Morehouse's Email Lists

This official policy document describes behaviours required of those who would post to the campus mailing lists.

Questions about this or any other IT matter should be directed to the IT HelpDesk.

Lists? What lists?

Browse through the Electronic Mailing Lists general info page for an answer to that question. The sort version is that we have several email lists that can be used for campus-wide distribution of emails.

Approval and Moderation

The all-campus lists are moderated, which means that postings must be approved by management before they go out. Send to the list as if this weren't the case: a copy will be forwarded to the moderation team for handling. These approvals are handled by the Provost's Office, with IT serving as backup. In order to be approved, postings must meet a set of criteria described below.

Stopping your own message

When you send something to a moderated list, that posting is held for approval and you get a brief email telling you so. Near the end of that email is a URL (web link) you can click if you want to cancel the posting before the moderation team deals with it. If you want to remove your email from the pending-approval queue, hit that link. Once the moderation team sends out an email, though, it's out, and there's no stopping it.

Timing and Hurries

Postings are reviewed within 3 business hours. If you have a rush job coming up, notify the moderation team by email to list-approval@morehouse.edu in advance or staff might not be around immediately to deal with the request. After-hours emergency posters should follow the normal escalation procedures to reach IT management.

Main Rule

The main rule for approvals is that only emails that are important to all list members in the current timeframe will be approved. Emails that only apply to a subset of the membership, that are too late (or too early) to do any good, etc., will not be approved. We have many lists: one of them is likely capture the target audience.

Specific Content: Jobs

Job opportunities for students should be accumulated by the Career Counseling office and posted on the web; weekly summaries of those opportunities may be posted to the student list, but more frequent postings are out of line.

Specific Content: Death

Notices about the death of Morehouse-related individuals should be sent to HR and/or Communications. Those offices will determine the scope within which to make the announcement and will post appropriately. In general, notice should go to the most specific group possible (just one department, for instance).

Format

Send plain text; HTML and Microsoft-encoded emails must be avoided. Some email clients call this "rich text" or "text with formatting". If you can make things Boldface or Bigger, it's not plain text. Just send plain text.

Speling, and they're Grammer, and; like. you Know-it's

Those sending messages to the lists are responsible for the grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of the text: the list moderation team does not filter things based on these criteria, does not serve as proof-reader. For the most part, if you present something badly that otherwise qualifies for posting, it will be allowed, and your error will be made public. Please check your note before sending, perhaps by running it past a colleague.

Email Etiquette

Emails sent to the lists are held to high standards of email etiquette (reviewed here , here , here , and here ). Make your message brief but complete; format it well; always use a descriptive Subject: line; don't copy anybody when you send to a list.

Content Directness / The No Gimmicks Rule

During the summer of 2006, billboards appeared around Atlanta with terse comments on them like "I eat buggers". Many wondered. Eventually, the boards were changed to present advertising for the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming. While somewhat clever, and perhaps appropriate for billboards, that sort of thing has no place in the campus-wide email setting. Emails sent to the lists should be brief, clear, and direct. Posts that use advertising-like tricks and gimmicks will be rejected.

Attachments

Attachments should not be sent to these lists. Mass distribution of attachments is a bad plan; we prefer not to do it. If you want to get a file out to lots of folks, put that file on the web and email the URL to everyone. (See the file uploads document.)

Attachments, Part II

If there is absolutely no way to get your message to the list without an attachment, keep that attachment small (size limits are listed on the main lists page), make sure it's in PDF or JPG format (not Word or PowerPoint), and make sure to send some plain text with the file. That text must give your readers enough information to know if they should view the attachment. Any information contained in an announcement-type attachment (like a program flyer) should be included in plain text so that any readers who don't see the attachment still can know about the event.

Membership Changes

Most users are added to the right campus-wide mailing list when their email account is created, but sometimes changes in position, etc., result in folks not being on the right lists. The best remedy is for the user to subscribe himself or herself to the proper list. Failing that, contact the moderation team at the address above and request that you be added to the correct lists (or removed from the incorrect ones).