List Guidelines

I think the EFA discussion list is great and well worth the price of EFA membership! I have always felt slightly isolated as a freelancer, but this provides a real sense of community.
—a Boston member

EFA's electronic mailing list is limited to EFA members. If you are an EFA member and would like to join the list, you must register. To remain a member of this list, you must remain a member of EFA. We will review your membership status periodically. If you are no longer a member of EFA, you will be automatically dropped from the list.

The list is an open forum where members can share their knowledge and questions about editorial freelancing and the freelance lifestyle. Lively, frank discussion is encouraged, as long as the exchanges are informative and respectful. Members are encouraged to feel a sense of community and to post their questions and comments freely. The EFA discussion list is moderated, but messages normally go directly and immediately to all list members. Please be certain your message is addressed correctly and that you want all your fellow freelancers to read it before hitting the send button.

Note: Joining the online discussion list, which is free to EFA members, is completely separate from a Job List subscription, for which members pay a modest fee to receive e-mail notices of job opportunities posted by clients.

List Managers

The volunteers who maintain this list are:

• Sheila Buff, list owner on behalf of EFA (Milan, NY)
• Chuck Brandstater, list manager (Cambridge, MA)
• Ida Walker, list manager (Binghamton, NY)
• Betty Welker, list manager (New York, NY)

If you have a problem or question about your subscription, please explain it by e-mail to EditorialFreelancers-owner@yahoogroups.com

About Yahoo! Groups

To manage your subscription from the Web and to access the EFA archives on Yahoo! Groups, the hosting service, you must complete a short, one-time registration procedure. Go to groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and click on the new member registration. Although you do not have to register with Yahoo to participate in the discussion list, you must do so to read and respond to messages from the EFA page on Yahoo and to access the archive of back messages.

Thank you very much. As a freelance copyeditor, I've learned far more from other freelancers than from any other source.
—a New York City member

EFA chose Yahoo! Groups to host the discussion list because the service is free, very user-friendly, and free of spam. In return, Yahoo! Groups places advertising in the e-mails you receive. We are aware that some people find this objectionable, but as an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization we feel that it is a reasonable trade-off.

We ask that you observe these guidelines:

1. SUBJECT LINES: If the subject of your message is new, please enter a subject tag and a brief, informative title in the subject line. Do not leave the subject line blank. If you are on digest, please be especially careful about this; a subject line of Digest #164 is not very informative.

2. SIGNATURES: All posts must be signed with your name and geographic location. In the interests of collegiality and networking we encourage you to include your e-mail address and use your full name, but a first name only is acceptable. Using a general geographic location (for example, Upstate New York, California, Central Florida) rather than a specific address is acceptable.

3. POLITE AND PROFESSIONAL: Your messages are being posted to your professional colleagues—good manners are required. Personal attacks, abusive language, and flaming will not be tolerated.

Note: Those who persist in ill-mannered behavior after being warned off-list by the list managers will be temporarily placed on moderation. Messages from moderated individuals are reviewed by the list managers and may not appear if, in their judgment, they contain blatantly offensive or abusive language. Acceptable messages from moderated individuals will appear; moderated individuals always have full access to all other list features. Moderation is lifted when the individual agrees to follow the list guidelines.

Thank you for thinking of those of us who toil out here in the boonies.
—a Columbus, Ohio member

4. TYPOS, ETC. Please do not correct the grammar, spelling, or syntax of messages posted by your fellow freelancers on the list. This is a discussion forum and the focus should remain on the ideas expressed. If you absolutely must point out an error, please do it in a private message to the culprit.

5. PRIVACY: The discussion list and its archives are open to members only, but bear in mind that messages can be forwarded to anyone. No Internet message is truly private; be circumspect, especially when discussing clients.

6. ON TOPIC (see also item 7 and TAGS): List members are encouraged to discuss any and all topics as they relate to freelancing. Please keep messages at least tangentially on topic and change message tags and subject lines as necessary.

7. REPLYING TO POSTS: Please do not respond to a post unless you have something substantive to add. Merely seconding an opinion is not sufficient. If a post upsets or offends you, please use your Delete key and re-read item 3.

For the first time, working alone in my colleague-less office, I can take a break and "talk" with other freelancers about relevant concerns. It's a great pleasure and a welcome respite.
—an Atlanta member

8. SNIPPING AND QUOTING: When replying to a post, please quote only the relevant material and snip the headers and footers. If you are on digest, please be especially careful not to send an entire digest back to the list—please do not just hit your reply key. When quoting another member's post, be sure that you attribute the quote to the correct person.

9. TAGS: We ask all members to use the appropriate tag in the subject line of each post. (See the TAG section below for complete information.) The tags in use for this mailing discussion list are BIZ, MKTG, TOOLS, USAGE, CHAT, and URGENT. Please use only these message tags; do not invent your own.

10. COPYRIGHTS: As editors and writers we need to be particularly vigilant regarding copyright violations. Do not post copyrighted material beyond accepted fair use. If you wish to bring something of interest to the attention of members, quote only a short excerpt and indicate the URL where it can be found.

11. ADVERTISING: Advertising is not allowed, with the exception of brief one-time announcements directly relevant to a member—the publication of a member’s book or article, for instance. Reports by members who have no financial stake in them on products, services, books, websites, etc. are not considered advertising and are welcome. When in doubt, please contact the list managers before posting (EditorialFreelancers-owner@yahoogroups.com)

12. JOBS: If you or a colleague wish to hire an EFA member, please post the job on the EFA Job List. Please do not repost job listings from other sources on the discussion list; if the job is of professional quality, provide the link instead. Posting general information about jobs, along the lines of "McGraw-Hill has been hiring a lot of freelance developmental editors in the textbook division—call Jane Doe at 555-5555," is acceptable, but only if you are certain your information is correct and that Jane Doe really wants to hear from more freelancers. Please use the BIZ subject tag.

13. LIST, YAHOO, AND MAIL DELIVERY PROBLEMS: Messages about this list, Yahoo problems, and individual technical problems receiving mail (missing digests, duplicate messages, sudden cessation of messages, and so on) should not be posted directly to the list. Please write to the list owner to discuss any difficulties.

Note: Spam filters at the ISP level are a frequent cause of missing messages. If you have not been getting list messages, it is possible that the posts are being bounced or deleted as spam before they get to your mailbox. EFA cannot fix this for you—please contact your ISP. In the meantime, you can always read the messages and post to the list from the EFA page on Yahoo at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/EditorialFreelancers.

14. SPAM: Don't spam. Offenders will be banned immediately and permanently without appeal.

Managing Your Subscription

We ask that you make every effort to manage your subscription on your own by following the instructions below. Please do not send messages about your subscription to the entire list. If you need help, please send a message directly to the list managers at: EditorialFreelancers-owner@yahoogroups.com.

Subscribing

You must be an EFA member to subscribe to the list. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: EditorialFreelancers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Unsubscribing

To unsubscribe from the list, send e-mail to: EditorialFreelancers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. Alternatively, you may unsubscribe on the Web by going to www.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and selecting "Unsubscribe" under delivery options.

Suspending

You can temporarily suspend yourself from the list (while you're on vacation, for example) by sending an e-mail to: EditorialFreelancers-nomail@Yahoogroups.com

To get back on the list after going to No E-mail, send an e-mail to: EditorialFreelancers-normal@Yahoogroups.com

Alternatively, you may go to No E-mail and switch back to a different delivery method on the Web by going to www.groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and selecting the appropriate choice under delivery options.

Posting

To post a message to all the other list subscribers will see, use this address: EditorialFreelancers@yahoogroups.com. Please use this address ONLY when you want to send mail to everyone on the list.

You can also post messages to the entire group from the EFA homepage on Yahoo! Groups at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/EditorialFreelancers.

Too Many Posts?

To reduce the volume of e-mails you get through the list, you have several options:

Thanks to all who sent me advice on contracts. It's wonderful how fast you get answers with a list like this.
—a Pennsylvania member

• You may choose to receive the postings as a daily digest (a single long message that contains all that day's messages). To choose this option, send an e-mail to EditorialFreelancers-digest@yahoogroups.com
• If you wish, you may choose not to receive messages at all and instead view and reply to them at the EFA page on the Yahoo! Groups website. To choose this option, which is identical to the No E-mail option described above, send an e-mail to EditorialFreelancers-nomail@yahoogroups.com
• We do not recommend choosing the Special Notices option. Messages to this list are not sent as Special Notices and you will not receive any postings.

You may choose any of the above options on the Web by going to groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and selecting the appropriate delivery method under delivery options. You may freely switch among all the delivery options.

Another way to reduce the volume of mail you receive from this list is to sort them by subject tag (see below) using the filters in your e-mail software.

It's a big help to those of us who are geographically challenged and miss out on the camaraderie of the in-person EFA meetings.
—a St. Louis member

Subject Tags

To make reading the messages more convenient, a subject tag system is used whenever possible. If your post doesn't fit a particular tag, or if you're uncertain about which tag to use, please use your best judgment and don't worry about it. The tag system is a courtesy to your fellow freelancers, not iron-clad law.

A tag is a short abbreviation that precedes the subject of a message. The letters of the abbreviation are capitalized and followed by a colon. The tag system makes it easier for subscribers to manage their mail and skip messages that are not of interest. And once again, please re-read item 3 above and use your Delete key as needed.

Note: You will not be able to filter out tagged topics if you receive the daily digest; however, you can scroll past tags you're not interested in.

For filtering to work, members need to use tags consistently. Please use these tags and no others. When the topic of a discussion thread changes, the poster changing the topic should change the tag and subject line as appropriate. The following tags should be used:

• BIZ: For discussions of all aspects of business except marketing (which has its own tag).
• MKTG: For discussions about soliciting work from clients.
• TOOLS: For discussions about tools of the trade. This includes office equipment (for example, computers and desk chairs), software and hardware, references (for example, dictionaries, style and grammar books, and websites), and the like.
• USAGE: For discussions about usage, style, and grammar.
• CHAT: For discussions not directly related to editing, writing, or the business thereof as described in the tags above. CHAT can be and often is on any topic, but please try to keep the messages related to freelancing, however distantly.

In addition, for urgent queries, any of the above tags can be used in combination with:

• URGENT: For queries requiring an immediate response.

Accepted by the EFA Board of Governors, March 2005

Accessing the Archives

Back messages are archived at: groups.yahoo.com/group/EditorialFreelancers. The archives are available only to EFA members.

E-Mail Address Changes

It is your responsibility to inform us if your e-mail address changes. Please send a message to EditorialFreelancers-nomail@yahoogroups.com. Please include both your old and new e-mail addresses in the message along with your full name. To make the change we will have to unsubscribe you at the old address and re-subscribe you at the new address.

You can also change your e-mail address yourself by going to groups.yahoo.com/mygroups and following the procedures explained there.

Attachments

No attachments are allowed. If you attach something to a message, it will be automatically removed.