Discussion List Policies and Etiquette

The IDL SIG Council, with the assistance of the Discussion List Manager, will enforce the following policies:

  • Please ensure that you have adequate virus protection software that incurs frequent automatic updates.
  • Use proper Discussion list etiquette when answering postings.

Start a discussion by sending an email to  idldiscuss@mailer.stc.org. Make sure you use the email account that is registered with STC.

Reply to a discussion by clicking Reply in your email progream. When you to an existing discussion, your message goes to everyone on the list. To reply only to the sender (“off-list”), copy their e-mail address from the top of their post in carats following their name:

From: Elmer Fudd efudd@wb.com

Then paste that address into the “To:” field of a new message.

When replying to the whole list remember that your e-mail program will attach the entire original message. If you trim that before sending, everyone else will appreciate the courtesy. At the least, you can cut the system-generated information that’s going to show up at the top and bottom of your post anyway. Sometimes you can get away with leaving only a sentence or two, just enough to preserve the original idea.

If you receive the Discussion list in Digest format, a default reply could be huge, as it will contain all the messages you received in your digest copy. So when replying, be sure to either trim the text to the heart of the matter, or cut and paste the necessary parts into a new message.

  • Take special care not to reply in an inflammatory manner. Flaming will not be tolerated.
  • Do not attempt to add attachments to an email. Arrange for such things off-line with the intended recipient.
  • Use Plain Text for posting all messages to the Discussion list. If you post in HTML, your post will be rejected automatically by the system. Check your email application’s online help if you need help in specifying that ALL messages you post to the Discussion list will be in Plain Text. Many email applications permit you to specify the format for a specific address.
  • Any postings to the IDL SIG Discussion list, such as announcements or job postings for positions in the Instructional Design field, can be posted to the Discussion list as long as the following appears at the beginning of the SUBJECT line of the message:
    • [ANN:] for announcements
    • [EVENT:] for informing of an event.
    • [JOB:] for job postings
  • Any SIG member who is self-employed can announce an IDL/training-related event on the Discussion list with the [ANN] email lead-in. The IDL SIG does, however, encourage national corporations to purchase advertising space on either our Web site or in our quarterly newsletter, IDeaLs. See Advertising Rates & Policies for details.
  • Please do not post résumés to the Discussion list if you are seeking employment. Your privileges on the list might be suspended for doing so.Entities wanting to advertise their company or services through our Discussion list can contact the newsletter editor, Crista Mohammed.

Sharing List Responses

When you post a question to the Discussion list and you receive individual responses, we ask that you take a few minutes to:

  1. Organize the responses you receive into one email.
  2. Send the email to our List Manager, who will post it to our Web site for our members to quickly access later when the information applies directly to their circumstances.

List Abuse Consequences

The IDL SIG Leadership Team has set forth the following process for handling Discussion list abusers. A Discussion list abuser is defined as any person who flames another member or misuses the Discussion list for other than STC- and SIG-related discussion or violates any of the policies stated above.

The Leadership Team will follow a three-step process before suspending Discussion list privileges:

  1. The IDL SIG Manager or designated team member will counsel the member via email and/or telephone on the policies and purpose of the IDL SIG Discussion list.
  2. If the member does not adhere to the counseling advice, then the IDL SIG Manager will inform the member that they are being placed on probation (length of probation to be set by the IDL SIG Manager or the Leadership Team), where all postings from this member will be monitored before being released to the IDL SIG Discussion list.
  3. If the member completes the designated probationary period and again abuses the Discussion list, the IDL SIG Manager will then inform the member that they are being removed from the list. Notification will also be sent to the STC office with a letter from the IDL SIG Manager stating why the SIG is removing this member from access to the SIG’s Discussion list.