Indiana Freemasons Online

CraftNews: News of the Craft in Indiana

CraftNews is an e-mail list especially for Master Masons living or attending Lodge in Indiana. It is intended to be used for announcements of Masonic events in the area, and general Freemasonic-related news. The mailing list is closed, which means that subscribers must be verified by a list moderator before they will be subscribed to the list. It is also moderated, which means that all postings to the list must be approved by a moderator.

To subscribe, please visit the CraftNews List Verification page.

CraftNews List Rules

This list is for Master Masons only, living and/or attending Lodge events in Indiana. All subscriptions to the list must be approved by one of the list moderators. The list itself is moderated. When you post a message to the list, it will be reviewed by a moderator before being distributed to all the list members.

SUMMARY OF LIST RULES:
(When you subscribe to the list, you will be required to verify that you have read and agreed to the rules enumerated below. Please, therefore, read this page in full. This part is only a summary of the most basic rules -- the ones that will most readily get a subscriber deleted from the list.)

Do not post anything of a political nature.

Do not post anything of a sectarian* nature.

Do not post the names candidates for degree work.

Do not post jokes, virus alerts, chain letters, petitions, messages with attachments, or commercial advertisements.

Keep a civil tone. Do not post hostile messages, or "flames".

Respect the fact that not all list members share your social, political, or religious viewpoints.

(* Sectarian: Anything which preferentially promotes or denigrates any particular religion religious belief system. No exceptions.)

HOW TO USE THIS LIST:

To post a message, address your message to craftnews@indianafreemasons.com (Note: only list members may post to the list. If you want to be able to post messages from multiple e-mail accounts, you will need to subscribe both (all) e-mail addresses to the list.)

When replying to a message, if you wish the group to receive your reply, use the "reply-all" or "group-reply" feature of your mail program. Simply using "reply" will cause your message to be sent only to the sender of the message you're replying to. There is a very simple reason that the list is set up in this way: It is much easier to fix "Oops, I meant that reply to go to the whole list," than it is to fix "Oops, I DID NOT mean that reply to go to the whole list!"

Also, when replying, do not quote any more of the original message than is necessary to indicate what you are specifically replying to.

To unsubscribe from the list, visit the list-info page, go to the bottom, enter your subscription address in the box next to "Edit Options", and click on the button. This will take you to the page where you can unsubscribe.

LIST RULES, in detail:

This list is for posting information about Freemasonic events in the Central Indiana area, and non-sectarian, non-partisan discussion of Masonic issues. We, the list moderators, would like to have it remain only for such information. The list rules, therefore, are really very simple:

Do not post anything that is not directly related to Freemasonry.
What starts on the list, stays on the list. Do not pass messages to others without the express permission of everyone involved. (The exception would be appropriate forwarding of event announcements.) Also, avoid cross-posting messages -- that is, posting your message to multiple lists or recipients at the same time.
A good rule of thumb to follow is to remember that you will not know exactly who is on the list. We would estimate that nine out of ten list members are likely to always remain in "lurk mode" -- that is, you will never even know they are there. These members are interested in receiving announcements regarding Masonic events in their area. We cannot assume any more than that on their part.
Do not post jokes to the list. Again, you do not know your audience. Not everyone may appreciate your humor. Please save jokes for forums where you know they will be appreciated by all.
Likewise, do not post VIRUS ALERTS to the list. The exception to this would be when you have discovered a virus in your own system, and want to warn the list that you may have passed it on to some of the members. (The list itself is reasonably well protected from viruses, sionce all non-text portions of messages are automatically removed. You should never have to worry about getting a virus via this list.) Do not post chain letters to the list. (You know, the ones that say "send this to everyone in your address book!") Do not post messages with attachments (like graphics, webpages, wordprocessor documents).
And do we even need to mention commercial advertising? Didn't think so! (A signature line with info about your business or profession is acceptable.)
Do not post items of a political or sectarian nature. We don't need to see the message from Paul Harvey (again!), or a note from Molly Ivins (as if!), or "20 ways to be a good Democrat/Republican." Treat this list as you would (or should) treat a Masonic Lodge. In short, if it is not strictly of a Masonic nature, do not post it to CraftNews. We all know about the Hampster Dance already! Thanks!
Do not use this public forum to get into arguments or debates. Take your disputes off-list or onto the newsgroups. Open-minded discussions of current events and topics are permissible, but please keep comments from becoming confrontative or hostile.
Assume the BEST of each other's intentions. Keep it CIVIL. Don't get "personal". Keep it POSITIVE. If you offer criticism, make it CONSTRUCTIVE. If someone says something that you disagree with, do not assume that he is intentionally being hostile. Remember, we're all in this together! (When in doubt, it seems safest to hold your tongue.)
Flaming (overt hostility) will simply result in your address being removed from the list. No warnings will be given. We all know how to behave in a respectable and respectful manner. We are, after all, Freemasons! :-)
Please DO NOT post HTML-formatted messages to this list! Set your e-mail program to use the "plain-text editor" and simply type your announcement or message. Do not send web-pages, with lots of graphics and animations and fancy fonts, to the list. (Well, you can try, actually, but I have installed a filter that will remove HTML formatting, attachments, and images including background stationery, so nobody is going to see the fancy script font in bright magenta. In fact, if it is too loaded up with "shiney stuff", it probably won't make it through at all! Sorry!)
Finally, the moderators of this list reserve the right to reject any message without appeal.

That's it! Take notice, and govern yourselves accordingly! :-)

Sincerely and Fraternally,

The CraftNews List Owners

To subscribe, please visit the CraftNews List Verification page.