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