This is an example of what may be contained in the Group Guidelines.  You can set them up to fit your group.


Contributed by  D R Stinson

There are a few rules that are enforced pretty seriously:

¤ Treat everyone with the same common courtesy you would any other person on the street. You may not agree with what someone posts, but disagree with the post, not the person. This list has weathered some very controversial issues by remaining polite and professional with each other. Remember that courtesy extends to trimming excess trailing text from your messages.

¤ YOU MUST SIGN YOUR REAL FIRST AND LAST NAME TO ANY AND ALL POSTS SUBMITTED. OR, IT MUST SHOW CLEARLY IN YOUR USER ID. OR, CLEARLY AS PART OF YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS. If this is not done, moderated messages will be rejected. Unmoderated members who continually violate this will find themselves on moderated status. When contacted by a moderator, you must respond within 48 hours. If there is no reply, your pending message will be deleted. Persons not moderated, who fail to answer a reminder, will automatically be placed on moderated status.

If you require anonymity, you must first contact the Group Owner off-list at MILW-owner@... , introduce your self BY REAL NAME and explain clearly your reason(s). Any arrangements for exception will be made therefrom.

¤ When quoting articles, letters or other documents, include your references or sources in your post. This is especially important if you have information that contradicts someone else's posted data. Everyone needs access to the same information to discuss a subject objectively.

¤ Politics, Race, Religion, Sex, and foul language, are prohibited unless specifically part of a factual narrative. All are hot button topics which can tear apart a Group. Posts containing such material, are subject to editing, or complete deletion, at the discretion of the Group Moderators. This is in keeping with the first rule.

There are also a few strong suggestions that are just good netiquette:

¤ When replying to a message, please trim off all extra repeated parts of the quoted message following. By being careful with this, we can help keep the size of the list archives down and make searching easier.

¤ Posts are moderated for all new members. Also, recent moderated members are restricted from posting files or images until they're unmoderated. Once you've posted a couple messages and the moderators know you're a legitimate member, you'll be unmoderated. These actions are taken to prevent spammers from annoying the list. If you have something to upload to the files area, and find you are unable to, contact one of the moderators off-list.

¤ Sometimes, questions don't get answered. If this happens, don't be offended. This could be because they simply got overlooked while someone was following another current thread. It could also be that nobody with the pertinent information is tuned in at the moment. And it could be that the world's authority on the subject is a member of the list and normally reads it three times a day - but is on vacation this week and isn't reading mail. Please, wait a few days and ask a second time.

¤ The list will only archive messages in plain text and is set to strip attachments. This eliminates the concern for spreading viruses through the list.

We currently have this on the group home page, caused by problems we had with someone using another person's account:

You must use your own username/displayname and profile. You may not share someone else's username or email address. Users must be individuals, not larger groups or businesses, although individuals may represent such organizations."

I have never banned anyone other than anonymous trolls and spammers. However we've kept some people on moderation for a long, long time and sent back messages that were unacceptable. I also will not edit a post other than to add a person's name or remove trailing quoted matter.

The official Groups.io user documentation is in the Groups.io Help Center.