Suggested improvements
to the TAIRA posting rules
(May 2003)

Main ideas arising from the survey (and from other sources)

(1) Some TAIRAns would like to be able to receive TAIRA messages once daily at a certain time of the day.
(2) Some TAIRAns would like to be able to filter messages to reject sayonara sales and/or commercial advertisements.
(3) Commercial advertisements sometimes bring useful information to the community but frequent advertisements are unwelcome.
(4) World wide english must be tolerated.

Changes proposed

(1) Daily delivery of the mail messages will be proposed (as an option). It is possible to switch between options here.
(2) Each mail sent to the list will have to have a keyword helping its classification by the TAIRAns (see details below).
(3) Direct posting of commercial advertisements will be banned. Instead, a digest of commercial advertisements will be sent regularly to the list (see details below). Local businesses will still be allowed to announce events on the list but they will have to add an extra keyword ([ad]) in the title of their message as well as the name of the business.
(4) TAIRAns are asked (once again) to show tolerance toward each other, this includes their english skills.

About the keywords...

All posts to TAIRA will have to be submitted with one of the keywords below (complete with square brackets) in its subject line. This will not only facilitate filtering out some categories by the reader, but also encourage posters to think if their posting is relevant to the mailing list.
The following keywords have been proposed:

[event] To advertise for a coming event in the Tsukuba area.
[info] To send an info to the list.
[help] To ask some info or advice from the list.
[sale] for Sayonara sales but also for people willing to buy something.
[science] For science related discussions (this follows a request made in the survey. We will see if some science discussions happen on the list and may then redefine the scope of this keyword).

These keywords will be technically enforced. If you think another keyword is needed, do not hesitate to contact the committee.

About the commercial announcements...

(A)
Advertisement for businesses (but also non-commercial organisations such as clubs) will have to be posted on a dedicated webpage: http://eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp/taira-ad/entry.htm. From that page a digest will regularly be posted to the TAIRA mailing list. Only TAIRAns who have been subscribed to TAIRA for more than a week are allowed to post announcement on that page. Each TAIRAn can have one and only one announcement with a maximum length of 1000 characters (in plain/text format).
Between two posts on the mailing list, it is possible to consult the digest at the following URL: http://eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp/taira-ad/displayAds.php. To avoid favouring a given business, the ads are sorted randomly each time the page is requested.

(B)
If a business organizes an event (i.e. something limited to a very short period of time like a few hours) or wants to announce an important change in its operation (new opening times, new menu,...), it can post it to TAIRA with the appropriate classification, BUT a specific keyword ([ad]) must be added in the title to inform that this is a commercial announcement and the name of the business must also appear in the title of the mail.
Such posts must remain unfrequent.

Some examples to distinguish between mails described in (A) and (B):
I) Tonight a pub receives a famous pop-star: announce is in the category described in (B)
II) Every monday a pub will have an evening dedicated to a given style of music: announce is in the category described in (A)
III) A business changes its opening times: announce (of the changement) is in the category described in (B), but further announcements of the regular (new) opening times fall in the category described in (A).

Reminder of the committee's practices.

There are nearly 600 people subscribed to the list. When somebody misunderstands the posting rules, the committee does not believe it is necessary to stress that fact to all the community. Thus a message is sent privately to the offender and if needed sanctions are decided.
When you feel a message is breaching the rules, you can inform the committee by sending an email to abuse-taira@eve.bk.tsukuba.ac.jp, but most of the time the committee will already be aware of the problem before your email. Sending an email to the whole community is just gives an extra-advertisement for the offender.