_WE_ have a problem

Ladies and Gentlemen of the list, _we_ have a problem.

At our local Scout show a week or so ago, I was talking to another
Scouter who suddenly said to me, "You're on Scouts-L!" He had
recognized my name from my nametag. Some of the things that he told
me about his experences with this list are very disturbing.

He said that he had been a subscriber for about 5 years, but had only
posted 5 times. And _each_ time, he was flamed. He now refuses to
post. From things said on the list over the last several years, this
is an ongoing problem.

First, we need to remember that we are _Scout_Leaders_, for the most
part. Whether we are from England, Australia, Canada, Austria, the
USA, or even Borneo, we all follow the same basic set of laws, no
matter what their wording. We need to be sure that when we post, or
reply to one - publicly or privately - we follow the Scout Law and
the Golden Rule.

This is _not_ UseNet, where flaming is a way of life, and the news-
group is ruled by those who can withstand the flames the longest or
intimidate others the best. This is Scouts-L, where our standards
are suppoised to be a bit higher.

Second, we need to read, and occasionally reread, and _follow_, the
list usage guidlines that Jon sends to each new subscriber (and has
in the archives for those who may lose them). These guidelines are
there to make sure that we _all_ have a good experience with this
list.

*The lore of the list says that there is a limit of 200 lines to the
length of a message. Most don't need to get that long.
*Posting in Mime or HTML is considered rude and unnecessary.
*Quoting entire messages is also considered rude and unnecessary.
*Line length should be kept to 72 characters.

There are many others. Some are harder that others to follow, but
we need to do the best we can. As I said before, we need to follow
the Scout Law and the Golden Rule. If we all do that, we will all
have a better experience. It's mainly a matter of courtesy.

One last thing on the line length - there are occasionally problems
where some subscribers will get a truncated message or digest. In
virtually every case that I have looked at, this has been because the
poster didn't use the line length limit, and the line wrapped leaving
and orphan "." on a line by itself. That causes UNIX type machines
to abort reception at that point, resulting in the cut off message.

Let's all do our best to follow the guidlines, so that we can _all_
enjoy this resource to the maximum amount possible.

YiS,

Chuck Bramlet -- I "used to be" an Antelope! WEM-10-95 Member DNRC
ASM Troop 323, Firebird District, Grand Canyon Council, Phoenix, Az.
mailto:chuckb@aztec.asu.edu
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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of
comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge
and controversy. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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