Join our discussion list

Paid-up members are invited to join our busy email discussion list where issues of the day are freely debated.

You can join in via email or follow the discussions online by visiting the group's webpages.

A Yahoo ID is needed, but you can then tell it to use your normal email address for delivery.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/galha/

List moderation

GALHA works to ensure the smooth operation of the discussion list to maintain a useful source of information and discussion for the benefit of members. Here we mean 'discussion list members', not GALHA members since some GALHA members are not list members. The Committee or others with appropriate authority from it may assist with list admin, including the moderation of messages, the approval/removal or members and the maintenace of the online archive.

Messages sent to the list may be held for moderation. While we make every effort to be fair and consistent in the application of moderation policy, this is notoriously difficult in practise and we make no guarantees to that regard: moderators are volunteers working in their spare time and make their best judgments as the matters arise. Usually no correspondence will be entered into in regard to moderation: the moderator's say is final.

Inappropriate posts

A message may be judged inappropriate for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

• It deals with personal or specific disagreements with Committee decisions or actions. These should instead be directed to secretary@galha.org for formal consideration by the Committee. The list is not meant for the airing of personal squabbling between members or between members and the Committee.
• Commercial advertising.
• Copyright material without the consent of the copyright owner (except for brief extracts, allowed by law).
• Personal correspondence without the consent of the author.
• Not relevant to the subject of the list (see below).
• Dated and no longer relevant.
• Shameless self-promotion or fund-raising.
• A personal attack: you can criticize someone's ideas, opinions or actions, but not call them stupid. Deal with the topic, not the person.
• Material that is defamatory or otherwise unlawful.
• Too long (anything over 35kb should be checked to see if it needs to be that long).
• Contains large attachments.
• Part of back and forth argument that has grown tired and risks annoying the other members.
• A 'me too' message that doesnt add anything substantive to the discussion.
• Part of too-frequent postings by the same individual (perhaps more than 7 a week) unless that person has made an extraordinary contribution.
• Already cross-posted to many other discussions lists.
• Likely to be detrimental to the health of the list.
• In violation of other guidelines found elsewhere in this document.

These are intended to be the minimum set of principles via which healthy debate can be encouraged while avoiding the pitfalls of such discussions.

Legal disclaimers

• GALHA is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on GALHA email lists; posts represent the viewpoint of the writer and are not endorsed by GALHA. Anonymous postings are prohibited.
• While provided are criteria under which a post may be rejected, there is no duty for GALHA to do so.
• No promises are made in regard to the timeliness of response or moderator action.
• By subscribing , you agree to release and indemnify GALHA from legal actions and penalties arising from messages you post on the list.
• By subscribing to a GALHA email list or continuing your subscription, you agree to hold harmless the owners and management of the list and each and all individual subscribers, their heirs and assigns, employers and employees, agents and all other persons and legal entities against any claim or legal action which may arise from any usage of this mailing list, to the greatest extent permitted by law.
• Because GALHA reserves the right to monitor this list, users of the list do not have a personal right of privacy in any messages in the list, including messages marked "privileged," "confidential," etc.
• Posting of a message to this list does not constitute the official “filing” of a complaint, appeal, or grievance.
• GALHA reserves the right to make changes and modifications to this list and these disclaimers, terms, and conditions at any time for any reason. The current version is that available on the GALHA website in preference to any other.
• In the event that any violations of the rules listed above or other activities that violate the law or jeopardize GALHA's legal standing are brought to GALHA's attention, GALHA will take appropriate action at its discretion.
• GALHA reserves the right to terminate, without prior notice and without providing justification or explanation, the list access of any member.
• This mailing list is run without consent, permission, or knowledge of the corporations and/or other legal entities which own the computers and Internet connections over which the mailing list operates. These corporations and/or other persons and legal entities share no responsibility or liability.
• GALHA explicitly reserves compilation copyright on the collected messages of this mailing list. By sending a message to this mailing list, you grant GALHA permission to re-use, without notice, that message and/or any excerpts therefrom or derivations therefrom, for any purposes connected with the mailing list or the GALHA website. Individual messages are copyright the original authors. By subscribing or continuing your subscription, you agree that you will not re-use these messages outside of this mailing list without permission of the copyright holder(s)
• This list is operated by GALHA for information and discussion purposes. While it will endeavour to act with responsibility and respect, it makes all the rules and may break rules if deemed necessary.
• To the greatest possible extent permitted by law, GALHA disavows, disclaims and renounces any and all warranty, obligation, liability, or responsibility for any action, failure to act, debt, guilt, sin, or other consequence which may arise from any usage, failure to use, or indirect consequences to subscribers, their employers or employees, agents, heirs or assigns, common carriers, or any other entity which may in any way become involved with or impacted by this mailing list.

Ensuring an appropriate post

The list works best if the general focus is on topics of concern to the members it serves. These might include, but are not restricted to themes such as:

• Comment or feedback on items published by GALHA (online or offline).
• Discussion on what GALHA is doing, could do or should do. General and constructive criticism is welcome, but personal or specific disagreements with Committee decisions or actions should instead be directed to secretary@galha.org for formal consideration by the Committee.
• News items or action alerts of special relevance.
• Discussion of lesbian/gay/bisexual issues from a humanist perspective.
• Discussion of humanist issues from a lesbian/gay/bisexual perspective.
• Discussion of other issues from any of these perspectives.

This list allows you to post messages with attachments, including messages in HTML format - but please do not post large attachments and be aware of potential security issues.

Guide to conduct

Email removes the visual and audible cues we normally rely on in telephone and face-to-case conversations. Because of this, contributors need to be especially considerate of their choice of language and tone. Guidelines for good manners:

• Don't make debates personal. Avoid "you" and "yours".
• Try to be clear and concise.
• Do not imply fault. Misunderstandings occur frequently; work to resolve them without apportioning blame.
• Accept that having a different opinion does not make anyone "wrong."
• Don't present opinions as fact.
• Pay attention to accepted standards of spelling, grammar and punctuation. Proofread or spell-check before sending messages.
• Don't be dismissive.
• Say that you agree (when you do) even if only partially. Disagree without insulting others.
• Consider whether what you have said could be misinterpreted.
• Please don't "fight to win." The purpose of a debate is to exchange ideas, not to score points or demonstrate inadequacies.

Technical matters

Please be aware (whether you post messages or simply read the list) that this means that malware such as viruses can be transmitted in messages sent via the list, although the risk is low if posters act responsibly and keep their systems clear of infection. Malware can be embedded in HTML messages even with no visible attachments. Some years ago it was possible to activate a worm just by opening such a message in Outlook Express, but Microsoft subsequently plugged that loophole, and worms that exploit it are no longer prevalent.

Ensure (as you should anyway) that your system is protected:

• Anti-virus software installed and active at all times
• Virus definitions kept constantly up to date
• Scanning of all incoming and outgoing e-mail switched on
• Firewall software installed and active at all times
• Web browser security set to an adequate level

It's good practice to post plain text messages in plain text format. The same message in HTML format is typically at least twice the size and can be very much larger, depending on which mail client you use to create the message. Microsoft Outlook (but not Outlook Express) is a particular culprit in this respect.

If you routinely send messages in HTML format, please consider using plain text format instead when you aren't actually using rich text features (such as bold, italics, underlining, colour, multiple fonts or different font sizes).

Try to avoid posting attachments of types that can contain malware. This includes executable files and Word documents among others. If you do have good reason to post such a file, run a virus scan on it first to check that it's clean.

Try to avoid posting excessively large attachments, especially where the material is available (or can be made available) on the Web. In that case it's better to post a link with a short description instead.

If you hit your reply button, note that your reply will not go to an individual person, but to the entire list. Type a new message with a person’s individual e-mail address if you wish to address them privately.

More on Netiquette

If you're new to mailing lists, you may find it helpful to read one of the many guides to netiquette, the set of guidelines that has grown up among the Internet community over many years to help make electronic communication a productive and enjoyable experience for all concerned. Try one of these for starters:

http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/rfc1855/ - Netiquette Guidelines, by Sally Hambridge.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/primer/part1/ - A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community, by Chuq Von Rospach. Although strictly this refers to Usenet newsgroups, many of the principles are relevant to mailing lists too.

Sending and unsubscribing

To post a message to the list, address your message to galha@yahoogroups.com.

Do not send subscribe or unsubscribe requests to this address. Do not send personal e-mail intended for GALHA to this address. Your message will be forwarded automatically to everyone who is currently subscribed to the list (apart from those who have switched off message forwarding). It will also be stored in an archive available via the Yahoo! Groups website to new subscribers who join the list later and want to catch up on past messages. This archive is accessible only to members of the list. As an additional security measure, e-mail addresses are masked out in the archive.

To withdraw from the list, send a blank message to galha-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. If your mail client insists that you specify a "Subject", it doesn't matter what you enter here.

To contact the administrator of the list, address your message to galha-owner@yahoogroups.com or webster@galha.org.