BASICS
This list is lots of fun, but in order to keep it like that, especially with our increasing membership, everyone must follow these guidelines.Remember:
If "musictherapy@yahoogroups.com" is in the subject line, everyone in the group will see your message. Think before you post to the group.
Consider:
- Does everyone need to see this message, or just one or two people?
- Have you deleted everything non-essential from the message to which you are replying?
- Is your topic among those approved for the list?
- Are you maintaining confidentiality and good ethical standards?
TOPICS
Anything related to music therapy practice is an appropriate topic.Instruments, techniques, songs, methods, business, ethics, government relations...
these are all potential topics for conversation. We love hearing stories from your work, and we share our joys, frustrations, and sorrows about clients and patients.
Advertisements, political statements, and non-music therapy topics are prohibited.
If you have any questions about a topic before you post,
contact Betsey or Kathleen to get approval.
ADDRESS LINE: Normally, you'll just type "musictherapy@yahoogroups.com" and the message will go to the group. If you reply to a message from the group, that address will automatically appear in the address line.
If you are simply thanking an individual member of the group for something, or if the member has requested that people reply "offlist" (to RSVP for an event, for example),
then you need to change the address line from the group address to the individual's address. You can find individual e-mail addresses in the body of their message to the group.
We can keep from cluttering up each other's mailboxes if we remember to reply to individuals only, when only one person needs to see our reply.
If you are inviting replies to your personal e-mail (i.e. "anyone who would like more information, please contact me offlist"), please include your e-mail address in the message so it will be easy for people to see and use.
FORMATTING
The #1 rule is CLARITY. Remember that when you reply to an e-mail message, many e-mail programs automatically include the full text of the previous message. If you don't edit that out, your message to the group will be cluttered and confusing -- and people who receive all the messages for one day in "digest" form will have to wade through the muck in several messages.Think of all the messages on a topic (with the same subject line) as a conversation. When we talk to one another, at most we repeat the last thing the other person said. People who read through several messages on a topic should see primarily new information in every message.
We know that everyone is pressed for time, but we ask that you take a moment, before you hit "send," to make sure that:
1. All non-essential information is removed. This includes headers, the text ads and other text that appear at the bottom of each message, and anything in the message to which you are replaying that isn't necessary. (Check your e-mail settings: you may be able to prevent your e-mail program from automatically including the previous message in your reply and then you can just "cut and paste" the specific part of a message into your reply.)
2. TOP-QUOTE! This means that when you reply to someone, you make sure that their words appear first in your message followed by your reply. No one should read what you are saying and have to scroll down to find out why you said it.
DO:
>>>so I'm wondering whether people like the small or large cabasa.
Betsey, I like the smaller one because my students can handle it more easily.
Kathleen
DON'T:
I like the smaller one, because my students can handle it more easily.
Kathleen
FROM: Bkbrunk@att.net
TO: musictherapy@yahoogroups.com
SUBJECT: Cabasas
DATE: May 15, 2004 12:01pm
Hi everyone! I have an instrument question -- actually, I have an opinion
and I want to find out if I'm right! :-) So I'm wondering whether people like
the small or large cabasa. Let me know -- I'm interested in your reasons, too!
Betsey
Also:
Do not put "Re:" in your subject lines. This will be done automatically by YahooGroups for all messages that follow an initial
"topic" message. This means that everyone can always find the original message in a topic by looking for the subject line that
does NOT include "re:".
REALLY. WE MEAN IT.
Now that this list has become so large (we're soon going to be at 100 people!), we need to follow these rules, to keep us all sane. If you need help in figuring out your e-mail program, or learning how to cut-and-paste, use the "help" resources you have, and then ask Betsey. If you need to have your e-mail address changed, or you're having trouble getting your mail (check your spam folder first!), e-mail Kathleen.From now on, we will send you one reminder about list guidelines and then we will unsubscribe you. We'll be glad to resubscribe you right away, but hopefully the hiccup will remind you how important the guidelines are!
MANAGING YOUR YAHOOGROUPS ACCOUNT
You can go to http://groups.yahoo.com, sign in, and change the way you receive your "musictherapy" list e-mail. You can choose to get each message individually, you can choose to get all the messages for one day in a digest, or you can choose to read your mail at the YahooGroups site (a good choice when you're going to be away for a while and don't want all the messages coming to your inbox).There are other choices you can make -- try visiting the YahooGroups site and seeing what's up. Don't worry about those "recent messages" you see on our home page. They're very old. We chose, soon after starting this list, not to archive messages, for confidentiality reasons. Those few messages you see on the home page of our group are the first messages we sent.