Dear fellow list-owners,
 
Our list (Biomch-L@hearn) has been increasingly used for
commercial and semi-commercial postings.  Some were obviously
blatant advertising, huge files distributed without any
connection to previous discussions etc.  The originator of those
messages was reprimanded and he finally stopped doing it.  Others
were more gentle, merely announcing their E-mail address.  Now,
some companies are sending short messages to announce a new
product.  The line between useful information and advertising
becomes fuzzy there.
 
Our present policy is stated in the user's guide which is sent to
all new subscribers:
 
<begin quote from BIOMCH-L GUIDE>
One restriction is, that postings of a commercial nature are not
considered proper use of Bitnet and the academic part of Internet.  It
is difficult to define exactly what a commercial posting is.
Advertising a product is definitely not appropriate, but if a certain
product can solve a problem that is being discussed on Biomch-L, it
makes perfect sense to mention that.  Companies which can be contacted
by E-mail are listed in the file BIOMCH-L YPAGES, which can be obtained
from LISTSERV.
<end quote>
 
One company is willing to comply with our policy, but is
uncertain what is allowed.  Their representative sent me the
following mail:
 
>Date: 22 Jul 94 08:31:54 EDT
>From: "C. Calame" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Ton van den Bogert <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: commercial or not?
>Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>Kistler Instrumente AG Winterthur, P.O.Box 304,
>CH-8408 Winterthur, Switzerland
>Tel: +41 52 224 11 11, Fax: +41 52 224 14 14
>Telex 896 296 KAG CH, E-Mail: Christian Calame 100072,1173
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>Dear Ton
>
>We feel a little unsure about what on BIOMCH-L is considered commercial:
>
>       - If we announce the release of the next issue of KISTLER Biomechanics
>Newsletter?
>       - If we breafly announce new products (within 10 lines or so) not giving
>prices and
>         asking interested people to contact us directly?
>       - If we limit above postings to maximum 4..5 a year?
>
>The reason I am asking you is an argument with KISTLER USA which is starting to
>use
>e-mail as a marketing tool.
>
>Best Regards
>
>
>Christian Calame
 
I definitely don't want them to use our list as a marketing tool.
But then, they could do a REVIEW BIOMCH-L and create their own
mailing list.
 
How do other list owners deal with these problems?
Specific questions:
 
1. Is moderating a list (i.e. looking at every posting before
distributing it) a good solution?
 
2. Is it possible to give a better description of what is
allowed?
 
3. Besides the policy of the list, are there any general rules
that should be obeyed by users of Bitnet or Internet?
 
Thanks,
 
-- Ton van den Bogert (Biomch-L list owner)