Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 22:21:58 -0500

From: Susan-Marie Harrington sharrin[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IUPUI.EDU

Subject: Re: Posts from non-professionals



One of the reasons I was moved to finally pay my ADS dues was this list;

it's arguably a good recruitment tool for members (although I can also

understand why it would be an attractive perk for members).



Perhaps some of the problems with posts that are uniformed by any apparent

research, or posts that take a decidedly non-linguistic approach to

linguistic matters, could be solved with an ADS-L welcome message that

discusses these sorts of points. One section of the welcome message

might discuss ADS-L netiquette; another section might offer examples of

posts that are likely to be viewed negatively by many subscribers; another

section might even offer some basic research tips (e.g. if it's an

etymology question have you checked DARE/OED/etc.) so that it would be a

resource for newcomers; another section might offer guidelines for

teachers who want to introduce students to this list (e.g. tell your

students to lurk for several weeks before posting).



Listserv will send a

welcome message to all new subscribers (it will either replace or come in

addition to the standard boilerplate welcome we all got upon subscribing),

and current subscribers can access it with a simple command--assuming that

the listserv than runs this list has the same properties of the listserv

on my own campus. This might be a compromise between closing the list, or

splitting the list.



Susanmarie Harrington sharrin[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]iupui.edu

Indiana University-Purdue University,Indianapolis (317) 278-1153

425 University Boulevard fax: (317) 274-2347

Indianapolis IN 46202-5140