Effective Date: 26 July, 2012
[Revised 2 July 2015]
E-Group Rules & Etiquette
Thank you for being part of our community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.
By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions, shared files and content to that best suited to the medium. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions should be directed to the Geological Society of America (GSA) via the ‘Contact Us’ link on this site. Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. This site is maintained by online community managers. In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.
[Code of Conduct Violations Policy]
The Rules
- Don’t challenge or attack others. The discussions and comments are meant to stimulate conversation not to create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may.
- Don’t post commercial messages or employment advertisements on any discussion list, resource library entry, or other area where others might see it. Contact people directly with product, service, or employment information if you believe it would help them.
- GSA maintains an active Geoscience Job Board. Please reference the Job Board for employment opportunities. To place an ad, please contact GSA’s Advertising Manager.
- Use caution when discussing people and products. Information posted on the lists and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, advertising and antitrust laws.
- All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, libelous, slanderous or illegal materials or comments are strictly prohibited. Rudeness, negativity, personal attacks, harassment, bullying or cruelty are also prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
- Please note carefully all items listed in the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted.
- Remember that other participants have the right to reproduce postings to this site unless you specify otherwise.
- Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate list or library. Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message.
- All messages must add to the body of knowledge. We reserve the right to reject any message for any reason.
Discussion Group Etiquette
- Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, location.
- State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
- Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response before the original posting.
- Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from.
- Send messages such as “thanks for the information” or “me, too” to individuals–not to the entire list. Do this by using the “Reply to Sender” link to the left of every message.
- Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list.” Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing e-mail addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new e-mail address. Simply change your settings.
- Warn other list subscribers of lengthy messages either in the subject line or at the beginning of the message body with a line that says “Long Message.”