NAMI-YOLO WEB FORUM

The NAMIYOLO Forum at Yahoo! Groups is a  free, easy-to-use email forum and  your chance to network with other NAMI-Yolo members, learn about about local mental health-related happenings, discuss hot topics and share information about treatments, coping strategies, local resources etc.  This is an extraordinary opportunity to connect with others who walk or have walked down the difficult road of helping a family member or friend with a psychiatric disorder.   

This forum is private which means messages can only be read by members of the NAMIYOLO group, all of whom must be NAMI-Yolo members.

To start sending messages to members of this group, simply send email to  namiyolo@yahoogroups.com from your email program or logon to the web forum and send messages there.

At the moment, our Group is just beginning and there may not be many postings. However, this group has the potential to be as active as its members. The more people are posting and contributing, whether by  asking questions or by offering a  ear to someone in need, the more active and useful a tool this can be to its members. 

To see and modify all of your groups, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups

If you do not wish to belong to namiyolo, you may  unsubscribe by sending an email to:  namiyolo-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com 

Netiquette Guidelines.
Along with membership in this group comes a responsibility to our community.   Some of these responsibilities are listed in the following guidelines. Make an effort to adhere to these standards so our community can continue to thrive. Use good judgment and respect when helping someone who consistently doesn't follow our Netiquette rules. Keep in mind that everyone can be forgetful at times.  Also remember that some members may know very little about the Internet. Thank you for your contribution to our unique and wonderful community .  We hope to hear from you soon! they love who has a psychiatric disorder. 

REPLYING to Messages.
Don't include the entire length of the original message in your post when you reply to a message.

Take the time to use your delete key and either select the small part that is pertinent to your comments or summarize it in your response. Otherwise, our message board could get clocked with repetitious postings and become large and difficult to read.

Avoid posting "Me Too," "good post," "thanks"  messages to the whole list  unless you expand on the discussion in some meaningful way.  It is better to send these types of messages by private e-mail to the original poster.  

CONTENT & SUBJECT LINE

Use concise, descriptive subject lines.   

Topics that refer to Politics, Religion or Sex are not allowed on this list. Our experience of being online for many years has taught us that these topics only generate arguments and are not appropriate topics for a health-related Internet group

ADS should not be posted, nor followed-up to this froup. Please don't advertise or try to sell your products.  

Don't mention your economic needs here in any requests for help or information. If you want to discuss your personal financial needs, please do so in private email.

BE COURTEOUS
Take care in what you write.

Remember that many people will read your post and it could be archived for a very long time.  

Consider your audience. Try not to give offence or be easily offended yourself. When you make your points, keep your tone polite. Respond to the issues not to the personal attributes.

Remember that often an email can sound harsher than it is because there are no accompanying gestures or facial expressions.  Be careful when using sarcasm and humor. Without face-to-face communications your joke may be viewed as criticism. When being humorous, use emoticons to express humor. (tilt your head to the left to see the emoticon smile)

            :-) = happy face for humor

AVOID FLAME WARS
Flaming is unacceptable and could result in your membership being set to NOPOST (you can receive mail but not post anything) or being removed from the list.  Flaming means sending harsh abusive mail. It includes such things as name-calling, public criticism of another member of the group, personal attacks, baiting, raising issues or responding to posts in a deliberately inflammatory manner. You may have different opinions than others on the list but please address everyone with respect.  The best way to stop a flame war from happening is to ignore the folks who try to start them. Please notify  us  if you feel  a discussion is getting out of hand or oppressive.  Persistent disagreements with another person/s should be moved to private email and off the list.

KEEP PRIVATE EMAIL PRIVATE - AND OFF THE LIST
Never repost private email to the mailing list (or any other forum or media) without permission of the original author. If you have permission to repost a message or information, please credit the author and show their email address.

Don't post your phone number or address to the group. Such information can be read by anyone with Internet access. It is better to send personal information by private email.

MAKE YOUR MESSAGES READABLE
Never send attachments to the group.. You may describe attachments or any other item you want to share on the list and suggest that list members email you privately for a copy.

Capitalize words only to highlight an important point or to distinguish a title or heading. Capitalizing whole words that are not titles is generally termed as SHOUTING! *Asterisks* surrounding a word can be used to make a stronger point. Don't write an entire message in lower case, either.

Don't send text to a mailing list in mime or HTML format. Keep your email formatting set to ASCII Text so that everyone can read it.