AnswerSquad Discussion List Rules

Please also see our Privacy Statement and IP Policy

AnswerSquad lists are for exchanging technical information and getting technical questions answered. To keep the lists useful, we ask you to follow these rules:

  1. Limit your posts to messages about technical topics. Stick to questions, answers, background information, and wild surmises about computers, software, the Internet, and other computer-related topics. If you have something else to say, please say it elsewhere, so that discussion stays on track. We aim to keep lists low-traffic and high-value.
  2. Don't post chain letters, virus warnings, jokes, or messages about how Microsoft will pay you to send email (they won't). As IT professionals, we already get at least 10 copies of all this stuff from other sources.
  3. Don't post attached files to the list. Instead, put the file on the Web and post the URL. Or, post information about the file and ask people to email you privately to request the file.
  4. Don't post copyrighted material, including email from others, without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. It's okay to post quotes that are a small percentage of the whole, whose existence for free on the Internet wouldn't hurt the original work's sales, and that cite the author and work. (For example, you could post a paragraph from an article, along with the URL of the whole article.)
  5. When you post a message to an AnswerSquad list, you retain copyright to your words. However, you also grant a license to AnswerSquad to reuse your message for marketing and compilation purposes. Please see our intellectual property policy for more details.
  6. Don't post advertisements.
  7. Don't attack subscribers. If you disagree with someone, feel free to attack their ideas, but not them personally. Don't post messages containing sexual implications, racial slurs, or any comment that offensively addresses someone's age, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, national origin, or disability.
  8. Leave management to the list managers -- the AnswerSquad team. If you don't like the way the discussion is going, please use our contact form to let us know, rather than posting a complaint to the list or reaming out a list member. The only thing more annoying that reading an off-topic post is reading a complaint about an off-topic post.
  9. Do post an introduction when you join an AnswerSquad list, including what types of technical topics interest you, and what you're hoping to get out of membership on the list.