What is a Newbie? You may be a Newbie if you ...

• do not know what a newbie is,
• think a post is a log planted in the ground to hold a sign,
• think your mail comes in a box with a red flag,
• think a mime is a guy with a face painted white and wearing white gloves,
• think a flame is an old boy/girl friend,
• think a thread is used with a needle to sew on a button.
• think all of the above are true!

Recognizing the novice or occasional user is often afraid to post to a mail list, here are some pointers which will put you on an equal footing with the frequent list user.

List members have recently participated in suggesting and compiling a list of operating norms called Netiquette Guidelines. The Guidelines will give you an idea of the processes list members use in preparing posts and what they expect from others.

To post to a list means you send a mail message to the list server which will forward your message on to other list members. There are over 750 list members on the FMPRO-L (Dartmouth) list and more than that number on the FMPRO (Blueworld) list. Remember, some people receive hundreds of e-mail messages a day (yes, there are such people), so the last thing they want to see is a message from someone who thinks he/she is the next Dickens.

The e-mail posting process is simple:

• In advance, decide the question(s) to ask or information to send,
• Compose your thoughts in a word-processor and check the spelling,
  (most emailer programs permit on-line editing and spelling but you waste connect time doing so)
• Log onto the Internet and launch your emailer program
• Compose or copy/paste your memo into a message to be sent,
• The To field should contain the list server or person's e-mail address,
• The From field, automatically filled in, should contain your e-mail address,
• The Subject field should contain a brief description or title for your memo (see Subjects topic),
• Check your document one more time and press Send.

Long posts seldom are read with much interest. Remember, your question has probably been asked before and the gurus may be a little tired of covering the same old ground. Wait a few days. If no one answers your question immediately, try rewording and send another post using the same Subject name. If still no answer, maybe no one knows the answer.

Please don't be afraid to ask questions on the list subjects. There are no dumb questions. Problems you may be experiencing might be due to non-existing software features, problems with the software, or difficult to apply features. It is common to read posts that are problem solutions called work-arounds. These are little tricks and scripts the pros use to get around known problems. Someone may have already solved your problem and will be willing to share their solution with you. So ask away. We have all learned by asking questions we thought were dumb at the time.

Here are some basic posting tips to consider that will help you avoid that dreaded flame:

• Monitor the list for a few days (called lurking) before posting.
• Make sure the list's content is relevant to your interests,
• Get a feel for the operating norms of the list members,
• Monitoring the tone of the list and exercising common sense
• Express a positive attitude rather than one of frustration,
• Be concise, to the point, and provide enough information,
• Do not post attachments (files), chain letters, or advertisements to the list,
• Maintain a good sense of humor and respect for your fellow list members.
• Check E-mail daily and remain within your server limited disk quota.
• Set your emailer to delete messages upon downloading to your personal computer.
• Never send or keep anything that you would mind seeing on the evening news.
• When quoting another person, edit out whatever isn't directly applicable to your reply. Don't let your mailing software automatically quote the entire body of messages you are replying to when it's not necessary.
• Routinely and frequently virus-scan your system, especially when receiving or downloading files from other systems to prevent the spread of a virus.

• Recheck the Subject and To fields before sending a post. You might want to read all replies to ensure you have not forgot to include important information or you are not duplicating something that someone has already posted. I often save all messages pertinent to a subject into one file and use that to compose my memo off-line.
• Use discretion when forwarding a long mail message to group addresses or distribution lists. It's preferable to reference the source of a document and provide instructions on how to obtain a copy. If you must post a long message, warn the readers with a statement at the top of the mail message. Example: WARNING: LONG MESSAGE
• If you cross post messages to multiple groups, include the name of the groups at the top of the mail message with an apology for any duplication.
• Resist the temptation to "flame" others on the list. Remember that these discussions are "public" and meant for constructive exchanges. Treat the others on the list as you would want them to treat you.
• When posting a question to the list, request that responses be directed to you personally if of a personal nature; otherwise post a summary or answer of public interest to the group.
• When replying to a message posted to a discussion group, check the address to be certain it's going to the intended location (person or group). It can be very embarrassing if they reply incorrectly and post a personal message to the entire discussion group that was intended for an individual.
• When signing up for a group it is important to save your subscription confirmation letter for reference. That way if you go on vacation you will have the subscription address for suspending mail.

• Occasionally subscribers to the list who are not familiar with proper netiquette will submit requests to SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE directly to the list itself. Be tolerant of this activity, and possibly provide some useful advice as opposed to being critical.
• Other people on the list are not interested in your desire to be added or deleted. Any requests regarding administrative tasks such as being added or removed from a list should be made to the appropriate area, not the list itself. (See the Netiquette Guidelines.)

You will often see e-mail and news messages containing a funny symbol like :-( . That is a head lying on it's side making a frown. They are fun to use and often help you to get a point across when you are not sure if the reader will take your comments in the spirit they were intended. Using all caps implies SHOUTING which is frowned :-( at on most lists. You should avoid shouting at list members unless it is something worth shouting about. :-)

Smileys are typically found at the end of sentences and will usually refer back to the prior statement. I would recommend you use these sparingly. There are hundreds of these things and their translations are by no means universal. A miss-interpreted smiley could lead to a flame.

A few of the more common ones are :

    :-) Smile          :-( Frown              :-D Laughing
    :-] Smirk          :-X Close-mouthed      ;-) Wink
    :-O Open-mouthed   8-) Wide-eyed     

Download [Detailed Acronyms, Smiley, Subject Lists]

In e-mails and during on-line conversations, a variety of letter groups are used to abbreviate the writer's comments, such as:

   BCNU be seeing you                 LOL Laughing Out Loud 
    BTW by the way                    OBO or best offer 
    BRB be right back               ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing 
   FOAF friend of a friend           RTFM read the funny manual 
   FWIW for what it's worth           TIA thanks in advance 
    FYI for your information     TNSTAAFL there's no such thing as a free lunch 
    HTH hope that helps               TIA thanks in advance  
   IMHO in my humble opinion         TTFN ta ta for now 
                                     TTYL talk to you later 

Download [Detailed Acronyms, Smiley, Subject Lists]

A flame is a when a user responds in a negative or sarcastic way to a post made by you or someone else. A flame will come in the form of grumpy, irritated, sometimes down right angry responses to questions or to inflammatory statements you might make. There is nothing you can say that won't offend somebody:

	>It's a bright, sunny day today. 
	 You filthy *@!?$, what have you got against Seattle? 

A flame requires retaliation usually taking the form of an argument, hate mail, put-downs, or childish ways of handling conflict. Many people pride themselves as being expert flamers and have devised very irritable ways of getting even (sometimes, off the Internet). Beware and be careful.

Four lessons from experience:

Hedge your bets. Rather than saying, "Metal rules! Death to all that oppose!!" try saying "In my humble opinion (often abbreviated IMHO) metal bands perfectly express my feelings, choices, and lifestyle. By the way, BTW is another frequent net abbreviation, for what it's worth (FWIW).

Apologize. When misunderstanding is the culprit, and especially if you respect the person who misunderstood, take the blame on yourself for being unclear, apologize, say what you meant more clearly (if appropriate) and put it behind you. As in real life (remember that?) people who are quick to anger are often equally quick to forgive.

Avoid flame bait (conduct which gravely offends the norms, mores and folkways of a particular group). "Now wait a minute!" you say. Do you mean that something that's accepted behavior on one list will draw dozens of stinging, ridiculing comments in another?" I sure do. What can you do? Lurk a while before you post. Read what's said like an anthropologist, trying to discover what the big no-nos are. As you will observe the clueless newbies who weren't smart enough to read this paragraph being torn to shreds. There are some things you should NEVER do, and we'll list them in a minute.

Bow down to the group's gods. In every newsgroup and listserv mailing list there are old, gray heads (some balding) who have earned the respect of everyone in the group. You are entirely ignorant compared to those people. Never pretend you're anything else. They would dearly love to help you to answer a question, help you find a rare record but you'll always come out second best in a head-butting contest with them. Still other group members have earned their status through long service. Friendships have developed over many years, and marriage is not unknown. By commenting abusively to or about one of these gods, you'll earn not only their enmity, but the enmity of all of their friends -- which may be everyone in the group but you!

The Dos and Don'ts (or "How to Avoid Most Flames")

• DON'T include the entire contents of a previous posting in your reply.
• DO cut mercilessly. Leave just enough to indicate what you're responding to. NEVER include mail headers except maybe the "From:" line. If you can't figure out how to delete lines in your mailer software, paraphrase or type the quoted material in.
• DON'T reply to a point in a posting without quoting or paraphrasing what you're responding to and who said it. Reason, a dozen postings may occur between the original message and your reply. At some sites your reply may get there before the original.
• DO quote (briefly) or paraphrase. If the original "Subject:" line was "Big dogs" make sure yours says "Re: Big dogs". Some REPLY functions do this automatically. By net convention, included lines are preceded by ">" (greater-than signs). Some mail editors and newsreaders do this automatically. Others require you to do it manually or set the "indent character" to ">".
• DO use normal capitalization. Separate your paragraphs with blank lines. Make your message inviting to your potential readers.
• DON'T betray confidences. It is all too easy to quote a personal letter in a posting to the entire group.
• DO read the "To:" and "Cc:" lines in your message before you send it. Are you SURE you want the mail to go there?
• DO treat every post as though you were sending a copy to your boss, your minister, and your worst enemy.
• DON'T rely on the ability of your readers to tell the difference between serious statements and satire or sarcasm. It's hard to write funny. It's even harder to write satire.
• DO remember that no one can hear your tone of voice. Use emotions (or smileys) like :-) or :^) -- turn your head counterclockwise to see the smile.
• DON'T make a posting that says nothing but "Me, Too.," This is most annoying!

Now, if you are begging for it, here are some sure fired ways of getting flamed:-)

• Send an e-mail in all UPPER-CASE. Use of upper-case words is the equivalent of shouting in some one's ear. ONLY use upper-case words when trying to make a point (such as I just did). Even at that, you should be careful with who you are exchanging messages.
• Make a comment about grammar or punctuation. Nobody wants to feel like they are exchanging e-mail with their eighth-grade English teacher.
• Request computer help without providing system-specific information.
• Send a e-mail asking for the meaning of BTW or :-).
• Send a mass-mailing advertisement. This is numero uno on the don'ts list and will generate more flames than the devil himself.
• Post chain letters or large attachments to the message. (Use private e-mail for this.)
• Oh yes! Try flaming Claris and FileMaker Pro! Returned flames can last for weeks!

Flaming on any public list should be avoided. Disagreements should be expressed privately between you and the offending party at your private e-mail addresses. The best way to handle a flame is to be silent. If you must respond to a flamer, be polite, professional and be careful what you say.

Choosing the correct subject for your post will cause it to be read with interest or dumped in the trash. It is to your advantage to use a reasonable subject line keeping as short, simple, and concise as possible. Many list members are forced to read in excess of a hundred messages per day, especially if they are managing list support services.

Some mail lists try to simplify the messages by putting a "tag" on the subject line. This makes it easier to sort through the messages and read the most important. It has been suggested by some on the list to use the tags shown below. This is only a suggestion and not always adhered to by all. If you have any comments on their use or lack of, please let the author know your preference. The lists tend to govern themselves, so majority rules.

Normally, users filter and/or sort important messages by subject, to, from and a few other header fields. A recent thread by Martin Trautmann, author of FAQ.FM, suggested that the writer prefix their subject with a sort code to enable emailers and AppleScripts to sort by specific discussion categories. Example:

        Subject: [OFF] Managing list traffic

Where the suggested non-Filemaker Pro development topic subjects are:

       [ANN]  ANNouncement of interest to list members
        [AS]  AppleScript related 
    [CLARIS]  CLARIS relation discussion, reports, feedback
       [CSA]  topics not on technical but CSA related discussions
       [FAQ]  to be considered for Frequently Asked Questions submissions
       [FFD]  topic for the FixesFeatures Database, new feature user request
      [FMP2]  Filemaker Pro version 2.x discussion
      [FMP3]  Filemaker Pro version 3.x discussion
       [ISO]  Messages from Matt Petrowsky et.al., concerning ISO postings
      [KISS]  Keep It Short, Simple, off topic discussion, babble
       [NEW]  NEWs flash, item of interest to all list members
       [MAC]  not related to FMP, but MAC OS and applications
       [OFF]  OFF topic discussion, babble, anything else
        [OT]  OFF topic discussion, babble, anything else
       [SDK]  FMP Solutions Development Kit discussion
      [TOTM]  Topic Of The Month
       [WIN]  not related to FMP, but WINdows OS and applications

Another idea is to begin your subject line with the proper keyword, for
Filemaker Pro development topics such as:

  Date Time:  brief_topic_description
       Font:  brief_topic_description
Calculation:  brief_topic_description
   Function:  brief_topic_description
      Fonts:  brief_topic_description
     Global:  brief_topic_description
     Import:  brief_topic_description
     Portal:  brief_topic_description
     Layout:  brief_topic_description
   Printing:  brief_topic_description
  Relations:  brief_topic_description
  Scripting:  brief_topic_description
       Text:  brief_topic_description

              And so forth, you get the idea.

These Subject identification methods may catch the eye better and simplify sort and thread mechanisms. You are not required to use these methods but they will improve usability for other members and thus may encourage an even better reply.

It will help to immediately show what your question or solution is. Then you may read on or skip to the next message, but you don't have to read the full opus to see if there's anything of interest, worth to remember or reasonable to reply.

Personally, I find such a methods extremely useful when trying to search for and group threads of interest. The usefulness of such a method becomes more apparent when working with large numbers of mail messages on a daily basis. You are not required to use this method but, if you are a thoughtful person willing to assist those who are trying to provide you services, then use the method(s).

We are trying to reach a consensus on the use of such codes and their definitions. You will kept informed regarding conclusions.

Download [Detailed Acronyms, Smiley, Subject Lists]

Since it is not possible (yet) to sign your e-mail, users will sometimes include the same information (minus the signature) at the bottom of all e-mail messages. Signatures are used because it's not always clear to a message recipient who sent the message. Things to include in a signature file are:

• your e-mail address,
• business e-mail address,
• title and company name,
• keep the signature as brief as possible (3-4 lines).

Sometimes a signature will contain a quote after the person's name. This has become a fairly common practice. If you choose this option, the quote should be something that is a reflection of yourself.

Also you will run across signatures that contain images built out of keyboard characters. These are kind of hard to describe unless you've seen one, but you will surely know one when you see it. As with the quote, the image should be a reflection of the person. Whether you choose to add a quote, a text image or both, I would recommend that you keep it brief and be careful how you present yourself to the list.

Most emailer applications permit you to send another file along with the message. This is called an Attachment file and can be one or many files. It is considered very, very rude to mail an Attachment file to a mail list. Attachment files are normally mailed directly to individual private e-mail addresses.

Here is a tip that will help you prepare any file for transport as an Attachment file using Stuffit (Stuffit is available for Mac and PC):

• Compress the file(s) with Stuffit resulting in a xxxx.sit file.
• Make the file self-extracting, this eliminates Stuffit version problems and results in a user-friendly xxxx.sea file.
• Encode the file as a BinHex4 file resulting in a xxxx.sea.hqx file.
• Attach the file to the emailer memo and send.

This method is commonly followed for file preparation and installation to download web site. Currently, encoding a file to BinHex4 appears to be the only way to get Attachment files to AOL users. Many emailers will automatically encode such files to BinHex4 prior to sending.

You may be able to transfer just the .sit file to friends on regular internet account and using the same or higher version of Stuffit as you are using.

Once you send that first e-mail, you will probably get a response. If you want to reply to that response what should you do? The wrong thing to do is to start a new e-mail message. This breaks the link (called a thread) between the original message, the response and your soon-to-be-created response. Without the link, it can get difficult for the user's on each end to follow the sequence of messages, especially after several exchanges.

This becomes an even larger problem when you are dealing with news groups (more later) where several people may be replying to messages and trying to follow the thread of information being exchanged. The correct thing to do is to reply, which is essentially the same thing as creating a new message, but maintains the thread.