ICON Mailing List Guidelines

Purpose:

To share information that is of interest to people in the hobby of collecting antique glass and porcelain insulators and related items.

Demographics:

Insulator Collector On the Net has over 2,200 members; about 1,660 who are subscribed to the mailing list. They represent a very broad and diverse group of people. Subscribers range from age 10 to 90, from beginners to advanced collectors, and include experts in various specialty fields. In addition, this list includes all of the insulator magazine editors, most of the insulator book authors, contacts for all the local insulator clubs, and most of the National Insulator Association officials. As of July 2012, about 42% of the 1,660 mailing list members (693 people) are either subscribers to Crown Jewels of the Wire and/or are active members in the National Insulator Association. For reference, there are about 1,750 families listed in the 2011 Directory of Crown Jewels of the Wire Subscribers & National Insulator Association Membership.

Affiliation:

The mailing list is privately run and primarily financed by Bill Meier as a communication resource for the insulator hobby. It is not affiliated with any organization or publication in the insulator hobby.

Moderation:

The ICON mailing list is not moderated. All posts are sent automatically by the mailing list server to all ICON members. They are not reviewed, edited, or held back in any way. The people in "single message mode" will get these posts within minutes and the people in "digest mode" will get them in the following day's digest which is sent out in the early morning.

Disclaimer:

Because the ICON mailing list is a venue, in the event that you have a dispute with one or more users, you release insulators.info (and our officers, directors, agents and employees -- collectively, insulators.info) from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes as well as any assertion of libel or slander. By becoming an ICON member or accessing or posting on ICON, you agree to hold insulators.info harmless from any such dispute.

Members who enter into transactions with others using this mailing list (ICON) or any information posted at this web site (http://www.insulators.info) do so at their own risk.

Guideline: (definition)

 A statement or other indication of policy or procedure by which to determine a course of action.

Posting Guidelines:

1. Messages should be on the topic of collecting antique glass and porcelain insulators and related items. Specific comments or discussions involving only a few individuals should be sent to the involved parties only. When replying to a general post try to make the reply of general interest as well, and post it to the mailing list for the benefit of the other members.
   
   
2. Messages should show respect, honesty, and professionalism. Inflammatory statements, name-calling, profanity, and "lecturing" are not allowed. Disputes are a private matter. If a dispute should arise publicly, both parties may be asked to make a public apology or in more extreme cases removed from the mailing list. Please think before you write and press "send"!
    
3. Messages should not involve discussions of politics or religion.
   
   
4. Messages should not accuse individuals, organizations or publications of possible misconduct. If there are potential issues, they should be privately brought to the attention of an appropriate person or organization. (see note below)
   
   
5. Private email should not be forwarded to the list without prior consent of the sender. If such a message is sent to ICON, the poster will be asked to make a public apology on ICON.
   
   
6. Messages sent to the mailing list should not be reprinted in other publications, newsletters or web pages without the consent of the author of the message.
   
   
7. Messages should not contain any unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature. In addition no message will contain any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation.
   
   
8. People who represent organizations or publications in the insulator hobby in some official capacity are expressing their own personal opinions unless they explicitly state otherwise and they include their affiliation and position. Those people who do not represent organizations or publications in the insulator hobby in some official capacity should not imply that they have the authority to do so.
   
   
9. Messages should not be chain letters, spam, hoaxes, virus warnings or similar messages. Often times these messages will urge you to send it to everyone in your address book, etc. If you have any question about a message that you think should be sent to ICON, please send it to for content review.
   
   
10. Postings of "For Sale or Wanted Lists" are allowed. Please keep these lists under 20 items. Longer lists can be posted on the For Sale section of the web site.
    
    

Buyer/Seller Cautions:

Some members have privately questioned whether posting seller and buyer cautions is in conflict with the ICON guidelines. This is an important issue because we believe that such posts, properly and carefully worded, are beneficial to ICON members and to the insulator collecting hobby in general.

Such posts should follow these three guidelines:

1. Any ICON member who posts a public caution assumes the responsibility to write only from personal, factual, first-hand experience with the supposed troublesome individual.

2. Caution posts must be limited to an objective, factual discussion of only the Who, What, When and How.

3. Once an ICON member has posted a caution concerning a supposed troublesome individual, other members should avoid piling on. However, if a third party has had first-hand dealings with the supposed troublesome individual and that third party feels the need to add to the caution then they may publicly post their objectively stated, factual, first-hand information with the Who, What, When and How.

ICON believes that thoughtfully worded, respectful caution posts concerning troublesome buyers and sellers have been and will continue to be beneficial to ICON and to the insulator collecting hobby in general.

Violations of the Guidelines:

The mailing list maintainer will make a decision how to handle a violation based on the nature of the post and previous violations by the member. Often this will result in a warning, but the followings actions are available:

• No action is required
• The member is cautioned privately
• The member is asked to apologize on ICON
• The member is warned and ICON is notified of this action
• The member is set "read only" and ICON is notified of this action
• The member is temporarily suspended from the list and ICON is notified of this action
• The member is permanently suspended from the list and ICON is notified of this action

In the case of a thread that is abusing the guidelines, one or more of the participants may be subject to the actions above.

Mail Etiquette:

• Avoid the including the entire original message with your reply. Include only the relevant text needed to provide some context for your message. See this example.
  
  
• Give a meaningful subject to your message. Don't leave it blank, or say "question" or "help", etc. A good subject will likely encourage more people to read your message!
  
  
• Use upper and lower case when writing messages. Upper case messages are considered "shouting", and all lower case messages are harder to read.
  
  
• Messages must not be posted with "attachments"; they will be rejected by the mailing list server. If you want to share a picture, add it to the ICON Photo Gallery.
  
  
• The "smiley face" or :-) means that something was said in jest, and should not be taken seriously.

Questions:

Questions about the mailing list, a specific post to the list, or these guidelines should be directed to .

Return to the ICON home page

Written on Wednesday, January 1, 1997; last updated Saturday, July 21, 2012