Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv
From: cfs-news@cais.cais.com (Roger Burns)
Newsgroups: alt.med.cfs,alt.answers,news.answers
Subject: FAQ: CFS alt.med.cfs/CFS-L Topics, Rules and Information
Supersedes: <medicine/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/cfs-guidelines_888753208@rtfm.mit.edu>
Followup-To: alt.med.cfs
Date: 8 Mar 1998 12:23:15 GMT
Organization: none
Lines: 277
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Expires: 29 Mar 1998 12:22:10 GMT
Message-ID: <medicine/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/cfs-guidelines_889359730@rtfm.mit.edu>
Reply-To: CFS-L-REQUEST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
Summary: This posting contains information and discussion guidelines for
          the participants of alt.med.cfs, the discussion group for those
          who are ill with CFS/CFIDS/M.E. (chronic fatigue syndrome).
X-Last-Updated: 1997/04/17
Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.med.cfs:74804 alt.answers:32627 news.answers:124956

Archive-name: medicine/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/cfs-guidelines
Posting-Frequency: weekly
Last-modified: 1997/04/17

                     Topics, Rules and Information for
                            CFS-L / alt.med.cfs

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This discussion group on chronic fatigue syndrome is distributed both by
e-mail subscription as the CFS-L list, based at
LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU, and as Usenet newsgroup alt.med.cfs. For a
wealth of CFS related information visit the web page at
http://www.cais.net/cfs-news . Please read the following rules and notices.

TOPICS SCHEME

Most messages can be appropriately posted to the basic 3 topics of
(none), MEDical, or RESearch.  The definitions of the designated
topics are as follows:

(no keyword): This open category is appropriate for almost all postings
              except those dealing with medical issues, research, social
              chatter, and other special topics as listed below.  (When
              using Listserv commands, refer to this topic as OTHER.)

     MEDical: medical care issues which are likely to have been
              discussed before, i.e. treatment and diagnosis questions
              for individual cases, for CFS or any related condition
              (warning: messages on this group cannot serve as medical
              advice); how to find a doctor; how to handle your doctor.

    RESearch: scientific discussion and news items about the illness;
              treatment and diagnosis issues which pertain to CFS
              patients as a class (i.e. not individual cases); news items
              about new research, publications, conferences, media
              reports.

        CARE: this topic is for caregivers to discuss their own issues;
              caregivers are family, friends etc. who assist CFS
              patients in their daily living.

      PARENT: about parenting while ill with CFS.

        NAME: this a temporary workshop for discussing changing the name
              "chronic fatigue syndrome"; for further information, send
              GET CFS NAME as an e-mail message to
              LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU.

       MEDIA: discussion of news articles, TV broadcasts, etc. about CFS

        CHAT: social discussion about non-CFS issues.

       HUMor: humor

       ADMIN: for discussing issues about this group itself; the rules,
              how they are applied, possible new topic categories.

         FAQ: special notices for "frequently asked questions"; the
              formal notices will be posted by the moderator only, but
              follow-up discussion about them or how they may be improved
              may be posted here.

        CONJ: Conjecture, "brainstorming"; patients discuss potential
              research ideas regarding CFS; this is an 'informal' topic,
              that is, the moderators will not direct messages that may
              be posted under other topics to instead be posted here.

Please see that your messages contain a designated topic keywords (see
below) in the Subject: line when appropriate. These keywords enable
greater participation from the e-mail side of this group. The keywords
must end with a colon, e.g. ADMIN:. Multiple keywords must be separated
by a comma. e.g. MED,RES:

E-mail subscribers can restrict received messages to only selected topics
by sending a command in the form of SET CFS-L TOPICS topic1 topic2 etc. as
an e-mail message to the address LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU. By
default, all new subscribers receive all topics except CHAT and CARE. To
later add additional topics, you can send a command in the form of SET
CFS-L TOPICS +topic1 +topic2. To delete certain topics, send a command like
SET CFS-L TOPICS -topic1 -topic2. The open, "no keyword" topic may be
referred to as OTHER. To see your current topics setting, send the command
QUERY CFS-L. Digest and Index subscribers receive all messages regardless
of topic.

An abbreviation unique to the topic keyword vis-a-vis the other keywords
may be used in place of the full keyword, and is encouraged.  Please use
the abbreviations as shown.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                CFS Group -- TOPICS Cheat Sheet
           (print out and keep near your keyboard)

(none)  all except medical, research, chat and others shown below
MED:    medical care, individual cases
RES:    scientific discussion about the illness, CFS patients as a class

CONJ:   "brainstorming" about the causes of the illness
CARE:   discussion among caregivers
PARENT: parenting while ill
NAME:   Change-the-Name project
MEDIA:  discussion of news articles, TV broadcasts, etc. regarding CFS
CHAT:   social talk
HUM:    humor
ADMIN:  about the CFS group
FAQ:    special notices on "frequently asked questions"

Never reply blindly, always check that your Subject: has the correct
topic. Topic keywords always include a colon, multiple keywords must be
separated by a comma. e.g. MED,RES:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

RULES:

1. On topic: Messages posted to this group must be limited to the topic of
chronic fatigue syndrome.

2. No advertisements: Commercial advertisements are not allowed on this
group. Participants may post reviews of consumer products or services in
which they have no financial interest.

3. No flames.

   a. Accent the positive: When posting messages, please comment on ideas
and make positive suggestions. Please do not personally criticize other
participants. Also, political discussions should be brief, and for the most
part should be conducted on the CFIDS-L / alt.health.cfids-action group
(for information about that group, send an e-mail message which says INFO
CFIDS-L to address LISTSERV@AMERICAN.EDU).

   b. Refer flames to the moderator: If you are personally criticized,
please do not respond directly on the group but instead bring the matter to
the attention of the moderator privately (at address
CFS-L-REQUEST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU). If everyone were to respond directly
to "flames", then the other person may exercise their right to respond, and
soon we would have a spiraling melee. Please bring concerns to the
moderator.

   c. Private flames that might discourage public postings are also banned
from this group. Do not complain about such matters by posting publicly,
but rather forward the troublesome messages to the moderators at
CFS-L-REQUEST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU.

4. Proper subject and topic keywords: Post your messages to the appropriate
topic keyword, as described in the scheme listed above. Also, when replying
to messages please don't automatically use the original message's Subject:,
but review your message and alter your Subject: if your message contains
key ideas that are not captured by the default Subject. Pay special
attention to insert the proper topic keyword for your reply and don't
automatically use the keyword for the original message you're replying to.
This will make message-searching more effective for all. The special topic
keyword ALL: is reserved for use by the moderator only.

5. Brief quotes only; no gifs, periodicals or long documents. Many of our
ill readers shouldn't need to deal with unusable or unnecessarily long
documents that are available elsewhere. This group's messages are archived,
and that costs money.

   a. When replying to messages, please don't quote the entire original
message, but only that part of the message you are commenting on. A little
bit of deleting will save much reading time for the hundreds of readers on
this group.

   b. Encoded text is not allowed. This includes GIFs and other pics,
compressed files, and word-processing documents.

   c. Periodicals may not be regularly posted to the group. Announcements
should be made as to where they can be obtained.

   d. Long documents (over 100 lines of prepared text) may not be posted.
Instead, the moderator should be contacted about how to make such documents
otherwise available, and an announcement should then be posted about how to
get them. (Or you should email the document to those individuals who may be
interested.) Clarification: personal messages that are intended to be a
one-time posting to this group only shall have no length restriction on
them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTICES

A. MODERATED GROUP. This is a moderated group. The moderators have complete
discretion on how rule violations will be handled. Once a case has been
taken up by the moderators, it may not be discussed publicly. When a rule
is violated, do not criticize the person yourself but instead forward the
entire offending message including complete mail headers to the moderators
at CFS-L-REQUEST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU . Messages sent to any moderator are
shared among all moderators, and messages received from any moderator
represent the views of the entire Moderation Team. Permanent changes to the
rules are adopted only after a draft of the change has been posted to the
reserved ALL: topic by the moderators and there has been an opportunity for
discussion by everyone under the ADMIN: topic. Readers are expected to read
every notice posted to ALL: by the moderators (these notices are
infrequent).

B. NETIQUETTE and Guidelines. A foremost rule of netiquette throughout the
entire Internet is to never publicly post a private message from someone
unless you have first obtained permission from the author. It is advisable
to gain the author's permission before making any use of a message other
than quoting it within the same group where it was posted. In this group in
particular, it is important to write your messages in a sensitive and
understanding manner and allow some latitude for the sometimes brainfogged
posts of others. See this group's Guidelines document and other netiquette
references on the web at http://www.cais.net/cfs-news/cfs-l.htm#RULES or
send an e-mail message which says GET CFS-L GUIDE to
LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU .

C. DISCLAIMER: Any advice which may be given on this list regarding
diagnoses or treatments, etc., reflects only the opinion of the individual
posting the message. Those who have CFS are urged to consult with a
licensed health care practitioner who is familiar with the illness.

D. PRIVATE vs. PUBLIC: All messages posted to this group are distributed to
Usenet and thus can be read by millions of people world-wide. All messages
are also stored at DejaNews and other services where anyone can read what
you have posted in the past. A six-month archive is also available to this
group's registrants. Never post anything here that you would not wish to be
made public knowledge.

E. POSTING PRIVILEGES: This group is both a newsgroup and an e-mail list.
Those who would like be able to post messages directly to the newsgroup
alt.med.cfs must register for posting privileges. Request this by
contacting the moderators at CFS-L-REQUEST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU or do the
following self-registration procedure. Create an e-mail message which says

    SUB CFS-L YourFirstName YourLastName

(but use your own first name and last name) and send to
LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU . You will receive a confirmation request by
return e-mail. Reply to that request (making sure not to delete the
Subject: line) by sending only the following as the text of the message: OK
If you are registering for the newsgroup, the procedure is now complete.
For a free subscription to the e-mail list, you must take the following
step in addition to the above. After you have received final confirmation
of your registration, you must send an e-mail message which says SET CFS-L
MAIL to LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU. Again, this last step is ONLY for
e-mail subscribers. Those who wish to read via the newsgroup should not
take this step, else you will get a lot of e-mail that you won't be
expecting.

It is possible to limit the e-mail messages to certain formal topics of
interest, thus minimizing the load of incoming e-mail. You can also receive
the e-mails as a digest. For further information, contact the moderators at
CFS-L-REQUEST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU or see detailed references in the next
section below.

F. TECHNICAL AND NETWORK INFORMATION: For technical information about this
group and its message archives, and about other CFS groups and resources on
Internet/Usenet, read the CFS Network Help file. To obtain the file, see
the web page at http://www.mcs.net/~dalton/net-help.htm or send an e-mail
message which says GET CFS NET-HELP to LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU.

G. OTHER CFS INFORMATION: For a wealth of information about CFS, go via web
to http://www.cais.net/cfs-news or send an e-mail message which says

    GET CFS FAQ
    GET CFS INDEX

to LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU .

Readers of this group are advised to also follow the CFS-NEWS electronic
newsletter and the CFS Newswire service. To get on the free mailing list,
send an e-mail message in the form of

    SUB CFS-NEWS YourFirstName YourLastName
    SUB CFS-WIRE YourFirstName YourLastName

to LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU .

For further advice, contact the moderators at address
CFS-L-REQUEST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU.

================ From: CFS-L@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU ==============

---- end of document -------------------------------------------------

