Montford Email List

The Montford email list is a neighborhood discussion list. This is a place where you can exchange news about the neighborhood, including new stores, street construction, development, city services, robberies and break-ins, traffic, parking, stuff for sale, places for rent, where to eat, where to get a great plumber, schools, and more. Think of the list as your neighborhood post office, playground or supermarket, where you'd meet and chat with your neighbors. We’d like this to be a fun and useful place in cyberspace and have created a few rules to manage the process: The Montford email list is a G-rated list: Messages should be appropriate for all ages.

Email Address Normal - receive individual email posts Digest - receive daily email summary of all posts

RULES Posts should relate to Montford and Asheville. While Montford is part of the solar system, it's a good idea to keep your messages about somewhat more local topics. While people who live outside of Montford are welcome to join and post, if you don't live or work in Montford you may not use this list to advocate or promote a particular cause or issue. In other words, while this is an open, welcoming list, it is first and foremost a list by and for neighbors. Posting occasional announcements is okay, but they should relate to Montford or the vicinity, and should not be part of a mass emailing. Generally speaking, the Montford email list is not a bulletin board. This is a neighborhood discussion list. Please sign your messages. It helps people decide whether or not you should be added or removed from their wills. It also gives your posts more credibility. And it's a list requirement: anonymous posts are not permitted. (If your email address shows your real name, that's sufficient.) You do not need to post your address, phone number or other personal information. Please don't post a message in all capital letters. No cross-posts: Messages should be written specifically for the Montford email list. (Exceptions are made for messages of an urgent nature, which affect the health or safety of neighbors.) Spam of any kind is prohibited on the Montford email list. This includes long signature lines that double as advertising or sloganeering, and advertising disguised as "informational messages." Spammers, anonymous posters, and others who are disruptive to the list may have their posts moderated or be banned from the list. Posting someone's home address or phone number or posting private or personal correspondence without their permission is not allowed. Personal attacks, ridicule, harsh or uncivil language or profanity are not allowed on the Montford email list. No questioning somebody's motives for making a post. The list is not the place to air a personal grievance against your neighbors. Any post that is intended to inflame (also called "trolling") is not permitted. In other words, keep a neighborly tone. Post reasonably and responsibly. That means don't feel obligated to reply to every message that moves you. Too many messages from the same person over a short period of time or on the same subject ("overposting") are a form of clutter. Single-issue posting --posting only on one subject over and over again-- isn't permitted because this list should not be used as anyone's personal soapbox. Before posting, please consider whether the message is of interest to the general list reader or is better suited to a limited distribution list (example: meeting minutes should go only to those present at the meeting and do not belong on the Montford Email List). Please don't use the list as a reference library. It's okay to ask if somebody knows where to get the best espresso in the neighborhood; asking for an espresso recipe is something best done through Google. When answering somebody's question, it's a good idea to actually provide an answer: Don't say, "There's a video repair shop on Montford Avenue near the coffee shop, but I don't remember the shop's name." Please refrain from "me, too" or "I agree" posts that don't add new information. Neighbors are welcome to advertise yard sales, cars for sale and other personal items now and then. The Montford email list may not be used for commercial advertising or to sell something that you are in the business of selling. For example, it's okay to offer your beach house for rent, but if you are in the business of renting beach houses, that's not allowed on the list. You can offer your home for a writer's group meeting, but you can't advertise your writing tutorial services. It's fine for teenagers, college students and others who are not full-time professionals to offer their tutoring, yard-work, babysitting or other part-time services. It is also okay for a business person or professional to introduce themselves to the list and say what they do for a living, as long as the message doesn't come across as an advertisement. Snip, snip, snip: Before replying to a post, cut out any parts of the original message that aren't relevant to your reply. In other words, you shouldn't include the entire original message in your reply. This is particularly helpful to people who subscribe to the list digest because they see all the replies to the replies in a single message. Don't send virus warnings to the list. The Internet is full of virus hoaxes, and hoaxers like to perpetuate these pranks. Because attachments (and forwarded messages) are removed before messages are sent to list members, computer viruses cannot be spread through the Montford email list. Anyone who collects or harvests list members' email addresses for spamming, sending advertisements or any other purpose, or who is a spammer, will be banned from the list. These rules are aimed at promoting a list that is friendly but focused, flexible but not a free-for-all. The moderators will make whatever exceptions they find necessary or helpful to meet the needs of individual neighbors or to serve the overall needs of the group. By default, replies go to the sender. To post a message to the list put list@montford.org in the TO line of your message or use "Reply To All". To reply only to the sender, use the "Reply" button. However, it's okay to use "reply to all" to reply to both the list and the sender on some occasions, and to have both the list and sender's email address in the TO line of your message. Uncivil posts may be rejected. All messages express the views of the person making the post. List members are responsible for the content of their messages. As the Montford email list grows, it's important to have a set of rules that make cyberspace a more pleasant and workable space. We hope that these rules make for a civil but fun neighborhood email list.