HSG announcements and discussion lists guidelines

The purpose of these guidelines is to facilitate communication on the mailing lists managed by HSG, to inform subscribers of the procedures to access and share relevant information on the lists, and to inform of the procedures that take place in the event of a breach of the guidelines.

1a. The purpose of the HSG announcements list is to keep each other informed about HSG and relevant political and community activities.  Anyone who lives in, works in, or has, or has had, a relationship with Haringey and shares HSG’s politics [as set out in our Newspaper] can sign up to this e-list.  Posting on this list is mainly to:

  • inform about HSG activities,
  • share relevant information about activities from other groups and individuals.

In order to keep the number of emails low, members of the list should keep to the purpose and spirit of this list and only post about activities and relevant information. This is not intended as a discussion list – please use the HSG Discussion List for that purpose.

1b. The purpose of the HSG discussion list is to discuss issues connected to HSG activities and other relevant political and community activities.  Anyone who lives in, works in, or has, or has had, a relationship with Haringey and shares HSG’s politics [as set out in our Newspaper] can sign up to this e-list.

In order to keep the number of emails manageable, members of the list should keep to the purpose and spirit of this list. It is not intended to announce news or activities – please use the HSG Announcements List for that purpose.

2. Please respect others on the lists. There is zero tolerance for abusive language directed at individuals and their views, as well as hate speech or active discrimination based for example on someone’s race, ethnicity or nationality, sex, gender identity, sexuality, class, economic status, disability, or political views.

3. Anyone on the lists can post to the lists, and content is available to all. Emails are not filtered and content is not checked unless there is an alleged breach of the Guidelines.

4. In the event of an alleged breach of the guidelines, and to protect the integrity of the list:

  • A moderator, or moderators, elected at and answerable to a general meeting for a period will consider, if there has been a breach and if so they will send a reminder of the guidelines to the subscriber held to be in breach.
  • If the breach continues, content posted by the subscriber will be moderated, and the subscriber will be asked to apologise.
  • If the subscriber declines to apologise the subscriber will be invited to discuss the matter at the next general meeting so that the issue can be collectively resolved.
  • In the event this cannot be resolved, the content posted by the subscriber will continue to be moderated for a period of six months.
  • If the breach continues, the subscriber will be taken off the relevant list for 6 months, and then may re-join the list only after submitting a formal request that will be discussed at the next general meeting.

Questions around these lists shall be raised at HSG meetings, where moderator actions are reviewed and collective decisions are taken in relation to any related issues.

5. Tips for better emails:

– Have consideration for your readers.  Before you click ‘send’ ask yourself:

  • Should this email go to everyone on the list, or just to one or two individuals?
  • Does the subject line convey what the email is about?

– If the information you want to share is long, try to summarize the main points and attach the longer version to your email (e.g. an article, a leaflet, etc.)

– Make any attachments, and check the ‘To’ and ‘Subject’ lines, before you start typing the message – that way you’re less likely to forget them.

– For attachments, use the most common format you can, not the most recent (e.g. Word docx format can’t be read by versions of Word earlier than 2003).

– Some systems have problems handling large attachments. Try to reduce the file size before sending your attachment (e.g. except for quality printing, most photos look fine at less than 100dpi).

6. People on these lists can unsubscribe themselves at any time.

Agreed 12/1/21