Soap Naturally Web home ~ Soapmakers mailing list | Soap books | Soap recipes | Soap making | Soap supplies | Soapmaking calculator | Natural skin care | Search

Soap Naturally Web

Home Soap making TOC Soap books Soap recipes How to make soap Soapmaking methods Soap supplies Soapmaking history Cosmetic colours Essential oils Fragrance oils Soap moulds SAP calculator Soapmaking classes Natural skin care Cosmetic supplies Skincare classes Soap makers

Natural Handmade Soap
Mailing List

Soap mailing list info Join the mailing list Archives

Services

Soapmaking advice Soap making topics Search Soap Naturally

about these ads

SoapNatch Posting Guidelines
A guide to help you make the most out of your messages to the soap mailing list

• Related information: Soap Naturally Handbook

As Anne Morgan recently said so well to the SoapNatch members,

... this is a list for soapmakers of all levels of experience, but it is not a "learn how to make soap" list. It is a "let's all work together to support and help each other make better soap" list (and in the process make new friends and have a little fun).
Learning to make soap is work. It means reading books, researching on the internet, doing one's own homework to get first-hand experience, and taking classes or otherwise interacting with other soapmakers. A list forum will never replace all other learning and training tools. But we will support you as you make your own journey through the process.

The Soap Natch list, therefore, must not be used to our own individual advantage only. We are here to share our experience (or lack of :-) with everybody else, and support each other along the way, all the time.

The list cannot be expected to give us all the answers, including those we can find, through our own efforts, from other sources - such as books, for instance, for the fundamental questions about soap, as well as for general information about herbs, essential oils, and so on. The SoapNatch list is supported, among others, by the publishers of the Soap Naturally book, so that book is always the best way to approach natural soapmaking.

The list can neither be used to merely duplicate the information already available in that soapmaking book and in the Soap Naturally Website itself (e.g. suppliers links, soap recipes, natural skin care basics, SAP calculator, etc. etc.), or other information that can be easily found through a search engine on the Internet - such as alternative suppliers, for instance, if you feel that the soapmaking suppliers who are members of the Soap Naturally mailing list are not "enough" for your purposes :-)

So.... how can you make sure your posts to the list will pass through the software and human "filters"? The following guidelines summarise "do's" and "do not's", grouped (for clarity) under two separate headings:

• Technical filters, and
• Other filters.

Technical filters

Technical reasons that might stop your message from going to the list include text formatting, attachments, using the wrong destination or sender address, missing poster name, excessive quoting of previous messages, unclear or inappropriate "Subject" line, and extremely long messages. If you want your message to pass these software filters, please make sure that your post is in line with the following technical requirements:

1. Your message uses plain text formatting. This is a technical term, which describes messages that computers can understand without having to resort to complex formatting code (such as RTF or HTML, for instance). Information on how to set your email program to format your messages in plain text are available from the Handbook and the email help page.



2. Your message does not contain any attachments (e.g., images or text files that are sent together with the message, either as part of its body, or as separate files). Some email programs are set to send "formatting" attachments by default - for instance, background images, smilies and similar. Please avoid using any of these email programs if you want to "talk" to the SoapNatch list, unless you know how to disable automatic attachments, and formatted text.



3. Your message is sent from the exact email address you used to subscribe to the list, and is addressed to soap-list [at] soapnaturally.org (replace " [at] " with the "@" symbol on your keyboard). If you are unsure of which email address the list software associates to your membership, look at the "full headers" of any post you receive from the list and find there the Delivered to: line. If your email program does not display the full headers, you might want to consider using an alternative program that does, such as Eudora, for instance.



4. Your message is signed with your name. With thousands of soapers on board, allowing unsigned posts to go through would create confusion and possible disruption... which none of us want :-)



5. Your message does not contain an excessive amount of quoted text from the list post you are replying to. "Quoted text" is the technical term used to refer to the contents of any previous message that remains included in your post. Some email programs include by default all the contents of the message you are replying to, and this is not acceptable on SoapNatch, nor on any other qualified mailing list. If your email program includes by default all the contents of the message you are replying to, you might want to consider using an alternative program that does not, such as Apple Mail, for instance.
   Of course, editing the automatically included text to only leave one or two sentences that make it clearer what topic you are replying to, is perfectly accepted and encouraged. For further information on controlling quoted text, you can refer to the email help page, and to this How do I quote correctly in Usenet? article.



6. Your message reflects the contents of what you have written (or left) in the Subject: line. If you prefer to "reply to" messages, rather than compose a new message for each post you send to the list, the Subject: line is automatically filled in with the contents appearing in the Subject: line of the message you are replying to. Make sure that this reflects the subject of your post, and always change the Subject: line to a specific topic when you reply to a list's Digest.



7. Your message is sufficiently clear and concise. Because the SoapNatch list receives many posts every day (up to 200 per day, in particularly active periods), it is important to make sure that members are not discouraged by "too much reading" concerns. Also, a lot of people, including the majority of Europeans and Australians, pay for their Internet connection in terms of "connection time" or "downloaded bytes", and telephone rates are time-based in many countries. Especially when the number of messages is high, it is therefore important to make sure that no member has to pay "too much" for keeping in touch with the list!

Other filters

A common drawback with very active and friendly mailing lists, such as SoapNatch, is that the total post volume can at times be too high for some members to handle. With the list growing every day, it is important to make sure that the common resources are shared among all members - so that, for instance, enough "space" and opportunities are available for newcomers to join in the conversation and share their experiences. It is therefore in every member's best interest to learn how to make sensible use of this list's resources.

We on SoapNatch all value very highly the friendly and "chatty" atmosphere that characterises this list, and which makes it great fun, for an ever increasing number of people, to "break the ice" and share their experiences and their opinions on board. This is why, unlike many other lists, we always welcome new members who post to the list!

So we encourage all of you to take that first step and introduce yourselves: making soap can be lonely and (sometimes) frustrating, and you can count on the SoapNatch Tribe to help you find the Force that brings to Your Best Ever Batch, as well as give you support whenever Your First Botched Batch happens!

Once Introduction and Welcome Mat Ceremonies are over, we will share "on topic" and (occasionally) OT messages (OT stands for Off Topic), with the following provisos:

1. Acceptable topics: SoapNatch is a soapmaking mailing list that pretty much keeps "soap" as its main topic of discussion. In this context, "soap" is quite a broad subject, which includes anything that is related to making, using, selling, marketing, packaging and promoting handmade natural soap. Topics that are not necessarily soap related, but have some influence on the way we make/use/sell/market our soaps - such as herbs, essential oils, safety and health concerns, software and hardware tools, chemical and regulatory information, complementary products (e.g. lotions and creams), media or literature sources, etc. - are all considered "on topic", and there is no predefined limit to the number of posts that involve and stimulate discussion of these and similar subjects.
   For any other topics, we provide a separate mailing list, which offers a shared space to all those who see Soap Naturally as a great way to meet new friends. If you wish to join this "chatty sister list" to Soap Naturally, you can contact the List Mums so they can sign you up there.



2. "Email me offlist..." posts: Soliciting offlist (private) messages is not appropriate on any public email mailing lists, as many of you would certainly know. The meaning and purpose of email mailing lists, such as Soap Naturally, is to publicly share information and opinions - so if, for any reason, you wish to keep your conversations private, then remember that there is no place for any part of these conversations to be posted to the list.
   It is also worth mentioning that solicitation to exchange offlist messages is sometimes used to promote "unqualified" (if not blatantly dishonest or defective) suppliers and products. This not only breaches the "public sharing" concept that is at the base of every public mailing list, but also nullifies the aims of this list (notably, the provision of reliable information about soapmaking) and breaches this list's supplier policies.
   There is only ONE exception to the ban on offlist email exchange: and this is, when offlist emails are suggested by the list owners as a way to avoid flooding the list with discussions that only involve a defined "subgroup" of members - such as what happens with co-ops and soap swaps, for example. So please refrain from posting any unauthorised emails containing (direct or indirect) solicitation to offlist conversations, and do not be disappointed if you happened to do so, and your post did not make it to the list!



3. Supplier information: None of us here on SoapNatch wants to promote unscrupulous suppliers.
   Unfortunately, from time to time one of these suppliers gets innocently mentioned - or even promoted to the whole list. Unbeknown to the promoter, many experienced soapmakers on the list may have had bad experiences with that supplier, but for legal reasons cannot say anything. Therefore, because we do not want to promote unscrupulous suppliers in this way, we are forced to not mention any suppliers that are not listed in the Soap Naturally suppliers links. If you know of any soap supplier you would like to be listed among the Soap Naturally suppliers, please invite them to join the list, so we can all share information about their products, and overcome these legal constraints. Further details on SoapNatch's suppliers policies can be found in the Handbook.



4. "One liners": Messages containing only "Thank you", "Me too", "Where is the recipe" and similar one-line expressions, are generally not required. This is because...:
   
   • If you asked a question and someone gave you a good answer... that's what we are here for, and we take it for granted that you would have appreciated it :-)
     
   • If someone mentions a recipe, or a source, and does not give any indication of where the recipe or source can be found, it is possible that they are not willing to share. There can be many legitimate reasons for this. In general, however, we discourage this behaviour (as explained below), and we also believe it is a waste of list resources to flood the lists with "one liners" that do not really add anything to any discussion.
   
   
5. Sharing information: If you wish to share a recipe or an information source, please do so directly when you first mention it. If you feel that a particular link or recipe "ought not" to be posted... please think again before mentioning it at all: your own judgement, the filter for mentioning suppliers, and general "list etiquette" considerations will guide you - so if you cannot follow up on list what you would like to say, it is usually safer and simpler not to mention it at all :-)
   "Email me privately if you want..." and similar posts can also be seen as attempts to (illegaly) collect private email addresses for advertising or spamming purposes, and are only acceptable on this list in special occasions - such as group buys and soap swaps, for instance, which are however all filtered and pre-approved by the list administrators.



6. Deciding what to post: Whenever unsure whether the subject you would like to discuss is "on topic" or not, you can refer to the above points to get rid of some doubts. If you need further reassurance, you can for instance ask yourself whether the topic you would like to discuss will help us (individually and as a group) become "better soapers". If you think that the answer is "yes", then your post is "on topic", and won't need to be marked OT as explained in the following point.



7. Off Topic messages: If what you would like to post has little or no relevance to the main aim of this list, as defined above and by Anne's words, at the top of this page, then you can still post your message to the list - BUT you will include OT at the beginning of the Subject: line. This will clearly mark your post as "Off Topic", and will make life easier for the busiest members, who can use a filter in their email program to sort between "on topic" and "Off Topic" (OT) messages - and avoid reading these latter, if they so decide!



8. OT limits: The number of OT messages will never be greater than that of "on topic" posts. If you find that you would like to post a significant number of OT's, then we suggest that you join the soapNchat "chatty sister list" to Soap Naturally. Contact the List Mums if you would like to sign up there.

If you have any technical or etiquette questions that you feel are not addressed, or appear unclear in this document, feel free to contact the List Mums.

Catch you on list!
Hugs and bubbles :-))

Ersilia, James & Marina ~ List Mums, Soap Naturally mailing list

This document is available on the Web, at www.soapnaturally.org/posting_guide.html.

Soapmaking Books: Soap Naturally - Ingredients, methods and recipes for natural handmade soap is the soapmaking book that answers all questions about natural soap: Soap Naturally Book page.

Editors & maintainers:
Ersilia Vitale
[ ccdream --at-- iprimus.com.au - Cosmetic grade colours: oxides and ultramarines ],

Marina Tadiello
[ Soap book co-author, Soap Naturally - Ingredients, methods and recipes for natural handmade soap ]
[ AquaSapone - natural soap, essential oils, soap making supplies & kits ]

Email mailing list on natural soap making: information & options