Holistic Bird List Guidelines

The HolisticBird list was created to provide quality information about improving the health and life of companion birds from the holistic perspective. This is what most of our members want for our list and that is what we will have. This list is relatively strict. Anyone who violates list rules may be unsubscribed without warning.  If you are uncertain about a list rule or want to discuss something that pertains to running of the list or yahoo, don’t sent it to the entire list;, please contact a moderator or the list owner. 
HolisticBird-owner@yahoogroups.com

1. The list focus is holistic health and healing for birds.

Anything else is off-topic and may not be posted.

Off Topic Subjects include but are not limited to:  allopathic treatments with no explicit connection to holistic healthcare, spam, jokes, fiction, maudlin tear-jerker stories circulating the net, advertisements, negotiations for sale/purchase/rescue, politics, virus warnings, slander or libel, rumors or gossip. 

Appropriate topics include but are not limited to:  nutrition and diet, treatment modalities, ailments, occupation and behavior, environment, education, training, species, products, services—as all of the above relate to holistic healthcare for birds.

 2. Respect one another.

List members come from different political, cultural, and religious backgrounds. We are together to discuss avian health and healing. There will be no name calling, comments, or innuendo intended to hurt or demean members of this list. Personal attacks are not tolerated.

3. Disagreement is not disrespect.

It merely questions a concept. Do not take disagreement personally. We can disagree with respect for the other person's feelings and beliefs. We can discuss the issue and share our reasoning. After a discussion, if it is determined that we cannot reach agreement, then we drop the subject and agree to disagree. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

4. We strive for accuracy. We courteously challenge.

Do not present your opinion as fact. Be prepared to support facts with more than your own opinion. Holistic healing methods take enough of a beating without someone making thoughtless grandiose claims that have little basis in reality. Expect the references supporting your claim to be checked.

5. Trim your posts.

Do not quote the whole post or the whole digest. Double check BEFORE you click send. If you don't know how to trim posts, check the tutorial.  Do quote the sentence or two of the post about which you are replying and paste it into your reply.

If it's a private discussion between two people, take it private. An example would be telling someone where they can purchase something in their area. Such information is of no use to members of the list who do not live in that area.

6. Have the subject line of your post reflect its contents.

This is very important because list members use the subject line to determine whether or not to waste their time reading the post. Some members are only interested in particular topics.

7. Don't join the list and think you are going to change it or tell us how to run it.

This isn't a new list. It was started in 1999. We have not been anxiously awaiting your arrival with suggestions for our 'improvement'. If you don't like this list exactly the way it is, then it is not for you. There are many bird lists. Join one or more of them.

8. List Trolls will be banned.

9. Leeway

Leeway is occasionally granted, at list moderator discretion, to those who have been on the list for a long time and have shared their time and knowledge with other list members.