Cleveland Park Email List
Rules
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If you're reading this page you've reached an old page for the Cleveland Park Listserv, the largest neighborhood email list in the United States. Please visit www.cleveland-park.com to view our current website, or to join the Cleveland Park Listserv. You can also join by sending an email to cleveland-park-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Click here to view the list's rules.
(The rules below are out of date; please visit www.cleveland-park.com for current information.)
The Cleveland Park email list is a neighborhood discussion list. This is a place where you can exchange news about the neighborhood, including new stores, street construction, development, city services, robberies and break-ins, traffic, parking, stuff for sale, places for rent, where to eat, where to get a great plumber, schools, and more. Think of the list as a your neighborhood post office, playground or supermarket, where you'd meet and chat with your neighbors.
The Cleveland Park email list is the most vibrant, energetic --and largest-- neighborhood email list in the Washington, DC area. As the list becomes larger, the list moderators have found it necessary to develop a set of rules that contribute to making the list a fun and useful place in cyberspace.
How does this list work? The Cleveland Park Email functions much like a "letters to the editor" column, in that the moderators must read and permit the posting of each message. That is, we do not necessarily publish every message sent in, even if the message conforms to all the list rules; there is no "right" to have a message sent out to listserv subscribers. The moderators are free to make judgments about the messages for reasons of their own and are under no obligation to discuss those reasons for turning down a message with the list member who sent it in or with other list members. In other words, this listserv is not a public forum but a privately run, members-only service. This listserv is not like many other Internet forums you may be on elsewhere, where anything goes.
We treat bandwidth as a limited resource. We don't want our list members to be overwhelmed with messages, and have their inboxes cluttered.
The Cleveland Park email list is a G-rated list: Messages should be appropriate for all ages.
1. Posts should relate to Cleveland Park. While
Cleveland Park is part of the solar system, it's a good idea to keep your
messages about somewhat more local topics. While people who live outside of
Cleveland Park are welcome to join and post, if you don't live or work in
Cleveland Park you may not use this list to advance your particular cause or
your favorite issue. In other words, while this is an open, welcoming list, it is
first and foremost a list by and for neighbors.
2. Posting occasional announcements is okay, but they should relate to
Cleveland Park or the vicinity*, and
should not be part of a mass emailing. No
press releases. No regular or repeated announcements for non-neighborhood series or events.
The Cleveland
Park Email List is not the place for announcements about any of the
following: national or international cause organizations; out-of-neighborhood
charities/non-profit institutions; other email lists; demonstrations, protests,
rallies, lectures, or fundraisers, except for those held in the neighborhood or
directly related to a neighborhood issue. That is to say, any announcement of a
lecture at the Cleveland Park Library is fine, while any announcement about a
lecture at the M.L. King Library is not (unless it's a lecture about Cleveland
Park's history at the M.L. King Library.) The
sample posts below provide more examples of messages that are suitable and
unsuitable for this neighborhood discussion group.
Generally speaking, the Cleveland Park email list is not
a bulletin board. This is a neighborhood discussion list.
3. Please sign your messages, preferably with your full name, but at a
minimum with your first name. Anonymous posts are not
permitted. (If your email address or the FROM line shows your full name, that's
sufficient.) You do not need to post your address, phone number or other
personal information. If your message to the list does not clearly
identify you, your message will not be approved. While the moderators may add a list member's
name to an unsigned message (if we know who you are), most of the time
unsigned messages will simply be deleted. Initials may not be used.
4. Spelling and punctuation count. The same goes for using
paragraphs, punctuation and other grammatical niceties. Properly spelled and formatted emails help list members figure
out what you're trying to say. Don't post a message in all capital
letters, all lower case, or start your message in the subject line and continue
the sentence in the body of the message. Keep in mind that there are many
list members who are sight-impaired or for whom English is a second language.
Messages that contain forwarding marks (>>>) in
every line will be deleted because these
messages are especially difficult to read.
If you are posting a long hyperlink, please convert it to something short using one of the various free Internet services such as TinyURL, www.tinyurl.com or Notlong, www.notlong.com. Long URLs may not be clickable through YahooGroups.
5. No crossposts (with some exceptions): Messages should be written specifically for the Cleveland Park email list. Exceptions are made for messages of an urgent nature, which affect the health or safety of neighbors, which the moderatos feel are of general interest to the community at large, or which the list moderators consider to be important or useful to the neighborhood at large. For example, a burglary or a school fair can be announced on both the Cleveland Park and other neighborhood lists at the same time. Neighborhood civic groups are generally except from the no-crosspost rule (but still shouldn't have more than one email address in the TO or CC line of their message.) If you have something issue-oriented to say, an opinion to opine, something to buy or sell, or suggest, please do it on only one email list at a time.
Do not add any email addresses to the CC or TO line of your message.
If you regularly send messages to multiple lists, the
moderators may put you on can't-post status -- that makes our job easier.
6. Spam of any kind is prohibited on the
Cleveland Park email list.
This
includes long signature lines that double as advertising or
sloganeering, and
advertising disguised as "informational messages." Anyone who is disruptive to the list may have their posts
deleted or
be banned from the list.
7. Posting someone's home address or phone number or posting private or personal correspondence without their permission is not allowed. Reposting somebody's off-list correspondence is not allowed. The only exceptions to this are compilations of off-list replies about service professionals, and posts from government officials. List members may --and are encouraged to-- report back to the Listserv with replies about plumbers, painters, auto body shops, taxi services, etc. If you create a compilation, it's helpful to add "COMPILATION" to your message's subject line.
8. Personal attacks, ridicule, harsh or uncivil language or profanity are not allowed on the Cleveland Park email list. No questioning somebody's motives for making a post. The list is not the place to air a personal grievance against your neighbors. Any post that is intended to inflame (also called "trolling") is not permitted. In other words, keep a neighborly tone.
The list moderators may ban a list member, who, in their sole discretion, they consider to be disruptive to the list as a whole, individual members or to the moderators.
9. Post reasonably and responsibly. That means don't feel obligated to reply to every message that moves you. Too many messages from the same person over a short period of time or on the same subject ("overposting") are a form of clutter.
Single-issue posting --posting only on one subject over and over again-- isn't permitted because this list should not be used as anyone's personal soapbox. Attempting to flood the list with messages on a particular topic or a particular issue is not allowed. Anyone who tries to deluge the list with messages promoting a particular issue may be banned from the list.
Before posting an information query please check the list archives.
Don't post articles on the Cleveland Park Listserv that have been published elsewhere.
Before posting, please consider whether the message is of interest to the general list reader or is better suited to a limited distribution list (example: meeting minutes should go only to those present at the meeting and do not belong on the Cleveland Park Email List).
Please don't use the list as a reference library. It's okay to ask if somebody knows where to get the best espresso in the neighborhood; asking for an espresso recipe is something best done through Google.
Same for computer support questions: While it's okay to ask where to find a good computer repair person, it's not okay to ask a specific question about how to solve a computer problem. (We all have computer problems, and tech support questions could quickly overwhelm the list.)
Messages may not include a challenge or request to another list member to respond to your own message, (e.g., "Debbie, before you sell your car on the listserv, have you considered giving it to a charity?" or "After my bad experience at that dry cleaning place, I'm never going back, unless the owner can explain here what happened to my clothes.")
When answering somebody's question, it's a good idea to actually provide an answer: Don't say, "There's a video repair shop on Connecticut Avenue near the coffee shop, but I don't remember the shop's name." Please refrain from "me, too" or "I agree" posts that don't add new information. Think before you post.
The list moderators may end a thread or discussion if the message volume becomes excessive or the posts seem repetitive.
Political candidates, staff and supporters need to read our posting guidelines for candidates.
10.
Neighbors are welcome to
advertise yard
sales, cars for sale and other personal items now and then. The Cleveland
Park email list may not be used for commercial advertising or to sell something
that you are in the business of selling. For example, it's okay to offer
your beach house for rent, but if you are in the business of renting beach
houses, that's not allowed on the list. You can offer your home for a
writer's group meeting, but you can't advertise your writing tutorial services.
It's fine for teenagers, college students, care givers, and others who are not
full-time professionals to offer their tutoring, yard-work, babysitting, or
other part-time or home-related services. It is also okay for a business
person or professional to introduce themselves to the list and say what they do
for a living, as long as the message doesn't come across as an
advertisement.
Shilling, like
all fraudulent posts, is prohibited. There's more information
about commercial versus non-commercial posts at
www.adlerbooks.com/noad.html.
Only residents within the list's boundaries may post permitted advertisements. When posting an ad, please give some indication of your location, so that it's clear you live within the list's boundaries. You do not need to give your full address, but a street name or intersection is sufficient. If there's nothing in your ad to indicate that you're a neighbor, your ad may not be posted.
Out of fairness to list members, don't post your for sale items on other email lists or online services at the same time you're trying to sell them on the Cleveland Park Listserv. In other words, pick one list or online forum at a time on which to sell. You can post a for sale item once; no reminders or repeated advertisements for the same items.
To prevent the Cleveland Park Listserv from being overrun with sports tickets for sale during those seasons, no more than one set of tickets can be sold on the list per day. If you want to sell your Nationals or Redskins tickets and somebody else has already offered tickets for sale that day, just be the first list member on the following day to offer tickets for sale. To help preserve the non-commercial nature of the Cleveland Park Listserv, list members should not offer tickets for sale more than two or three times a season.
List members may make occasional posts for friends and family members --although non-list members are strongly encouraged to join the list and make their own posts-- but posts for friends may not be to sell or buy items, may not be for business-related requests, and must, of course, relate to Cleveland Park. The person you're posting for must be a personal friend and not a "friend of a friend."
And here's a helpful hint if you're selling (or looking) for something. Put "needed" or "wanted" or "for sale" or "for free" in the subject line of your message, as appropriate. It makes it lot easier for list members if you specify whether your item is something that's for sale or that you want in the message's subject line.
11. When you reply to the group, change the subject line if you need to. For example, if you receive the list in digest form, change the "Digest" subject line to what your message is about.
12. Snip, snip, snip: Before replying to a post, cut out any parts of the original message that aren't relevant to your reply. In other words, you shouldn't include the entire original message in your reply. Cut out the "tag lines," "message footers," and Yahoo information at the end of each message. This is particularly helpful to people who subscribe to the list digest, who read messages on their Treos and Blackberries, and who are visually impaired. The moderators cannot edit all messages and may delete messages that contain the entire digest or need other repairs.
Also, please keep in mind that the digest cannot accommodate
lengthy messages. Strive to be brief. If you can't condense the information you
want to convey into a message of just a few paragraphs, then invite those
interested in the subject in greater depth to email you off-line for an expanded
version of your message.
13. Don't send virus warnings to the list. The
Internet is full of virus hoaxes, and hoaxers like to perpetuate these pranks.
Because attachments (and forwarded messages) are removed before messages are sent to list members,
computer viruses cannot be spread through the Cleveland Park email list.
14. The Cleveland Park Listserv archives are for list members only. Anyone who is not a list member is prohibited from accessing the list's archives.
15. Anyone who collects or harvests list members' email addresses for spamming, sending advertisements or any other purpose, or who is a spammer, or who joins the list under false pretenses will be banned from the list. Harvesting email addresses will be considered computer trespass.
These rules are aimed at promoting a list that is friendly but focused, flexible but not a free-for-all. The moderators will make whatever exceptions they find necessary or helpful to meet the needs of individual neighbors, in emergencies, or to serve the overall needs of the group. If you don't find your message on the list, you may assume it has been deleted because it was in some way outside our normal rules. The moderators sometimes write a note of explanation when a message is not suitable, but with message traffic so high, that is not always possible.
By default, replies go to the sender. To post a message to the list put cleveland-park@yahoogroups.com in the TO line of your message. It's preferable to use the "reply" button to reply to a message. However, it's okay to use "reply to all" to reply to both the list and the sender on some occasions, and to have both the list and sender's email address in the TO line of your message. It is not acceptable to have other recipients in the TO or CC line of your message to the Cleveland Park email list.
The list moderators may ban or put on "can't post status" any list member who violates the list's rules, or who does not live or work in the Cleveland Park neighborhood and vicinity, who does not have a regular connection to the neighborhood. Uncivil posts may be rejected. The list moderators may edit an excessively long message for length or to remove advertising. Click here for a map of the Cleveland Park neighborhood.
All messages express the views of the person making the post. List members are responsible for the content of their messages.
If your post does not immediately appear on the list, please do not send it again. Sometimes it takes a while for a message to appear on the list. Please DO NOT put a message to the moderators in your post to the list. Send questions to the moderators at cleveland-park-owner@yahoogroups.com.
As the Cleveland Park email list grows larger, it's important to have a set of rules that make cyberspace a more pleasant and workable space. We hope that these rules make for a civil but fun neighborhood email list.
Bill Adler & Peggy Robin
List Moderators/Owners
You can reach the list owners at
www.cleveland-park.com; scroll down to the end of that page. If it's
an emergency, call 202-986-9275.
Cleveland Park Email List main page
(and how to contact the list moderators)
Appropriate versus not-appropriate
advertising-type messages
Read about the Cleveland
Park email list in The Washington Post
A webpage devoted to
stopping illegal, noisy activities in Washington, DC.
DC Emergency Radio Network
For a useful guide to email etiquette, visit
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html or
http://www.cs.queensu.ca/FAQs/email/etiquette.html
or
A (very) short primer on how to
reply to messages
Visit
the Cleveland Park Email List's main page
Talk to Ariel, the experimental Cleveland Park artificial intelligence agent. Ariel is designed --in theory-- to help you navigate the Cleveland Park email list, to get help with problems in the District, and to find out more about Cleveland Park. Remember this is an experimental AI bot! Ariel will get smarter as time goes on. Ariel stands for:
Artificial
Robotic
Intelligent
Electronic
Life
Is My Post OK for the Cleveland Park Email List?
Still not sure whether your post fits within the rules? Here are some examples of posts that are okay ... and some similar posts that are not.
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Perfectly Fine |
And Not … |
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Kitten found on Newark St. |
Adopt-a-Cat Fair on Capitol Hill. |
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Multi-family Yard Sale on Porter Street. |
Multi-family Yard Sale in Friendship Heights. |
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Teen looking for lawn-mowing jobs. |
Lawn Maintenance Company has good rates for seasonal contracts. |
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Seeking nanny share in Woodley Park home, 3 days a week. |
Takoma Park family seeks nanny. |
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Come to the John Eaton School Auction (since Eaton is a neighborhood school, this announcement is fine, even if the event itself is held at a hotel in another neighborhood!) |
Come to a benefit dinner for endangered species. (Since it’s an international cause, it doesn’t matter if the organizers of the dinner are all Cleveland Park residents – it’s still not allowed. However, if the actual event is held in a house or building in Cleveland Park, then it’s OK.) |
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List member has vacation condo in New Hampshire for sublet (posting no more than 2 or 3 times a year). |
Person in vacation rental business lists multiple properties. This is always considered advertising – even if the properties listed are all in Cleveland Park. |
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Drop off your donated clothing at the bins behind a church in North Cleveland Park. |
Drop off your donated clothing at the bins behind a church in Georgetown. Exception: If the church will send out volunteers in vans to pick up from residents’ doorsteps, then it’s OK. |
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Lecture series at the National Zoo. |
Health & fitness classes at commercial exercise studio (even if it’s in the neighborhood.) Exception: If the classes are free and in the public interest – e.g., a commercial exercise studio offering free training in CPR, then that’s OK. |
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List member recommending a dentist in Arlington. |
Dentist in Arlington recommending himself. Or list member recommending a dentist in Philadelphia, or list member recommending a dentist but not sure of the name or giving enough information for others to make an appointment. |
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Peace vigil at the National Cathedral. (It's in the neighborhood.) |
Rally for … almost anything … in front of the White House. (Exception: a rally to protest early morning recycling pickups in Cleveland Park would be OK.) |
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Any event put on by ANC 3-C or other Cleveland Park associations, including candidates’ debates. |
Debates, political rallies, and appearances for candidates from other wards and city-wide seats – unless the event takes place in Cleveland Park or an adjacent neighborhood. |
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We're moving and selling our 2-bedroom apartment, which is at Connecticut and Cathedral. The asking price is $345,000... |
I'm posting for a friend, who's selling his house.. It's a three-bedroom house, near the Giant... |
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Hi. I've just moved to the neighborhood. I live on 35th Place and I'm a massage therapist. Both my kids go to John Eaton... |
If you've be feeling down lately --because of the snow, or just because--I'm a therapist who comes to your home. Feel free to contact me at xxx@xxx or visit my website... |
Still not sure about your post? There’s never any harm in
asking! Send your questions to the moderators, whose contact information can be
found at www.cleveland-park.com.
You can now IM the moderators, too.
If you’ve concluded that your post does not meet the list guidelines, don’t despair. There are still lots of places in cyberspace where your message will be at home. Here are three we recommend:
DCist, www.dcist.com, a news-blog with lots of information about what's going on in the Washington, DC area.
To talk about things affecting Washington, DC in general visit TalkingDC, www.talkingdc.com
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org - the DC version of an online bulletin board available in all major US cities. Post articles for sale, search for jobs, list class schedules, political and charity events, and more.
themail – an electronic newsletter on DC politics and a wide variety of local matters, put out by Gary Imhoff, who also maintains the DC government watchdog website, www.dcwatch.com. At the end of every issue, themail runs free classifieds and event announcements.
You can reach the list owners at www.cleveland-park.com. Scroll down to the end of that page for the contact information.
Cleveland Park Email List main page
(and how to contact the list moderators)
Read about the Cleveland
Park email list in The Washington Post
A webpage devoted to
stopping illegal, noisy activities in Washington, DC.
Join the
DC Emergency Radio Network -- keeping
people and neighbors in touch in an emergency
The Cleveland Park Flickr Group:
View and share photos of
Washington, DC
A note about messages from the list moderators
Dear List Members,
From time to time there may be hours --or even days-- when no list moderator is
on duty.
When that happens, the list moderators still have the ability to manage the list
through the miracle of modern technology -- namely wireless devices. However,
the moderators can't do everything they normally can do from their own
computers. If someone sends a message that includes the entire day's digest, for
example, a moderator would normally be able to edit out the digest before
sending the reply through. But that level of editing is generally not possible
while the moderators are away.
So if your message appears to have disappeared into the black hole of
cyberspace, you should probably conclude that your post contained some sort of
problem that the list moderators couldn't repair from thousands of miles away.
If you haven't seen your message appear on the list and it's been many hours or
even a few days, take a second look at the message you sent to the list to see
if it contains any of the following problems: the entire list digest in your
reply, advertising in the signature line, a reply that is better suited to an
individual than the entire group, unsigned message, or a notice without any
specific relationship to Cleveland Park or an adjacent neighborhood. If you
revise your message to eliminate the problem, you can resend it to
cleveland-park@yahoogroups.com and expect it to go through.
Most of the time the Cleveland Park email list is used for routine messages --
posts about plumbers, parking problems, development issues, for example. But
sometimes list members need to make "emergency" posts about lost pets, crime or
other time-sensitive matters. We've posted our contact information at
www.adlerbooks.com/cleveland-park.html, if you need to reach the list moderators
in an emergency.
Sincerely,
Bill Adler & Peggy Robin
www.cleveland-park.com
Cleveland Park's Vicinity
Click here for map of the Cleveland Park neighborhood
What is
Cleveland Park and vicinity? The Cleveland Park Email
List coverage area includes not only Cleveland Park but the adjacent
neighborhoods of Woodley Park, Forest Hills, North Cleveland Park,
Tenleytown, Cathedral Heights, McLean
Gardens, and Mass. Avenue Heights. Here are the boundary lines:
Starting on the south at Massachusetts Avenue where it meets Rock Creek Park,
heading northeast along the border of the park (so that messages about the
park itself are considered in-boundary), and continuing north until Fessenden
Street, then heading west along Fessenden Street (taking in Wilson H.S., our
neighborhood's public high school), then heading south from Fessenden along
46th Street down to Massachusetts Avenue;
heading southeast on Massachusetts to Ward Circle
and then southwest on Nebraska for one block to New Mexico Avenue;
going south on New Mexico Avenue, which turns into Tunlaw Road, and
continuing southeast until it meets Calvert Street, then heading east on
Calvert Street until Observatory Circle, looping all the way around the south
side of the U.S. Naval Observatory
Circle until back to Massachusetts
Avenue, and then continuing south on the Avenue until Rock Creek Park (where
we began).
A final note about the rules. When we created the Cleveland Park Listserv in 1999, we had no rules. It was like the free-spirited 60's again. But as this online community grew, we found that list members' views of what should be permitted were, well, their views. And these perspectives sometimes ran counter to good common sense. For instance, the first time that somebody posted THEIR WHOLE MESSAGE ENTIRELY IN UPPER CASE we realized that we needed a rule about this. When somebody who lives in Florida posted a diatribe about Elian Gonzalez, who was staying in Cleveland Park at the time (remember that?), we realized that we need to limit discussion to people who live in the neighborhood and vicinity, lest anyone anywhere in the world be able to comment on any famous or controversial person in Cleveland Park. When somebody first posted a reply to every single message posted that day, we realized.... You get the idea. Many of the rules on the Cleveland Park Listserv are a product of our learning experience and growth.
If you're looking for one "meta-rule" that you can use a guidance when posting to the Cleveland Park Listserv it's this: think of your message as a letter-to-the editor.
--Bill Adler & Peggy Robin
List Founders and Owners
"Always online, always caffeinated, always willing to put the
listserv ahead of family, friends and the real world."
--The List Moderator's Credo, created by Bill Adler
