The AHS E-Mail Robin Membership Guidelines


The AHS E-Mail Robin Is An Officially Sanctioned Robin of the American Hemerocallis Society.
Daylily List Administrators

Tim Fehr, Robin Leader and List Co-owner
Bob Stanton, List Co-owner
Ted White, List Co-owner

Disclaimer

The DAYLILY list is a private, unmoderated e-mail list. As a private list, postings may be made by, and are sent only to, the list's subscribers. As an unmoderated list, postings by list members are sent automatically to all list members. Therefore, the list's owners have no pre-approval right or control over the content of such messages. The list, therefore, serves as a mechanical convenience for the rapid distribution of private mail among its members. Each individual subscriber is solely responsible for the opinions expressed in his or her messages.

The owners of the list, ICORS.ORG, and the American Hemerocallis Society bear no responsibility for the content of any postings, nor for the actions of any list member with respect to the receipt of such postings. All opinions and growing practices mentioned on the list are those of the individual authors.


The Purpose of the AHS E-Mail Robin

The purpose of our robin is to allow all its members to communicate freely with one another on topics chiefly related to the subject of daylilies. It is hoped that our discussions will lead toward a better understanding and appreciation of our favorite flower, and to give members access to a wide variety of opinion and factual matter about daylilies. It is a goal of the robin to create an atmosphere of respect, tolerance, and good will among our members. We have become one very large family with many diverse views and opinions. It is important that we continue to value independent thinking and creativity.

It is also a purpose of our robin to provide an opportunity to make new friends and to enjoy our world of daylilies together. Many members have developed friendships through their association with others in our robin. These friendships are cherished and may well last a lifetime. These friendships, too, help to foster good will and understanding as we conduct our business of discussing daylilies here in our robin.


The Purpose of the Robin Membership Guidelines

The purpose of our Robin Membership Guidelines is to state clearly to prospective members and present members alike the rules that govern membership in our robin and the use of its list server. It is expected that members will comply with these guidelines in the interest of cooperation and respect among our members and for the smooth operation of our list server. Should you have any questions or comments about these guidelines, you may respond to the list owners at the following E-Mail addresses:

Tim Fehr: (fehrtj@charter.net)

Bob Stanton: (stantonr@stjohns.edu)

Ted White: (tedwhite1@aol.com)


Specific Robin Guidelines

• Membership In The Robin: Membership in the AHS E-Mail Robin is open to all duly registered members of the American Hemerocallis Society. Members may be removed by the list owners for violations of the list guidelines.


The Most Important Rule: If your robin leader or list owners ask you to do something, please cooperate. They have the final say when it comes to defining robin policy and use of the listserver. You are welcome to discuss or even argue with the list owners regarding policy, but their decision is final.
Don't Flame!: The purpose of the robin is to communicate constructively and discuss issues relevant to daylilies. It is not to bully, dominate, threaten, abuse, harass, or insult anyone else.
Sending private e-mail to members of the robin: If the list owners find a robin member is sending private e-mail to robin members that is abusive or harassing, he/she will be removed from the robin by the list owners. We consider private e-mail sent in response to things said on the robin to hold the same rules as public postings. If you can't say it to a person on the robin, don't say it via private e-mail.
• Be Courteous: We expect everyone to act like mature, intelligent adults, and to treat each other courteously.
• Don't Shout, but Capitalize Cultivar Names: Over the short history of e-mail, and of the AHS, a few conventions have become established that may seem to be in conflict. Typing in ALL CAPS is the e-mail equivalent of "shouting." It is usually used for emphasis in this strictly text-based world of communication. It is considered improper to type a whole message in caps. However, the AHS in the Daylily Journal used to use all caps for cultivar names. This can be useful, especially when talking about the person, Jane Doe, and the daylily, JANE DOE. Since people on this robin think daylilies are certainly worth shouting about, we have adopted the "All Caps" cultivar name use for the e-mail robin as well. It does make cultivar names stand out in posts. Therefore, please capitalize the names of daylily cultivars.
• Know When To Drop a Subject: We do not subscribe to the idea of "he/she who yells loudest or last, wins the argument." In fact, we believe that most arguments aren't worth winning. Don't be a robin-bulldog, chewing away on something until you ruin it for your fellow robin members. There's a lot to be said for "agreeing to disagree" and moving on to another subject. When you've had your say, drop it. If you can't add something new to a discussion, don't just repeat your old arguments until everyone else gives up.
• Do Not Play Traffic Cop: The only individuals who can set list policy are your list co-owners. Please: If you have a problem with something that is posted to the robin, contact your list owners. Don't try to take things into your own hands --- most of the time members are well-meaning, but they can make situations worse, not better. Please leave this job to the list owners.
• Stay On Topic: Remember that the purpose of the Daylily E-Mail Robin is to discuss subjects that are relevant to "Daylilies." While it is recognized that from time to time there will be unrelated subjects of interest to many members, it is important that everyone makes a sincere effort to keep "Daylilies" as our major focus.
No "List Baiting". "List Baiting" is the practice of inserting comments that are off our central daylily topic and that are designed to elicit responses from members that may be inappropriate. Examples of "list baiting" include, but are not limited to, strongly worded comments on such topics as religious and political views, sexual orientation, and provocative sexual humor. The intent of the "baiter" might be to provoke members into a prolonged discussion of any of these topics rather than the main topic of the list. Such comments often result in a series of "flame" messages being sent to the robin. "List Baiting" is unacceptable and a practice that is not permitted in the Daylily Robin. Please consider how all your comments in a post may be viewed by members with different views. If you feel a comment may fall in this category - please find a more appropriate forum for discussing this issue. If you feel another robin member is posting 'list baits', please contact a list owner or use your delete key. It is equally wrong to 'rise to the bait' and respond with "flames" to the list for inappropriate comments.
• Use the List Server Responsibly:
• Robin members are obliged to download their mail frequently. When a mailbox becomes full, mail bounces back to the list server. This may cause problems with its normal operation. Those members who allow their mailboxes to become full, will have their addresses set to NOMAIL by Dr. Bob Stanton, or in some cases, automatically by the listserver itself. The listserv adminstrators may also remove accounts from domains that refuse to accept mail from the listserv - they may do this without consulting the listowners.
• Members who wish to leave the list temporarily should set their addresses to NOMAIL, rather than to sign off the list/robin. That way they can set their addresses to MAIL when they return, rather than to apply to be readmitted to the list/robin. (See listserv commands at the end of this document.)
• ICORS.ORG guidelines urge that excessive quoting of previous messages be avoided, as well as long, elaborate signature blocks. This will help to preserve archive space.
• Robin members may send no more than one message to the list server daily. The listserv keeps track of who posts when and monitors this for the whole group.
• Answer mail privately when a private message is appropriate. Do not send private messages or responses through the server, unless your message is likely to be of interest to most robin members.
• Use restraint in sending messages that are meant to be humorous or other non- daylily messages. Send these types of messages by private mail.
• Members are asked to PLEASE include in their posts their full name and the city and state (or province/country) in which they reside. Also add your USDA Zone number. This gives members some appreciation of the climate in which you live and how it may affect your cultural practices.
Turn off HTML or MIME formatting when sending mail to the list server. You may not be aware that your E-mail application is sending out HTML since it hides itself from you. There should be an option in the preferences of your mail application that will allow you to turn off the HTML or MIME encoding. If you do not know how to turn off your HTML, please contact one of the list owners for help. Some E-mail software has MIME enabled by default (Microsoft's and AOL's among them) so look for a check box that says "Send plain text only" and check this box.

A helpful document detailing how to turn off MIME and HTML formatting has been created by Gerald E. Boyd: gboyd@expita.com, and can be viewed HERE. It covers most e-mail software with intructions for disabling MIME and setting plain text in each one,

The HTML/MIME encoding causes problems in the processing, distribution, and storage of robin mail. These problems include:

1. HTML encoding makes messages twice the size in the Robin Archives. Since all messages pass through the server, they are automatically recorded in the Archives. This means that twice the amount of computer storage space is used to archive your message in the computers at ICORS.

2. Your message takes twice as long to transfer to each robin member.

3. Some robin members' mail software does not use these features, and as result, they receive "gibberish" with each message, making it over twice as long as if would need to be.

4. In order for a MIME encoded message to be read at the reciever's end, the message's mail header, which contains the decoding instructions, must remain intact. Those Robin members who get their Robin mail in the Digest format do NOT get individual message headers, instead the listserv inserts its own message header for each digest. Individual messages within the Digest that used MIME encoding will be full of extra characters and gibberish. There have been instances where using MIME has made every message after this message in the archives unreadable as well.


• Avoid Offending Others: Sarcastic and teasing remarks, or comments made in jest, that are meant to be humorous can easily be taken seriously and may even offend. A tragic miscommunication may occur when, in fact, the intent is just the opposite. Therefore, try to indicate when such comments are not to be taken seriously by using such text-based hints as emoticons ;-) or the grin <G>, big grin <BG>, or very big grin <VBG> cues. The written word is often cold and blunt, lacking the vocal inflections that let us know when someone is not being serious. Using the hints above is an attempt to bring some personality into the written word. After awhile we learn that some robin members are natural teases and often write in a humorous style and while we learn to expect such from them after we get to know them, it's often a puzzle for new members. As such, don't be too quick to judge anyone's comments until you 'get to know them' better.
• Avoid Offensive Language In Your Posts: Your list owners are not language prudes, and the majority of our members are adults and have heard adult language. We are, however, not going to tolerate excessive profanity, the use of profane language just to shock or annoy.
• Avoid Responding To Robin Mail When You Are Upset Or Angry: Should you become angry or upset by comments that you read, please take a personal "time-out." Resist the temptation to fire off a response when you are angry. This could help you avoid making comments that you might later come to regret.
• Guard Against Making Libelous Remarks: Each member is responsible for his/her personal comments in the robin. Libelous or potentially libelous remarks are very serious infractions of the robin guidelines and unacceptable adult behavior for which the member may be held legally accountable. The list owners will have a "zero tolerance" for any statements made by members that are deemed, in their view, to be libelous or potentially libelous. All comments made through this robin reflect on the whole robin, such inappropriate comments especially endanger our reputation among others outside the robin.
Do Not Use Robin Addresses for Sending Commercial E-Mail. If the list owners find a robin member is "harvesting" robin e mail addresses for commercial solicitations unrelated to daylilies, or related to daylilies, he/she will be removed from the robin without a warning.
• Do Not Use This Forum As A "Chat Room.": Mailing lists are not chat rooms. Messages are not read in real-time, and so the "one-liner" type of postings aren't effective and only annoy members. Please don't post "me too," or "I agree" types of messages to the list server. A special "Chat Room" for members is very active, and members are invited to participate. Ask your list owners for details on how to join the Daylily Chat Room.
• Take Private Discussions Off The List Server: If there are only two or three people holding a discussion, please take it to private e-mail and do not use the list server. Once a discussion drops to where only two or three people are contributing, or if the discussion is not of general interest to the membership, take it to private e-mail.
• Do Not Post Copyrighted Material to the Robin: It is illegal to type in an article verbatim, or to repost from an on-line service.
Respect Individual Robin Member Copyrights:

The copyright of each message sent to the Daylily robin belongs to the person who wrote the message. If a member posts a message including the words "Not for publication", or similar wording, that message may not be reproduced by anyone without permission. If such a phrase does not appear in the message, the message may be reproduced in the AHS Daylily Journal without prior permission. Any other individuals who wish to use such a message must first obtain written permission from the original author before this material may be used elsewhere for any other purposes other than 'personal archives.' This includes editor of newsletters of regional and local daylily clubs. Any individual violating the copyright of a robin member may be subject to discipline in accordance with provisions elsewhere in the guidelines.

A notable exception to reproduction of a copyrighted posting, is in the use of "quoting" in replying to a message. This is considered a natural function of discussion lists so quoting back to the list or to the author of the posts are not considered violations of their copyright, but necessary to maintain threads of comments.

When replying to a Robin message, please quote only those portions needed to continue the thread.


• Use caution in making any "Commercial Postings":

We recognize that many robin members run nurseries and many sell daylilies, other perennials and related garden products. We welcome announcements of the availability of new price lists, catalogs, videos, and new daylily web sites. We would find it unnatural for hybridizers and those who introduce for others, not to be excited about their new introductions and we welcome and encourage comments about them. However, restraint should be exercised so that it doesn't appear that any member is using the robin solely as a promotional tool for his/her commercial concerns. Therefore, members are not permitted to use the list server to post lists of plants for sale. Failure to abide by this rule could jeopardize our relationship with ICORS.ORG and its Non-Profit status. Therefore, all members must be certain not to make these commercial listings through the list server.

The following are examples of "Commercial" postings that are NOT permitted in postings to the Daylily List:

(1) The publication of any lists of daylilies or other plants for sale, or other materials or goods whose sale is for personal gain is prohibited. This also applies to various plant auctions and sales that are held to benefit specific plant societies, e.g. daylily clubs, the various AHS regions, and any other organizations that represent any plant society.

(2) The advertising and promotion of personal website development services is prohibited. This includes the listing of specific services offered and a listing of charges for services to be rendered. While it is permissible to announce new daylily websites to the robin, it is not permissible to include information that would advertise services for sale by the developer of a website in messages announcing new websites to the robin.

(3) The advertising of video tapes, DVDS, CD ROM disks, and publications for personal gain is prohibited. If a member wishes to promote any of these items for sale, he/she is asked to forward the information to George Lawrence for inclusion in the Bulletin Board. You may send notices of items for sale to Geroge at ladybugr@worldnet.att.net. Bulletin Board notices will be sent to the membership two or three times weekly.

Commercialism Notes:

The foregoing statements regarding commercialism are chiefly designed to define what constitutes commercialism and to restrict public notice of only those items that are for personal gain. The statement in no way alters our commitment to the members to guarantee them the opportunity to freely discuss the merits of garden related products that others are offering for sale.

It is also acceptable for members to list their personal website addresses (URLs) in signature blocks at the end of robin messages.

It should be noted that the commercialism statements do not preclude the sale of AHS goods and services. Members should feel free to mention the availability of AHS publications, video tapes, and CD ROM disks in general robin posts. Further, it is permissible to post AHS authorized notices pertaining to any subject. It is also appropriate to post URL's relating to AHS supported, nonprofit functions of regional societies. Should AHS decide to create a link from its official website to regional auction sites, it will be appropriate to post the address (URL) of regional web pages. This pertains to auctions whose purpose is to fund regional publications or other nonprofit functions that fall within the fundraising rules of AHS.


• Use the Bulletin Board for sale items or trade offers:

One proper way to promote your sales, trades and offers is in the "Bulletin Board". Any items (daylilies) for sale or trade, etc. can be sent to Deb Browne - daylilyrobinbb@gmail.com. Deb posts the Bulletin Board twice a week. The Bulletin Board uses a private mail distribution system apart from the ICORS listserv. If you are a Robin member and not getting the Bulletin Board announcements, or if you are currently getting the Bulletin Board and not longer wish to recieve it, please contact Deb directly.

Members should be aware that these type of commercial offers can be found in the Bulletin Board postings.


• Do Not Post Messages With Attachments, Attached files, MIME Enhancements or Enclosures: The list server is set to automatically reject them but it occasionally misses a few. Set you e-mail software to send plain text only or turn of the feature that is marked send MIME enhanced text. Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express come with MIME enhancement turned on. If you use one of these packages, please disable this feature when posting to the robin. The MIME enhanced messages take up more archive space, are not coded properly when passing through the list digest.
• Do Not Post Chain Letters: If you post a chain letter of any type you will place your robin membership in jeopardy. Chain letters are "illegal" on all list servers.
• Do Not Post Warnings About New Viruses or other 'Urban Legends' : Many, if not most, of the virus warnings and legends floating around are hoaxes -- just plain bogus. If you think a virus warning is authentic, do not post it to the list server under any circumstances. Send it to one of the listserv owners. Let them check it out for you. If we discover a real potential threat from a virus we will notify the robin. Check Snopes.com for information on viruses and legends before contacting this listowners as this site keeps track of many such items floating around the Internet.
Disciplinary Actions

It is the policy of ICORS.ORG that all of its list owners have the final say in administering the guidlines for, and disciplinary actions associated with, their respective lists. As an official round robin of the American Hemerocallis Society, we must also consider directives from the AHS Board of Directors and the AHS Round Robin Chairman in making our decisions.

The ICORS listmasters have made it abundantly clear that they do not want to hear about any private disputes on the individual lists. Their policy is to ban from all ICORS lists anyone who complains to ICORS or L-Soft administrators.

It is the sincere hope of the list owners that it will not be necessary to discipline members for infractions of the Robin Guidelines. However, if infractions do occur, the owners will take any action that is required to bring the offending party into compliance with the guidelines.

• First Infraction: The member will receive a "first warning" by a listserv owner, unless the infraction consists of libelous or potentially libelous remarks. In that case, the member will be subject to discipline as outlined in the third infraction below.

• Second Infraction: The member will receive a "second warning" and will be warned that his/her robin membership will be in jeopardy if another infraction occurs. If the infraction consists of libelous or potentially libelous remarks, the member will be subject to discipline as outlined in the third infraction below.

• Third Infraction: The member's address on the list server will be set to "nopost," or to "review," whichever is more appropriate for a period of time agreed upon by the list owners. If the member's address is set to "nopost," it means that the member cannot post any messages to the server, but can receive mail through the server. If the member's address is set to "review," he/she will be allowed to receive robin mail, but cannot send any mail without its content first being reviewed by the list owners. This would be used only in situations where infractions consisting of libelous or potentially libelous comments were made by the member.

• Fourth Infraction: The member will be either "suspended" or "expelled" from the robin by the list owners, following a review of the infraction by all the list owners. If "suspended," a member will lose all robin privileges for a period of time to be determined by the owners. An outright "expulsion" means that the member will be removed permanently from the robin and will forfeit all privileges accorded robin members.


• Note: In cases where a member's address may be set to "nopost" or "review", or in cases where a "suspension" or an "expulsion" is necessary, all three list owners will confer and be in agreement before any action is taken.
Personalizing The List Server To Meet Your Needs

As a member of the Daylily Listserv you have several options pertaining to the mail that is sent directly from the list server to your computer. You will find below a number of commands that you may send to the server to set your mail to meet your personal needs. When you send a command to the list server, always address your e-mail message to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG.

Note that prior to January 11, 2006, the Robin used the Maelstrom listserver at St. Johns University. When the list moved to the ICORS server, the previous archive files were also moved, so the robin archives go back to 1999, at least. We may at some future time even recover older archive files that were removed to free disk space.

In the body of your message use one of the following commands at a time:

SET DAYLILY MAIL = Use this command to activate your mail.

SET DAYLILY NOMAIL = Use this command to stop mail from the server to your address.

SET DAYLILY DIGEST = Use this command to receive a single download of all robin messages daily.

SET DAYLILY NODIGEST = Use this command to return to normal mail delivery.

SIGNOFF DAYLILY = Use this command only if you intend to drop robin membership.

SET DAYLILY REPRO = Use this command if you want the list server to confirm all the messages that you send to the list server.

QUERY DAYLILY = Use this command if you wish to find out what all your listserv subscription options are.

INDEX DAYLILY = Use this command to get a list of all daylily archives.

GET DAYLILY LOGxxxx = Use this command to order the specific archives files that you wish to view.


Accessing the Archives from the World Wide Web

Another way to access the Daylily E-Mail Robin Archives is to go to the following Internet address:

http://listserv.icors.org/archives/daylily.html

Upon accessing the page, Archives of DAYLILY@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG, you will be required to enter an archive password. Follow the directions for entering a new password. Your request will be accepted; however, you will have to wait for a message to arrive in your e-mail and reply to it as indicated in the message before you may actually gain access to the archives. A second e-mail message will confirm the acceptance of your password. You may now use the password to access the archives. This procedure is used to confirm that only robin members have access to the DAYLILY listserv archives. Although non-robin members can "get" passwords, they still will not be permitted to view the archive files.


Listserv™ , the list software used at ICORS.ORG, is a ™ Trademark International of L-Soft , Inc.