PhiladelphiaDANCE.org
GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF THE PhiladelphiaDANCE.org LISTSERV
updated 10/1/2019

OWNERSHIP & USE
The PhiladelphiaDANCE.org listserv is exclusively owned, operated and funded by PhiladelphiaDANCE.org, a 501 C 3 Pennsylvania registered non-profit. Use of the listserv is provided to the Philadelphia dance community without charge. The PhiladelphiaDance.org listserv is intended to serve as means to communicate events, news and items of interest to its membership. This listserv is not intended to be used as a discussion board. Subscribers are expected to exercise both common sense and courtesy in the messages they transmit over the listserv. Please do not use the listserv to defame or disparage a member or any other person. Defamatory, harassing, sexist, racist, obscene, and other offensive communications are not acceptable. If you disagree with someone else's ideas, please communicate with the other person directly. Do not misrepresent yourself, or in any other way conceal your identity, or post anonymous messages on the listserv. PhiladelphiaDANCE.org reserves the right to remove members from the listserv for any behavior it deems as inappropriate. Appeals of such decisions may be made directly to [email protected]. Membership to the listserv is not a right of the individual.

DISCLAIMER
Comments posted to the listserv do not reflect the opinions of PhiladelphiaDANCE.org. PhiladelphiaDANCE.org does not endorse any post made to the system and we are not responsible for any statement, opinion, advice given or made. If you do not agree to the rules set forth, please do not use this service. Use of service is acknowledgment and agreement to terms of use.

COPYRIGHT
List subscribers, owners, and all others with list posting privileges are expected to observe all applicable copyright restrictions when posting any material that is not their own. The use of a mailing list to distribute any material (including binary files) in violation of copyright or licensing is strictly prohibited.

LISTSERV MARKET
Please note that the 2600+ members of the listserv are primarily fellow members of the dance community, as well as related performing arts community in Philadelphia. Please keep this in mind and tailor your posts accordingly.

MEMBERSHIP
Membership to the listerv is FREE. However, in light of recent issues with spam complaints from major ISPs, membership will only be accepted from qualified applicants. You MUST provide your full name when signing up for the listserv. We must be able to verify that you are a member of the dance community or performing arts community in the region. If we can not verify your status, your application will be rejected. You may appeal this decision by providing evidence to the contrary.

UNSUBSCRIBE
You can unsubscribe at any time by simply gouing to the listserv's main page at http://philadelphiadance.org/mailman/listinfo/listserv_philadelphiadance.org you may also send an email request to [email protected]. Such requests are fulfilled with in 24 hours or less of the request being made. The unsubscribe link is made available in all listserv posts as the bottom of the email. Subscribing and unsubscribing on a regular basis just to make posts is prohibited will result in your email address being blocked by the listserv.

RESTRICTION OF NON-MEMBER POSTS
After considerable evaluation and in an effort to prevent spam issues that have arisen, it has been decided to no longer accept posts to the listerv from non-members. A few exceptions will be made for information provided to the dance community that is deemed to be of significance to a wider audience (NOT included in this category are promotions of performances or classes. INCLUDED would be advocacy issues, grants available, residency programs, etc.)

PRIVACY
We do not share your email address with any other third parties. The listserv is hosted and maintained by Delaware Valley On Line. A copy of the privacy policy may be found at http://www.dvol.com/policy/privacy.html

INDIVIDUAL EMAILS OR DAILY DIGEST
The listserv tends to average about 15-30 emails per week. When signing up for service you have an option to receive individual emails or a daily digest. If you do NOT want a high volume of email from us, it is strongly suggested that you sign up for the daily digest. If at any time, you wish to change your delivery method, simply send an email to [email protected] with your request. Please note that while the daily digest is just that, if there is a high volume of emails all on one day, you may receive more than one digest in a day as there is a general size restriction for emails. When that size restriction has been met, an email is automatically sent.

MODERATION OF POSTS
Please note that all posts are moderated and reviewed for format and appropriate content. The listserv software does not allow us to edit posts, only to approve or reject posts.
While posts usually go out within one three hours of receipt, they may be held for up to 24 hours depending on current volume to the listserv.
It is strongly recommended that if you post is time sensitive or dated that you allow at least 24-48 hours for transmission.
Important - Please note you will NOT receive a copy of your own post. If a post does not pass the moderation cue, you will be sent an email with the reason for the rejection.
We reserve the sole right to approve, reject or discard any post sent to the listserv for any reason.

FREQUENCY OF POSTS
We are all bombarded by tons of information on a daily basis. So it is important not to have the listserv be perceived as spam or simply ignored because of too many postings.

Too Many Posts In One Day - It is recommended that if you see a lot of posts on any given day, that you post your message at another time or date. All too often everyone tends to post on a Monday or Tuesday, all at the same time. This causes an overload of information to the reader and your email is more likely to be ignored.

Consolidate Your Posts - If you have three different events running in a given week, do NOT send out three separate posts to the listserv. Instead, consoliudate your posts in to one! eg// XYZ schedule of events this week. Sending multiple posts all at the same time will automatically result in only one post being sent and the others being rejected.

Class Announcements - Duplicate posts sent with in 14 days of each other are automatically discarded to prevent spam. Do NOT use the listserv to administer your class! A single post to advertise a new class offering is sufficient. Wekely posts of the same class announcement/schedule or class cancelation messages is prohibited. We suggest using the Class Calendar at http://www.philadelphiadance.org/classes/

Performance Announcements - Duplicate posts sent with in 10 days of each other are automatically discarded to prevent spam. We suggest you only do 2 performance announcements - one in advance and one closer to your date. Sending announcements 3-4 times in the same week of yoru show is viewed as spam and prohibited. We suggest using the Dance Calendar as well for announcements as these are included in the weekly eNewsletter as well - http://www.philadelphiadance.org/calendar/

HOW TO POST (Please read!!!!)

1. Simply send an email to [email protected]

2. SUBJECT LINES - Subject line of email must be filled out and be clear. Do not leave blank or your post will automatically be deleted by the system. The subject line should be short and to the point, indicating what the post is about. Eg// Performance 4/12 by XYZ Dance Company or New Modern Dance Class Forming. Do not make the subject lines extremely lengthy - limit to 50-60 characters. Do not put subject lines in all capital letters. Do not use eclamatioon marks or other symbols in subject lines as these tend to be marked as spam by most systems.

3. When you send to the listserv, your message as formatted is exactly what goes out. Please do not send notes with the email to the listserv. Example, do not put in your post messages like – "can you send this out on the listserv", "please post this when you get a chance", "is this ok to send out on the listserv?". If you have questions about a post or using the listserv – send them to philadelphiadance at gmail.com and not the listserv itself.

4. Remove elaborate signatures or footers. Please remove any organizational or advertising signatures that may be contained in your email. We realize that some signatures (example - yahoo mail) can not be removed and have allowed for them to be accepted by the system.

5. Do NOT have the listserv address as part of your own mass emailers. Messages which contain cc or bcc fields with multiple email addresses will be rejected to prevent spamming. You must send a UNIQUE email to the listserv.

6. Do NOT have the listserv be part of your own mailing lists through such professional services as constant contact, mailchimp, patron mail, etc. These will be automaitically rejected as they contain tracking code which our users have not agreed upon.

MESSAGE FORMAT
The best format for your listserv post is a plain text message. All users, regardless of their email systems, can read this. Some of you prefer to enhance you messages using html (formatting similar to a web page). This can also go out but when you send your email, you must allow for it to be in both text and html formats. If it is only sent as html, you will loose over half your audience or your message may appear to be blank to the recipient.

ATTACHMENTS
The listserv by its setup strips most attachments from posts sent to it. I have made exceptions for sending pictures in .jpg and .gif formats. I am also selectively allowing for pdf and word doc files. Attachments should be under 5mgs in size so as not to jam up most users mailboxes. You should reduce photo sizes before sending them. Do NOT send high resolution photos through the listserv, your post will be rejected.

Important– do NOT just send an attachment. You MUST still have a message in the body of your email or it will not go out. All attachments are scanned for virus, malware, scripts and illegal characters. If the system does not like the formatting, it is automatically deleted. I do not have control of this as it is built in to protect the server!

ATTACHING PHOTOS
Photos sent as an attachment or inline to a listserv post should be no more than 72dpi (low resolution). Image size should not be more than 600px in legth or width. DO NOT send high resolution photos through the listserv, your post will be rejected.
Simply draging the corners of an image to make it smaller, does not reduce actual file size - you must use a program like photoshop to actually reduce photo size.

ACCEPTABLE POSTS
This is by no means a complete list and we try to give a very wide lattitude with minimal censorship...
1. Performance announcements, upcoming shows, new works, dance festivals, dance events.
2. Announcements of master classes, workshops, new classes forming.
3. Dance issues, advocacy for the arts, funding issues, etc.
4. Deadline reminders for grants, sign ups for participation in programs, other dance related programs.
5. Informational pieces - general announcements, reading recommendations, etc.

RESTRICTED POSTS
The following posts are restricted from going out on the server…
1. Selling of products or services (performance or class announcements are not included in the rule). These should be submitted to the dance forums ( http://www.philadelphiadance.org/danceforums) and not the listserv.
2. Management of dance classes. We do not mind posts to initially advertise/promote your class and prefer that these originate from the instructor or organizer as opposed to a thrid party recommendation. However, the listserv should not be used for class cancellations and announcements and other management issues.
3. Personal messages. ( You would be surprised what is sent through! Sorry we do not do birthday announcements.)
4. Messages which contain cc or bcc fields with multiple email addresses. Please do not put the listserv address as part of your other emailers or emailing campaigns.
5. Solicitations to join other mailing lists. Sorry, but you need to develop your own list and contacts.

MORE INFORMATION OR CLARIFICATION
Please feel free to email with questions to [email protected] or fill out a tech support ticket at http://www.philadelphiadance.org/support/