Jewelcollect tries to be a friendly list, with a minimum of restrictions. To preserve the integrity of the specific topic of discussion, Costume Jewelry Collecting, it is necessary to stay within a few guide lines. These posting tips are designed to make the poster's messages both understood and visible to those interested, and to avoid misunderstandings with other readers about what is appropriate to post or not.

Vague or Poor Subject Lines to Be Avoided Are:

Completely blank (no subject). Why would anyone be interested in opening this mail when this line has nothing in it?

Help. The email program is allergic to this word in the subject line or in the beginning of a post. It is a "command" word for the list administrator. Your post will not be accepted by the list's automated program for posting if you put Help in the subject line or first in your post. Other words to avoid in posts are also covered in the Jewelcollect FAQs.

Hi. A good deal of SPAM mail starts with Hi or Hi!. Many readers delete such mail as soon as they see Hi. Your post may thus be ignored by most readers. [SPAM = unwanted and unsolicited advertising for anything under the sun, i.e. junk mail]

[WTB] This means that you want to buy [WTB] something specific.
Ex. [WTB] Haskell Pink and Lavender Parures.

[OT] This means Off-Topic, not costume jewelry-related. It is only to be used in emergencies.
Ex. [OT] Message from Lynn C.; Computer Down! It does not mean posting on other vintage collectibles for any reason. See Jewelcollect FAQs 11 and 12 for tips on how to post on "other vintage."

These tags are not obligatory in posts in any way. They may prove helpful to your posts in order to attract the attention you seek for your posts, and are therefore suggested for use. You can invent your own tags also: [Announcement] [Site Update] [Jewel News], etc. Please Note: The tag [Admin] is for the list administrator only.

However, do not delete absolutely everything in the previous message and leave the readers wondering to what your comment refers.
Ex. "You are so right, I thought so, too! I have done that so many times I can't believe it, and am certain I'll do it again every time I run into a similar situation."
Always include in your response post the exact part to which you are responding or it won't make sense to anyone. Many new readers join (or rejoin) constantly and have therefore NOT seen any previous posts. It doesn't do them any good to refer to something they have not read.

You can put your comment on top or at the bottom in a response post. If you put it on top, indicate that it is you who are writing. The program will add a line with date and time stating, f.ex.
At 10:25 AM 7/23/98 PDT, you wrote:
Be careful when responding in a post so that your comments are not confused with the last writer's because of this line. You can change the "you" to the last writer's name if you wish to avoid confusion as to who wrote what.

Pleas or requests for contributions to ANY cause no matter how worthwhile. Reason: If one such plea is permitted, all such pleas should be considered equally worthy of attention. As Jewelcollect is a specific topic list, such pleas have no place on it, they belong in another part of our lives.

Posts of private and/or personal mail. Consider this: If you write something personally or privately to someone, you probably do not intend for it to be seen by everyone on any list. Therefore, be careful when you respond to any mail, and do not automatically send your response to the list. Check first to see if the letter you received came personally to you, or to the list, before you send your response to the list. If your email program is set to Reply to All, the list will automatically get a copy of anything you respond to in a post. Change this setting to Reply to Sender to avoid getting a copy posted to the list.

Copying of other people's posts from other lists or SPAM. If it came from some other list, it does not belong on Jewelcollect as the writer is not a subscriber to Jewelcollect and has not given his/her permission to "rerun" the letter on another list. If you can obtain this permission, rest assured that an email address is needed to verify this permission. If you don't have an email address to this person, don't copy anything from other lists in posts to Jewelcollect. If you feel that solicitation information you have received privately is important to the Jewelcollect readers, you can quote a paragraph or two from it in a post, and include a web site address (URL), or an email address to which readers can write for complete information. Commercial email and SPAM are usually received pretty much by everyone privately anyway so there is no need to re-run it on Jewelcollect.

CC:ing Jewelcollect List. Be careful when you do this. You may have an Attachment of images or other files in your original letter to another person. If you CC: this letter to the list, the Attachment will follow also. NO Attachments are permitted on Jewelcollect [See reasons in the Jewelcollect FAQs].

If you deleted something, it is your problem. To presume a right to give others a lot of work because you don't know what you are doing is selfish and makes you look stupid in the eyes of others.

2. Expecting Others to Supply Detailed Information on a Personal Long List of Questions.

If others give you a World Wide Web address [URL] to a site where you can read detailed information on questions you have, this should be considered a more than adequate response. To expect others to take of their time to fill in your personal long list of questions with specific detailed information is unrealistic. Others do have a life also.

3. Complaining about Someone's Opinion, or Treatment of You.

Try not to sound like a cry baby in your posts. If you are unhappy with something in your life, Jewelcollect readers don't care to read your whining. If you had an unhappy experience concerning costume jewelry and you share it with the list, do end it on a happy note, like, how you resolved it. Whining only about how badly you felt treated makes you look like a problematic person who can't take care of things in life, and others will hesitate to have anything to do with you. You can agree to disagree but express yourself civilly. This includes not whining about not getting any response to your requests for information. Sometimes requests are too vague so the readers can't figure out what you want to know. Other times they don't know either.

4. Asking for Information and Acknowledging it by Replying: "Yeah, I have that book, too. I was just too busy (lazy) to look it up.."

This has actually happened more than a few times on the list. How would you feel if you received this reply? Not much like you'd ever want to reach out to assist that person again, probably.

5. Asking for the Same Information in Repeated Posts while Not Acknowledging that It Already Has Been Addressed.

This means that you either don't read very well and/or you are very forgetful. You don't remember that you asked this question so you ask again and again. But you don't read the answer, and if you did read it, you didn't save it to file. Read all the posts before you repost the same question, or that you also want to see the answer to someone else's question. The information may just be a little further down in the posts. To post requests for answers which already have been addressed in posts is one sure way of looking stupid immediately in the eyes of everyone on the list.

6. Constantly Repeating Requests for Email Addresses of Others with Whom You Have Corresponded.

How come you didn't save their email addresses to a file? Most people who have transactions or correspondence guard the email addresses of those with whom they deal. Just because you are too lazy or disorganized to save email addresses or past email letters doesn't mean everyone else should need to jump to your aid when you can't find something.

7. Crying Poor in Posts.

If you are trying to sell something, please don't "cry poor." Others readers have enough in their own lives to worry about. They don't want to read about why you can't make ends meet to support the life style you think you are entitled to. To appeal to others to buy jewelry from you because you cry poor makes you appear as if you can't manage either your jewelry business or your personal finances very well.

8. Posting Names of Others in a Negative Light.

The Jewelcollect list has about 400 subscribers at this writing. How do you know that the person you named is not on the list? Or, has friends on the list? You don't. But you will soon find out, won't you?

9.Writing Nasty Letters Privately to Other List Readers.

This is such a NO-NO that it will result in your being kicked off the list. Jewelcollect wants nice people with manners. You can agree to disagree but please keep it civil. If you don't, no one will care much for your opinions as you express them so badly, and you can take it from there.

10. Posting Too Much.

Posting more than three times a day is too much. Save up your announcements for one post per day. Do not post cute two-line comments on every post you read. If you agree, good; you are believed. You don't need to chime in on everything with a "Me Too!" That is for Chat Boards, not for an information list. Watch the URLs in your announcements, and try to copy them correctly the first time. Two Ooopsie! posts after your first wrong URLs don't endear anyone to the thought of actually trying your URLs the third time, nor buy from you.

11. Expecting the Readers to Price Your Finds.

If you just located some wonderful jewelry, do share it with the list! But, please, don't expect the list readers to put a retail price on your jewelry for you. Especially if you announce in your post that you just found it at a bargain price at a yard sale or flea market. No one is going to tell you that they are willing to spend hundreds for something you paid one dollar for.

12. Posting "Test" or the Same Message to the List Repeatedly.

One such "test" should do it. You will see it soon enough and know if you are onboard the list or not. And do not reSend your post several times just because it hasn't shown up on your screen in the past ten minutes. It is stated in the Jewelcollect FAQs that it takes the list server a good while to queue and mail all messages to the entire readership. It can take several hours sometimes. Your post will show up eventually, or else there is something wrong at your Internet Service Provider's end as you are not seeing any mail you are able to Send. Check with your ISP to find out what may be wrong there.

Now when you know what to do and what not to do, it should be easier to participate, right?