Line length: 76 characters max.

ATTACHMENTS: Please avoid attachments going to the whole list - it wastes bandwidth and is costly to many members

FORMAT: ** ASCII only ** - NOT HTML format. Some readers can only read plain text messages - please be considerate.

Advertising: Non-Profit advertising ONLY. *** NO COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING ***

Test messages: not advised. Address all problems to the list co-ordinator.

SUBJECT LINE: Use your subject line. NEVER LEAVE IT BLANK! Please utilise the codes such as RFI - Request For Information and also put (long), (mood) or Trip Report if appropriate.

POSTING and REPLYING
====================

Please consider what you want to achieve before posting, or what the author of the previous article is trying to achieve before replying. If you are unsure, go and make a cup of coffee, come back, sit down and think for a bit.

Do you need to mail the whole list? In many cases e-mails go to SABN which only should really be directed to the author. Such as the answer to a question just e-mail the author.

Reply only to the sender for RFIs (Requests for Information). Think about whether or not all 450+ subscribers are interested in your material - if so, send it to the list

When writing a message or replying, please take the time to look at your message. Has your mailer quoted the entire article for you? Do you really need to have that entire quoted message in there?

Finally if you are not sure, or new to the net, watch the group for a few weeks and never be afraid to ask the list owner (and other people) for advice!

GUIDELINES FOR POSTING
======================

Try to keep the message short and concise (but you MAY also send longer messages, e.g. trip reports). To make the message easier to read, do not write over 76 characters on one line.

The messages should be written in English as there are people from many different countries on the server. Many senders may feel uncomfortable with this but remember that it's often possible to understand even very poorly written English if the reader has knowledge of the language.

If the subject is about Afrikaans names, then of cause the message could be in that language, but try to put a brief summary in English at the end.

Don't send images or other attachments in the message. If you want to publish, for example, an image, put it on your web page and send a short message to SABIRDNET telling where to look for it.

If you don't have a web page, send a short message to SABIRDNET tell what the image shows, its format and size, and ask interested people to send you an e-mail, and then send the image only to those interested.

This also means that members using web browsers for e-mail should ensure that they send plain text messages and NOT HTML attachments. Most web browsers automatically send in HTML format so check your setup.

REASONS WHY ATTACHMENTS ARE NOT WELCOME
=======================================

A lot of people would hesitate to open and read documents for the very relevant fear of so-called macro viruses in documents sent as attachments.

It takes far more time to download an attached document, compared to the same amount of text included in an ordinary e-mail (very noticeable via modem). It is especially exhaustive when people send images, which often are large.

When replying to messages, remove the unnecessary lines and only leave the lines necessary in order to understand what you are replying to.

The messages about "moods" or long reports about ordinary birds seen are more controversial but as many readers enjoy them I suggest that they should be gladly allowed. But netiquette does NOT prohibit adding a descriptive word on the subject line. e.g. '(Mood)', '(Long)','(Trip Report)', etc.!

Please, do not discuss non-bird related topics (like "spam" messages or preferred message contents) on the list. Instead, send your comments to the list owner. Many non-bird related topics surface again and again (like spam messages, message contents.) and there's no use starting the same discussion AGAIN.

Add a SHORT signature at the end of each message (in some programs this can be done automatically with a signature file) giving your name, e-mail address and the general area that you live in. e.g. Jenny Norman, [email protected], Durban.

Other discussion groups

Waders-L: Discussion for Waders (world-wide)
send a message to [email protected] subscribe waders-l < your surname, first name >

Seabirds-L: Discussion on Seabirds (world-wide)
send a message to [email protected] subscribe seabird <your surname, first name<

Birdchat: Discussion on Birds (world-wide - dominated by North America)
send a message to [email protected] subscribe birdchat <your email address>

THE MAJORDOMO SERVER
====================

Problems? Inform the list administrator

NOTE: The mail server only accepts mail in straight ASCII text.

TO UNSUBSCRIBE:
E-mail [email protected] with the following line in the TEXT body NOT subject header of your e-mail:

Please do NOT post the message to the entire mailing list!

The following commands are accepted by majordomo.

subscribe sabirdnet < address > "Full name" Subscribe yourself to sabirdnet.

subscribe sabirdnet-digest < address > "Full name" Subscribe yourself to the sabirdnet in digest format.

unsubscribe sabirdnet Unsubscribe yourself from sabirdnet.

index sabirdnet Return an index of files you can "get" for sabirdnet.

get sabirdnet < filename > Get a file related to sabirdnet.

who sabirdnet Find out who is on sabirdnet.

info sabirdnet Retrieve the latest FAQ

intro sabirdnet Retrieve the introductory message sent to new users.

Commands should be sent in the body of an email message to "[email protected]". Multiple commands can be processed provided each occurs on a separate line.

Commands in the "Subject:" line are NOT processed.

Birdlife South Africa
P.O.Box 84394
Greenside
2034 South Africa

Tel: +27 11 789-1122
Fax: +27 11 789-5188
E-mail: [email protected]

Webpage created 27 February 2000 © Zululand Birding Route e-mail: [email protected]