Newsgroups: bit.listserv.lstsrv-l
Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1992 08:46:00 EST
From:         JCLUTCHE@PSUHMC.BITNET
Subject:      Listserv Policy Survey Results

Thanks to all who responded.
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John Clutcher, Project Leader/E-mail Postmaster  Information Systems
Internet: jclutche@psuhmc.hmc.psu.edu            Hershey Medical Center
Bitnet:   jclutche@psuhmc.bitnet                 500 University Drive
Voice:    (717) 531-8682                         Hershey, PA 17033  USA
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>1)  Origination Name (optional).
State University of New York at Buffalo
Academic Services / Computer & Information Technology (ASCIT)
Manager, Network User Support

>2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
Yes, I pretty much decide this myself based on whether I personally
feel the list has merit and whether UB and the Net will benefit from
its creation.

>3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
>    (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)
Me.

>4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
>    outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
>    a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
>    activities within Information Systems?)
No.

>5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
>    (Does it have to be work related?)
No.

>6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
>    If yes, how often?
No, I have a good 'feel' for how active a list is.

>7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
>    to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
>    new members?
I don't support list 'members', I support list 'owners'.

>8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
>    How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
>    concerned about its contents?
Some, but usually a note to the offending party is enough.

>9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
>    in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
>    document located?
None.

>10) Other comments... legal concerns, how Listserv fits into your
>    institution's educational mission, helpful suggestions, etc.
We are very supportive of network activities.

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>1)  Origination Name (optional).
>
>2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
Nothing "black and white".  We look at each request on a case by case
basis.  We see if there are better alternatives (list of names in their
mail user agent, a netnews group, . . .).  We also ensure that there is
a knowledgeable-enough owner - in a few cases, someone in Computing
will volunteer to co-own a list to help the owner (initially at least).

>3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
>    (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)
I do (Senior Programmer Analyst in charge of a bunch of things like
mail, listserv, netnews, . . .).  Most of the time I decide on my own
BUT if I decline a request or, because of the "political sensitivity"
or whatever, I may bounce it thru my boss.  To sum it up better: I'm
in charge of LISTSERV and I must ensure that it does not lead to
systems problems or to political problems for my management (and then
I :-).

>4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
>    outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
>    a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
>    activities within Information Systems?)
No but, as I insist that there must be a knowledgeable owner (with
backup), the Computing Centre is more "geared up" for that kind of
thing.

>5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
>    (Does it have to be work related?)
generally yes - few exceptions.  We do host 1 or 2 lists that are not
"work related" but these were setup a long time ago (2400 baud modem
days linking Canada "together" - the lists helped, and still do,
conserve precious bandwidth).

>6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
>    If yes, how often?
periodically.  If they aren't active, they aren't "bothering anyone/me".
About once a year I get rid of inactive lists.

>7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
>    to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
>    new members?
We have a training program that includes listserv and there are enough
people around campus that can explain to people how to signon/off lists.

>8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
>    How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
>    concerned about its contents?
no (real) problems.

>9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
>    in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
>    document located?
nothing specific.

>10) Other comments... legal concerns, how Listserv fits into your
>    institution's educational mission, helpful suggestions, etc.

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   1)  Origination Name (optional).
listserv@cs.columbia.edu [note - this is not a BITNET Listserv, but is using
                          a somewhat similar Unix Listserv system].

   2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
Informally, a list would have to be sponsored by a faculty, PhD student or
staff member within the department.  They would share responsibility for list
maintenance with the Listserv maintainer.

   3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
       (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)
The Listserv maintainer, who is one of several postmasters on the technical &
research staff in the department.

   4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
       outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
       a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
       activities within Information Systems?)
I don't know what policies are in place outside the Computer Science Department.

   5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
       (Does it have to be work related?)
No.

   6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
       If yes, how often?
With only four lists, this isn't yet a problem, but I periodically check the
 lists.

   7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
       to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
       new members?
It's kind of "sink or swim".  If you can figure out the HELP command, there is
lots of information on using Listserv available through Listserv itself.  New
members to mailing lists get a welcome message which gives them the very basics.

   8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
       How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
       concerned about its contents?
No.

   9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
       in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
       document located?
Not for policy.

   10) Other comments... legal concerns, how Listserv fits into your
       institution's educational mission, helpful suggestions, etc.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>1)  Origination Name (optional).
University of Notre Dame Office of University Computing
(as opposed to UND's Distributed Computing Research Lab)

>2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
List themes have to conform to the University policy on computer
usage, which says that computing use has to be consistent with the
mission of the University.

Corallary: a list to discuss They Might Be Giants was not created;
other lists have been, though, at the request of various University
members, with themes more in an educational nature.

>3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
>    (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)
Postmaster, sometimes seeking advice from middle OUC management.

>4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
>    outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
>    a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
>    activities within Information Systems?)
Some OUC-internal lists probably wouldn't meet the criteria but
continue to exist anyway.  New OUC-internal lists probably would
have to meet the criteria.

>5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
>    (Does it have to be work related?)
More or less, for some definition of "work related."

>6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
>    If yes, how often?
No

>7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
>    to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
>    new members?
We have a LISTSERV Survival Guide and a LISTSERV List Owners' Guide.
Both are fairly new (the latter is not out of editing and review yet
and may never be a public document).

>8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
>    How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
>    concerned about its contents?
Not really.  Generally speaking, the list owner is authoritative.
We haven't really has any problems with that.

>9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
>    in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
>    document located?

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
My comments would be very similar to those from Alexander Dupuy,
except that the only 'policy' for now is that if you want a list, you
simply have to pay for the disk space. In other words, you have to get
a VM userid... and arrange things with me.
Now to get a VM userid can be a matter of policy in some departments.
This is another story, and has nothing to do with LISTSERV. If a department
accepts to pay money so that someone from its personel can maintain
a list, that's all it takes.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Our site just got into the business of creating lists. We have a test list
going so I can get used to maintaining them and seeing what an owner does with
a list. The only thing we don't do is archive off the notes because we don't
have an abundance of disk space. We don't know how to judge how many 3380
cylinders to dedicate to a list so that we may plan ahead.

I request that people responding to the survey mention in 10) Other
considerations the amount of disk reserved for lists and/or how that figure
was determined.

Thank you,

GFIERO@SED  (518)486-1912

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>
>1)  Origination Name (optional).
Central Michigan University   BITNET NODE = CMUVM

>2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
Yes,list creation requires: support of a department (dept chair signature)
and approval of director of Computer Services. List owner must also read
and agree to abide by our acceptable user policy

>3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
>    (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)
Final decision rests with the director of Computer Services.

>4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
>    outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
>    a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
>    activities within Information Systems?)
No.

>5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
>    (Does it have to be work related?)
Yes, must be in support of research or instruction, administrative support,
support of a recognized CMU organization, etc.

>
>6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
>    If yes, how often?
Yes, at this point daily, but with time only weekly or monthly.

>7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
>    to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
>    new members?
No support.

>8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
>    How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
>    concerned about its contents?
No, haven't had a problem yet.

>9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
>    in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
>    document located?
None that I know of.

>
>10) Other comments... legal concerns, how Listserv fits into your
>    institution's educational mission, helpful suggestions, etc.
We are going to handle things as they come along and hope for the
best.

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2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
New lists should be of benefit to the USC community (staff, faculty,
students).  This means a new topic of interest to members of the USC
community.  What this means is that I will not create a list primarily
for people external to USC.  If someone at USC wants a widget discussion
list, fine.  If someone outside of USC approaches me about a widget
discussion list, no.

There must be a listowner willing to accept the responsibility of the
list, as a final authority of the discussion matter, and as a person
to take care of error messages (deleting invalid userids from the list).

We will not maintain a log of messages unless necessary.  We dont have
the disk space.

3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
    (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)
me (postmast)

4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
    outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
    a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
    activities within Information Systems?)
no.

5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
    (Does it have to be work related?)
It should be of benefit to the usc community (student, staff, faculty)
This means it should be a topic which will aids someone in these groups.
We would rather not have lists which are at usc because some other site
does not run listserv, but we will honor commitments made prior to the
policy.

6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
    If yes, how often?
yes.  randomly. (via stats).  with some lists, however, activity is
occassional (i.e. you may not have any messages for some months, then
a lot).

7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
    to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
    new members?
no.  I have some explanations for new listowners, though.

8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
    How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
    concerned about its contents?
no.  Case by case basis.  the listowner is an authority.
The user can be removed from the list, and then served out by
listserv to prevent resubscription.

I have had a case where we had to eliminate a peer node, because of
the contents of the list.  In Turkey, there are restrictions on speech.
The former TSA-L (turkish students association list) had to have a
peer on a machine at a Turkish university removed because of the
contents of the list.  The list here was uncensored.  Most of the
subscribers merely switched their subscription to this node.

I have had a case where sexual harrassment has occurred not on,
but because of a list.  In that case, i set a filter to trap
all the messages, and the matter was referred to the system
programmers at the originating students university.  They
disabled the account, and referred the matter to their own
internal disciplinary structure.  Such behavior is not tolerated.

9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
    in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
    document located?
fsv guide. listkeyw memo. listserv tips. lstsrv-l & lstown-l lists.

10) Other comments... legal concerns, how Listserv fits into your
    institution's educational mission, helpful suggestions, etc.
We try and make it clear that no mail on the network is secure.
Mail can and does get forged.   Mail gets lost.

Listserv has helped our community direct information to different groups
of people.  There are lists which serve USC needs, regional needs, and
topical needs.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
> 1)  Origination Name (optional).
Sander Wasser, McGill University Computing Centre

> 2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
More or less. If you want a list to be set you need to discuss it with
me. There is really no problem setting up an administrative or
academic/research list. Special interest lists are dealt with on a one
to one basis. The one major stipulation is, if you want a list you must
administer it. I will go over the procedure with the list owner and
assist with any problems resolutions but day to day maintenance is
their responsibility.

> 3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
>     (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)

The postmaster, or the listserv system support person. If there are
non-standard requests then we consult the director.

> 4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
>     outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
>     a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
>     activities within Information Systems?)
No. But non-McGill related lists, special interest groups (eg. student
groups, religious groups...), ones that do not primarily deal with
McGill academia (courses or research) or administrative concerns are
dealt with differently.

> 5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
>     (Does it have to be work related?)
Generally no, but we will not setup a list if we know its intent is to
spread offensive materials, hate mail etc. (Our lists are setup to
disseminate information....)

> 6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
>     If yes, how often?
Not really, but we are about to. I periodically check to see when a
list was last used but no action has been taken so far on those which
are not active, nor those which are dead.

> 7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
>     to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
>     new members?
There is a document for the list owners. This document details how to
maintain their list. Usage of lists (ie. sending messages) is
documented in our Email Mini Guide.

> 8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
>     How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
>     concerned about its contents?
We've been luck and have only been "hit" a couple of times. Once we
find out of these occurrences we contact the list owner and/or the
person distributing inappropriate messages and inform them to stop. If
it continues we will remove the perpetrator from the list.

> 9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
>     in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
>     document located?
We've done it based on consultation with others and general McGill
policies. We don't have a specific document.

> 10) Other comments... legal concerns, how Listserv fits into your
>     institution's educational mission, helpful suggestions, etc.
There is a major endeavor to enhance communication at this institution.
Email, lists, etc. fits in nicely. We are also encouraging that these
facilities should be incorporated more into courses.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>1)  Origination Name (optional).
     Marty Hoag

>2)  Do you have a policy?  If yes, what is it?
     Not a formal written policy.

>3)  Who determines if a new list can be created?
>    (Postmaster, director, committee or someone else?)
     Postmaster working with other Computer Center staff.

>4)  Are policies different within Information Systems than
>    outside your department?  (Example: Would you have to go to
>    a review committee to get a new list approved for work related
>    activities within Information Systems?)
     No

>5)  Are there any restrictions to a new list?
>    (Does it have to be work related?)
     There are less restrictions for our own users (ie. faculty, staff,
     and students in the North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network).
     For "outside" users we would be interested in lists of local interest
     (ie. in some technical or educational area), in a currently supported
     area (ie. associated with existing list), etc.

>6)  Do you review lists to see if they are active?
>    If yes, how often?
     Informally every few months.

>7)  How do you support the educational needs of new members
>    to a list?  Do you have a "Guide to using Listserv" for
>    new members?
     Most of the list owners tailor the "welcome" message to the needs of
     their users.  LISTSERV (Eric Thomas's is the one we use) provides
     documentation available online also.

>8)  Are you experiencing any problems with unedited lists?
>    How do you resolved problems when a member of a list is
>    concerned about its contents?
     We try to make the owners responsible for their lists.  They have a
     range of options giving them more or less control.  We have had
     few (if any) reported problems with content.

>9)  What Listserv, INTERNET or other documents have been helpful
>    in your establishing a Listserv policy?  Where is that
>    document located?
     None that I can think of - but we've been doing this for many years.
     The LSTSRV-L list is helpful for those who run that version of LISTSERV.

>10) Other comments... legal concerns, how Listserv fits into your
>    institution's educational mission, helpful suggestions, etc.
     We view LISTSERV as an educational/profesional "value added facility"
     for our network use.  Being in a rather remote geographic area we
     see electronic computer networks as a great benefit for education and
     research.  Without the voluntary efforts of so many sites which provide
     online information servers, list servers, databases, etc, the networks
     would have much less value.