What's on topic for your list? You need to have some idea of this by the time your list's a week old, or reaches twenty posts a day -- which ever happens first. The best thing to do is write a short list of allowable topics and just announce it, preferably when you start the list; refinements can occur as time goes on. Ideally, this list of allowable topics will become part of a FAQ which is sent to new members, posted regularly to the list, and kept somewhere on the World Wide Web.
Example 5-1. Allowable topics
Topics welcome on the Chocolate Cake List include: - recipes - chocolate cake stories - brand comparisons - chocolate cake reviews - some discussion of other desserts Off-topic are: - non-dessert-related posts - protracted threads about desserts other than chocolate cake |
Don't be afraid to put qualifiers with respect to how much off-topic discussion is allowed. People would rather see "some discussion..." as in the example above than an overly legalistic set of rules. Most list subscribers will be fairly sensible about what constitutes a semi-relevant post, and a gentle encouragement to include an "ObFoo" (where "Ob" stands for "Obligatory" and "Foo" is the topic at hand, eg "ObCake" for the Chocolate Cake List) in off-topic posts is usually enough to ensure some reasonable level of signal to noise.