On Wed, 29 Jan 2014, Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy wrote:

Thanks for an interesting link to LIS-FORUM study / results. I am happy to see that even after 'retiring' from active librarianship in 2000 my name is found among top nine contributors! If some data about total number of subscribers to LIS-Forum (how it has increased from inception is given that will be useful.I vaguely remember that the number of subscribers was around 800 at one point of time.

As on date, the total number of subscribers to the LIS-Forum is, 8041. This number may actually not reveal the unique subscribers, for there are number of members who have multiple subscriptions. I take this opportunity to impress upon the members to delete their unused / multiple subscriptions and retain just one subscription. This will reduce the network traffic considerably. Theoretically, each approved message has to be delivered to all the subscribers. On a given day, if 10 messages are approved, then more than 80,000 mails are to be sent / day. This can really choke the network bandwidth and questions could be raised about such high volume of network traffic from the LIS-Forum service. Let each of us make an earnest attempt to reduce the network traffic to whatever extent that we can. For the smooth functioning of the LIS-forum service, pl ensure the following netiquette are strictly adhered to every time either a posting is made or there is a reply to a posting. 1. Messages are to be sent in plain text format only. Majority of the mails are received in rich text format (RTF) despite the fact that I have communicated about this requirement several times in the past. The RTF/HTML will unnecessarily inflate the size of the posting and also there is probability of such messages not being delivered to all the subscribers especially those who receive lis-forum messages in the non-digest mode. 2. While responding / replying to a posting, use the top-posting style. The top-posting style is the method that I have used to reply to Dr. Vyasamoorthy's reply. Just retain the relevant portion of the mail to which a reply is being sent to and discard the rest of the mail. This will ensure that the readers are put in the right context and avoid unwanted details. 3. Point no. 2 is all the more applicable to members who receive messages in the digest form. While replying to a specific msg from a digest, one should definitely use the top-post style and discard the rest. Just using the 'reply' button will include in the reply all the messages in a digest. Such replies will be discarded. 4. While posting announcements about conferences/seminars/workshops etc just provide the most essential details and for more details, refer to the web site. Unfortunately, NONE of the members follow the above netiquette despite the fact that the event that is being announced has a web site with details. This will ensure that only those who are interested in the event will follow the link. Also, avoid repeating an announcement (about an event etc) more than twice. The second announcement should go as a reminder. 5. While seeking reprint request, DO ENSURE that the requester provides complete affiliation details. Requests without the affiliation details will be discarded. Members from commercial organizations should refrain from asking for reprint requests and NO MEMBER should ask for a copy of complete e-book. I would appreciate if all the members make a constant effort to adhere to the above guidelines so that the LIS-Forum messages / discussions are informative and meaningful. With warm regards, - Francis Moderator, LIS-Forum JRD Library, IISc Bangalore -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.