Montreal Techwriter Forum Posting Rules
(updated August 12th 2005)
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Greetings!

This is your monthly reminder of the posting rules
on this list. If you are a new member and just starting
to post, please take a minute to review the rules so
that we can ensure a high quality list.

The rules here are simple: absolutely no personal
attacks, defamation or excessively aggressive behaviour
will be tolerated here. All participants share the
responsibility to communicate in a respectful manner
in order to encourage a constructive dialogue in a
friendly atmosphere.

When posting a question to the list, please try to make
it as specific as possible. Vague questions are difficult
to address and answer, so they may be largely ignored.
This list is intended to provide support to new and
experienced technical writers. We'll be happy to help
you with whatever challenges you are facing with your
projects, but we're not here to train you in the art
of technical documentation.

This list is designed to promote the intrinsic value
of the writing profession. Any post that belittles,
devalues, or attacks the integrity of the writer or
the writer's contribution to a project is not welcome.

If you have any questions or comments, please email
me at jdave@.... These rules may change from
time to time, so if you're unsure about something,
feel free to ask me about it!

I do hope you enjoy your stay and experience in
the Montreal Techwriter Forum!

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About Spamming
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ABSOLUTELY NO SPAM WILL BE TOLERATED. This includes
marketing ads and invitations to join unrelated lists.
Doing so can result in your immediate removal from the list.
If you are unsure whether your post may be considered
spam, send it to the moderator (jdave@...)
and he will decide whether it is suitable or not.

Elist spam also includes postings that invite users to visit
websites that act as generalized FAQs, but are really
only vehicles to sell web advertisements. These postings
will be rejected and the members removed from the elist.

This elist is not a recruitment agency and it will not
provide you with a job simply by asking all 450+ of its
members to forward you any jobs that become available.
Therefore, any posts that are similar to the following
will be considered as spam:

* "Please send me notice of any job that becomes available"
* "Here's my CV. Please send it to any job that becomes
available"
* "I really want to move to Canada! Please help me find a
job!"

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Member Moderation
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This list is largely unmoderated. This means that your
posts should generally appear on the list without
impedement. However, if the owner/moderator of this
list feels that your posts violate the rules stated
above, the following will occur:

1. You will receive a warning and suggestions on how
to improve the quality of your future posts.

2. If the warning is ignored or the inappropriate
posts continue, your posts will be moderated (ie:
the moderator must approve them before they appear
on the list). The moderation will continue until
the moderator feels that you understand how to
post properly.

3. If the poster cannot conform to the posting
rules or the spirit of this list, he/she will be
removed from the list.

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Trimming your posts
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Please only quote the minimum of what you need to from a related post
to provide context for what you want to say. Requoting the previous
post in its entirety is wasteful for bandwidth and makes it that much
more difficult to read. Chances are we already read that post, so we
don't need to read it again.

So before clicking the Send button, please take a moment to make sure
you trim out the parts of the previous post you don't need. If you do
this by accident, don't worry about it (no apologies necessary). But
if you do it too much, you will receive a friendly off-list note about
it from the moderator.

===========================
1. JOB/CONTRACT POSTINGS
===========================

If you have a job or contract offer in the technical writing
field, feel free to post it on the elist. Make sure you put
as much information about the offer as possible.

Please remember that this elist is designed to serve the
needs of technical writers in and around the Montreal
area. The bulk of the membership is located in this area.

1. If the job/contract offer is located in a city outside of
the Montreal area, please indicate if the work can be
done remotely, or if it is to be an on-site position, if your
company is willing to pay relocation costs.

2. If the job/contract offer is located in a foreign country
to Canada, please indicate if the work can be
done remotely, or if it is to be an on-site position.

3. If the applicant must work in a foreign country, please
indicate if a work VISA is necessary,
or if the employer is willing to provide a work VISA for the
person who is selected.

If the moderator requires this type of information, he will
email you at the address you used to post the job/contract
offer. If you do not respond to his questions within 7 days,
he will reject your post and remove you from the elist.

Job Spam and Identity Theft are very real threats and
the moderator wishes to keep the members of this elist
as safe as possible. Thank you for your understanding
in this matter.

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2. ACCESSING THE MTL_TECHWRITER WEBSITE
=====================================

I've received a few emails about this issue, so I've
decided to add it into the monthly posting message.

Even though you are a member of this elist on
Yahoogroups, you may not necessarily have access
to the mtl_techwriter website
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mtl_techwriter/).
This website not only gives you access to the
message archives, but also related files, photos,
database entries, bookmarks, and polls.

To access the website, you must created a Yahoo
ID linked to the email address you use to access
the elist. It's one of those dumb Yahoo rules...
Believe me, I ain't happy about it.

Creating a Yahoo ID is completely optional, but if
you want to access the website, you will need to
create one. Go to "Sign-in and Registration Help"
at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/edit/ to find out
more about it.

--
Be seeing you,

Dave
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John David Hickey
mtl_techwriter Moderator
jdave@...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mtl_techwriter/

A llama?!?! He's supposed to be dead!
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