Rec's to Dr.R to Improve egroup

[Guest guest]

Hello there,

My surgery is scheduled for October 4th. Below, I have proposed some

guidelines when posting to this egroups list which perhaps (in a very

abbreviated version) could pop up in a dialogue box whenever one logs

on to access the list. After reading posts everyday for the last 2

months, my personal recommendations are the following:

1. Before sending your message to the whole list, ask yourself (and

answer it honestly) the question: would it be best to just reply to

one or a few personal email addresses or will many people want to

read

my intended message? Personal conversations between two or among a

small group of people are not of interest to the rest of us (i.e.

What

time are we meeting at Cattlemans? " ).

2. When posting, change the subject line to reflect your message. If

you leave a prior subject line, the rest of us will open your message

expecting to read about that subject. It is misleading to have a

subject line which does not relate to your message. When your

message

should have just been sent to a personal email address (see 1 above),

it is doubly annoying. For example, do not subject the rest of us to

the following example:

Subject: Re: Stricture of the Esophagus

Thanks for your reply. I sent it onto him at college so

that

he'll know he can ask ??

if he needs to!

Wish me luck!

3)When posting, realize that some of us are not of your faith nor

worship as you do. If you want to discuss your religion, ask for or

send your prayers, contact people by their personal email addresses.

This egroup list has one common theme - the MGB. That is what unites

us here. Religion, like politics should be kept off the list.

4) When posting, do not bring in topics which have nothing to do with

the MGB. This is not the place to vent and seek support for the

myraid issues that plague all our lives. Each of us has to deal with

problems such as work, love life, sickness and death of our families

and friends and while it may be tempting to pour your problems out

everywhere - refrain from doing it here. Contact people privately for

this type of support. Once again, this egroup list has one common

theme - the MGB. This is what unites us here. Also, use some

discretion about posting about food. Foods and drinks related to

healing from the MGB are appropriate. Describing your healthy diet

post op is appropriate. Describing your partying at Cattleman's and

all the " yummy " food you are eating makes a mockery of the rest of us

who take this surgery very seriously.

5) While I found the T. and DES (et al) emails a " guilty

pleasure " for its soap opera/OJ Simpson value, this egroup is not the

place to argue or speak to each other disrespectfully. It holds the

rest of us hostage to really negative emotions and brings the rest of

us onto the battlefield without a say in the matter. As much as you

would like to get in your two cents,and believe me, I had plenty I

wanted to add, it really is wise to keep quiet so that it passes as

soon as possible. Objective, factual and honest posts,including

reporting on personal experiences - whether in support of, neutral or

against the MGB are appropriate. Those people who launch personal

attacks are " egged on " when you choose sides, add your personal

remarks to defend the attacker, attackee or even Dr R. Refrain from

adding to the mix so that people who write nasty things won't have an

audience and a reason to keep posting this way.

6) Before sending your message, do the rest of us the favor of

checking your spelling and grammer. I don't mean that you have to run

it by an English teacher, but at least look it over once before

sending. Some of you may want to take remedial English in addition to

losing weight. Thin and uneducated is not particularly attractive.

7) Before sending your message, do the rest of us the favor of

deleting the numerous headers and prior messages so we don't have to

wade through them only to find your message buried somewhere in the

middle.

8) Don't forget to check " wrap words " so that we don't have such a

difficult time reading what you have to say.

I offer these recommendations to Dr. R to consider as he tries to

improve this egroup list instead of just complaining or withdrawing

because the egroup doesn't meet my needs. I am sending it to the

overall list because I know that many of you may have additional

recommendations or ones that are different than mine. Best regards,