Privacy

1. AAKSIS and its agents will not sell, trade, or give the names and email addresses of any subscriber on this list without their permission.

2. No subscriber is permitted to sell, trade or give the names or email addresses of other subscribers to this list, or to harvest the email addresses from the messages on this list for marketing purposes.

Yahoo Spam

Yahoo has signed everyone up for spam. To change your account info if you don't want it, do the following:

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/ and click on Account Info in the top right corner to get to the Special Offers & Marketing Communications section. In the centre of your Yahoo ID Card, click "Edit your marketing preferences". On the next screen, under "Special Offers & Marketing Communications", click all the "Enrol Me" radio buttons to "No".

At the bottom of the page you will find "Other Delivery", for which you can also choose "No". Make sure you click the button at the bottom: "Save Changes."

1. Messages designed to control your subscription should never be sent to the list. That is, do not send messages related to your subscription to the list. Please do not send hundreds of other subscribers your plea to be removed from the list. This makes people mad and doesn't work.

2. Commercial messages: This list is not here for anyone's marketing or sales purposes. Just as we forbid collecting the addresses of list subscribers for use in commercial solicitation, we forbid commercial content on the list itself. There are certainly exceptions: If a commercial product or service (your own or someone else's) is clearly connected to the conversation thread then it can be tactfully presented without excessive sales language. The basic guideline here is that you should establish yourself as a member of this community. Everyone can tell if you are trying to sell to them.

3. Please turn off HTML: HTML increases message size, which is a real problem for people who pay by the minute with slow dial-up connections. Also, many older e-mail programs cannot read HTML properly. To turn off HTML, on the Yahoo Home AAKSIS page click "Edit My Membership," usually located on upper right part of screen. Under Message Format select "Do not convert to HTML." Make sure you click on "save changes."

4. Personal messages: Pay attention to the TO line in your email messages. If you intend a message to go to someone personally, do not send it to the list address.

5. Vacation messages: Some people set up automated replies to messages when they are away from the office. This can lead to enormous numbers of messages being sent to the mailing list. Don't do this.

6. Collected replies: Sometimes you will want to survey the subscribers on a particular question or you might want lots of recommendations or advice on a topic. It is better for everyone that you not ask people to reply privately, since that knowledge will likely be of interest to everyone and the list is not anyone's private knowledge base. It is sometimes appropriate to summarize and repost large numbers of replies to a single topic.

7. COPYRIGHT: This list, and all of its contents, are governed by domestic and international copyright laws, and it is our policy to comply with those laws. It is required that you state your source, or sources, anytime you post information to the list that may have a copyright attached to it. It is also your responsibility to acquire the necessary permissions before posting such information when required by the original author.

1. Keep quoting to a minimum: Most email programs automatically include the content of the message to which you are replying, marked in some way to indicate that you are quoting a previous message. Pare this down to the absolute minimum needed to establish context. So, for example, do not include someone else's signature lines in your message unless you are specifically replying to that signature. Do not include the administrative reminders or advertising at the bottom of each message, period. Do not include any other parts of the message that are not directly relevant to your response.

2. Use accurate subject lines: If you use your email program's reply command to send a message to the list, change the subject line unless you are indeed continuing on the same thread of conversation. If you are receiving your messages in digest mode (many messages collected in a single message), you must always change the subject line.

3. Be courteous: Somehow, it is easy to become rude online. We've all done it to one degree or another. Sometimes, we don't even think we are being rude. But if you have any doubt at all about the courtesy of your message, take a break before you send it and then read it again. Ask yourself how you would feel receiving the message you are about to send. We are here to build community and work toward common goals. There is no value or benefit in tearing others down.

4. Attachments are not allowed. Files can be sent to the Yahoo site. For photos, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAKSIS/ and in the left navigation bar click on the photos link, and follow the directions. Files are uploaded the same way, except click on files in the navigation bar.

List members may use an alias if they think this will help them open up and examine difficult issues. However, use of an alias for any other reason will result in the member being removed from the list and if the member wishes to subscribe under their own name in the future they may be placed on moderation, at the time of re-subscription, for a period of time that will be decided by the moderators. Also, anyone using an alias must contact one of the moderators, in ADVANCE. There will be a 30 day period of grace beginning May 1, 2002, for anyone presently on the list with an alias, since this is a new AAKSIS guideline.

Rules of Engagement

Occasionally you may read a post that is so disturbing that all discretion flies out the window and you respond in anger. Since the AAKSIS list is first and foremost a support list we strongly discourage flaming fellow members, but we also recognise that it does occur. A blanket determination for all assumed flames is to please remember that general statements which may seem to fit your particular circumstances are most likely not directed at you at all.

1. Ask for clarification - make sure the person is saying what you think they are saying.
2. Do not attack the person - examine the idea, not the person.
3. Stick to the problem with the particular post that has offended you. This means do not refer to that person's history, your private knowledge of them, what they may have done on other lists, etc - stick to the point or points in the post that you have found offensive.
4. Do not cc people who are not members of the AAKSIS list.

Moderation

Though the AAKSIS E-mail list is unmoderated, it is monitored for behaviour that is inappropriate for the good of the list. This would include flaming fellow list members, discussing religious or political issues beyond what is relevant to the XXY/Klinefelter syndrome experience, sending jokes or excessive "feel-good" messages, chain letters, unsubstantiated computer virus warnings, or making any slight that is based on skin colour, ethnic origin, sex, or religious belief.

If this type of behaviour does occur the offender will be first advised, then warned if the behaviour continues, and finally, if there is no other choice, the subscriber may be exiled for a time by the list owners. The offender may request a reinstatement after all offences are cleared up. Some partial censorship may occur of this individual's posts until the list members are satisfied the individual fully understands and will comply with all list rules.