As more and more people use the Internet in their activism, the importance of being an effective online communicator increases dramatically. One of the best tools available to us are "email lists," sometimes known as "listservs."

However, our use of these lists comes with some responsibilities, perhaps most importantly to not overload our fellow activists with unnecessary or redundant emails. Following, you will find a list of things you should consider before posting or responding to a list. For email, quality is definitely of greater value than quantity. Before you post to an email list, ask yourself:

1) Is this message *really* necessary?
Only respond to a previous post if you have something of substance to say, e.g., don't respond to a list to say only, "I agree" or "Thanks."

2) Does your message mesh with the list's purpose?
It is important to stay on topic on discussion lists. Many times, people become frustrated when others make posts that are irrelevant. Maintain the quality of the online discussion by staying focused on the subject.

3) Does the subject line adequately describe your message's content?
By including a descriptive subject line, recipients can easily tell if your email is of interest to them or is of an urgent nature, and allows folks to prioritize and organization their emails more easily.

4) If quoting portions of a previous email, have you included only the relevant portions in your response?
It's important to "pare down" quoted material, so that emails don't grow massive, and so that recipients know exactly to what you're referring in your response.

5) If you're forwarding a message to a list, have you asked the original sender for their permission?
Conversely, if you want to forward a message from a list, have you asked *that* sender's permission?

6) If you're attaching a file to your email, have you made sure you've saved the file as a "text file" so that people with different computers and software can all read it?
Sending attachments to lists is difficult, and we generally advise against it, unless you know everyone on the list can read it. If at all possible, rather than attaching a document, include it as text in your email message (using "cut and paste" from your word processing program, if necessary).

7) Have you proof-read and/or spell-checked your message?

8) Have you included your contact information (other than your email address) in a signature file?
It's helpful to give folks other ways of contacting you in your email, e.g. phone, fax, website, postal address.

9) Last, but perhaps most importantly, have you made certain that you are sending your email to the address you really *mean* to?
Some people have experienced very embarrassing moments when responding quickly to an email list post, meaning for their response to go to only one person, but it was inadvertently sent to the entire list. Check and make sure the right email address is in the "to" box!!