The Other Canyoneering Association

The Canyons E Group Participation Policies

The Canyons Group is a forum for sharing ideas and information among an international community of canyoneering, canyoning and slot canyon enthusiasts. Membership in the group is open to all. The Canyons Group is a 'moderated' forum, hoping to avoid degeneration into vicious name-calling and venting of bile by having a few policies in place to prevent this.

The Canyons Group is a group effort - a 'commons' - and as such requires active and responsible participation by its members to be useful. The Group is only what you, as a member, and we, as a group, make it to be. So, pitch in, have some fun, learn or teach a few things.

The Canyons Group at Yahoo is NOT an anything-goes public forum. If a member is a destructive influence or is abusive to the group or its members, his/her privileges may be revoked at the sole discretion of the moderators. You are a guest in our home, at our campfire, and we expect you to behave like one. Be respectful. Not like we usually have campfires - it's a metaphor.

Please introduce yourself with your first post. It increases the sense of community, and it helps for people to know where you are coming from.

There are no stupid questions. Participation is for everyone, including beginners. Ask stupid questions and you might get some intelligent replies. Folks that answer 'stupid questions' with snide remarks are just being jerks, try to ignore them.

Email addresses are hidden, kind of. The email hiding is not very effective, so consider your email address to be public knowledge. From the Yahoo Group site, you can email people who have posted directly by clicking on their name. If you want someone's email address, post a message like: 'Dennis Turville - please send me an email. tom (at) jrat.com Thanks'.

Please keep posts on topic. This means posts should be about Canyoneering in some way. Please respect the fact that your post is being emailed to 400-500 people. Feel free to take discussions off-list and into personal email, if it is more appropriate.

Attachments are not allowed. You can upload pictures to the "files" section on the site. If you would like to post a trip report or essay, and need space, please contact me directly (tom@jrat.com).

For Sales: Feel free to list CANYONEERING gear you have for sale. Please start the subject line with "FS:"; state what city the gear is located in; include as much detail as possible, while keeping it reasonably short; and include your email address so people can contact you off-list.

The following subjects are OFF TOPIC and subject to moderator scrutiny:

Swearing, cussing, sexist, racist, homophobic and otherwise offensive statements. This is a family forum, pretend that your mother is listening.

Personal attacks and outright meanness. Nastiness is highly discouraged. If you can't find a clever and nice way to put some fool in their place, then don't do so on the E Group. Everyone here is a lover of the canyon country - respect them. If they have an opinion different from yours, consider it an opportunity for personal growth - on YOUR part. Pretend you are an adult.

Politics

The Wilderness Debate: The Canyons group includes a diverse membership, including those who might call themselves 'environmental fruitcakes' and others who might call themselves 'narrow minded self-centered exploiters of the public lands'. WAIT, I might have whom is calling whom a little confused. This is NOT a forum for rehashing The Wilderness Debate. Short, tasteful announcements of political events or news on either side are welcome. Nasty comments in response are not.

The Bolt Debate: yeah, we could hash this stuff over and over and over. Let's not. There's a bunch in the archive if you want some entertainment.

SPAM. Commercial posts are permitted under the following guidelines:

Commercial posts should be short and to the point, and link to a longer explanation. Short like 3 paragraphs.
Commercial posts should be canyoneering related. Closely related.
Announcements of sales or other posts are limited to one every two months for any one person.
The ACA and ACA approved courses are not considered commercial and exempt from these guidelines.

Chain Letters, Get Rich Quick Schemes, Jokes, and urban legends.

Flames. A flame is a searing e-mail message in which the writer attacks another participant in overly harsh, and often personal, terms. Don't post them.

You may NOT use addresses obtained from this list to harass others or send them offensive, abusive or commercial e-mail.

If you use a "vacation" program, make sure that it is smart enough to avoid sending messages to the mailing lists or to users who post to the mailing list. Alternatively, change your egroup preferences to "no email; web only" before you leave for vacation.

If you include quoted material from a previous post, edit it! Everyone gets the same mail you do. If they are following the thread, they need nothing more than the bare minimum text to keep the flow going.

Please change the SUBJECT of your post to best describe your post. This will make it easier for folks to follow the discussion.

Daily Digest: the two items above are especially important to Daily Digesters. If you use this feature, the easiest way to reply is to go to the Yahoo Group site, click on the message, and reply from there.

Manage your own message delivery. Go to the Yahoo Group site, click on Edit my Membership, and change your delivery options. Please do not email the group or reply to a message. Changes may take a couple of hours to go into effect.

Moderation: new members are moderated until either: 1. they have been a member for a month; or 2. they make a post that shows they are a serious member. This is done largely to catch SPAM, and also catch the inevitable 'unsubscribes' from new members who find themselves not interested. Posts can be approved by any moderator. If a moderator finds a post inappropriate, he/she will ask the opinion of another moderator before deleting. Moderated posts will be returned to the sender with a brief explanation of the offense.

Missing Messages: on occasion, I will delete repeat or obviously mis-posted messages, which will create holes in the numbering sequence. Don't sweat it. Also, posts can take up to a few hours to appear. Traffic varies widely on Yahoo, and at times, service is very slow.

Spelling: please check your spelling. Though many of our members ARE hicks, thares know raison to spill like one, Kay! It distracts from your message. The word is Rappel. Rappeling. Rappeler.

Owner's Privilege: as owner, I can do anything I want, and sometimes will. Nah nah de nah nah.

If you need anything, email me directly: tom@jrat.com.

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