahoo! Groups software; the moderators never see it. If you want to show a picture to the group, you have three other options.
2. Please make sure that your email submissions are in "plain text" and not HTML text (not all email clients are set up to render HTML).

The Subject Line

1. The Subject line should have relevance to your submission. If the Subject line is left blank, or states: "Re: Digest 1234", it may be returned for correction. Submitters who read the Digest are expected, when they reply, to find the correct Subject line for the post to which they are replying.