When posting a message to an email forum, you will get the best results if you follow some simple guidelines:

1. Use a catchy but brief title.
2. Capitalize surnames so they can be seen more easily.
3. Avoid internet shorthand or slang as many researchers do not understand it and you may miss the contact you really need.
4. Remember -- the person reading your note isn't thinking the way your are, so think your note out, write it and then reread it before posting it.
5. Remember that anything you write in an email or to a blog or bulletin board is "forever".  Once you've written and sent it, you can never get it back!  So, be careful what you write (be careful of giving information on the list about living people, for example).
6. If someone replies in a manner offensive to you, perhaps they just aren't thinking like you are, or they didn't understand what you wrote (or you aren't understanding what they wrote).
7. If someone is truly being tacky or inappropriate (even if intended specifically you), ignore it and let the list administrator deal with it.  Caustic comments make everyone uncomfortable; they inhibit participation and they cause uninvolved parties to leave the forum.
8. The best procedure for an occasional confrontational email is to just ignore it.  Your list administrator has experience dealing with these sort of things, so trust his or her judgement.
9. Don't be a party to a "flame war".  Avoid inflammatory comments.
10. The open participation of all is important to the success of our research.  Sometimes it's better to bite your tongue, forget and move on than to risk losing participants.
11. If you feel you absolutely must defend your honor, or tell the other person just how much more intelligent you are than they -- please do not respond to the whole list, write them privately.
12. If you feel something is happening on the list that is inappropriate or that is unproductive, please write the list administrator privately to see if they are aware of the problem.
13. Only plain text can be sent to the list.  If you normally format your text or add color or underlining to it, you will need to set your email program to send "Plain Text Only".
14. Attachments cannot be sent to the list.  If you really need to send an attachment, post a note asking who is interested and then you can send it to them off-list.
15. You cannot get a virus of any kind by participating in a rootsweb email forum.  This is because of the plain text requirement and the policy of not accepting attachments.