Archives of the TeradataForum

Message Posted: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 @ 21:25:54 GMT

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We have made a series of changes to the Welcome Letter and some of those changes may have an effect on you. We have included the new Welcome Letter below, please keep a copy for your future reference.

For the most part, the Rules of Conduct remain the same. There are four new sections to which you should familiarize yourself:

- The Posting of Promotional/Marketing/Commercial Material (Billable Postings)

- Making Announcements to the TDATA-L Forum

- A section for NCR Employees concerning QuickLook IDs

- Our Privacy Statement

The terms outlined in the Welcome Letter take effect immediately.

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Welcome to the TDATA-L Teradata Forum, your subscription has been accepted.

Please read this note carefully.

Please save this message for future reference.

Please read this entire message before making your first post to the TDATA-L Forum. This message details how this Forum functions and it contains the Rule of Conduct that will govern your membership. As your needs and the nature of this Forum change over time, it is probable that you will need to reference this note. Once again, please keep this message. Although this message is long, it's the only time that you will receive this information.

Purpose and Scope of the TDATA-L Teradata Forum

This Forum has been establish as a way for people who share an interest in the Teradata product to communicate with others of similar interest. The TDATA-L Forum is a private, unmoderated discussion group. Whether you are a DBA, developer, user, student or just curious, this Forum exists for you to share your interest with others. It does not matter if you have 15 years of experience or if you are brand new to relational databases, you are welcomed to either lurk or jump right in and voice your opinions. Virtually any topic related to Teradata, from novice to the professional level, is open for discussion.

Please note that this Forum is NOT sponsored or otherwise recognized by NCR, although NCR employees are welcome to subscribe and participate (there is a section below to which NCR employees should pay particular attention). This Forum is supported and administered by two Teradata enthusiasts. The promotion and/or marketing of products or services is not welcomed on this list - see the Rules of Conduct for further details. If in doubt, send a note to the List Owners before sending a note to the Forum.

Sending Mail to the Forum

Just a quick warning: treat advice and recommendations from this Forum with caution - no one on this Forum officially speaks for NCR. Reliability and availability are key issues with Teradata customers and so anything that can affect that reliability should be double- checked with your NCR representative.

Although discussions will naturally bring disagreement, show respect for others by keeping your postings civil. Please make rebuttals in a mature manner. Remember that disagreements result from different opinions and if an opinion upsets you, take time to cool-off before responding. Keep private conflicts private.

Postings to the TDATA-L Forum will be archived and these archives are open to all members. Inappropriate postings will be deleted from the archives.

A posting is echoed to the Forum as soon as it is received. For those of you who wish to minimize the amount of mail you receive, you can set your options to DIGEST mode and you will receive one note per day that contains all the postings for that day. The default is NO DIGEST.

When replying to a Forum posting, please be sure that the TO: address is correct. Different E-Mail programs handle 'Reply' differently and you want to be certain that you aren't sending a private comment to the Forum.

When you make a reply to a Forum posting, please be sure to trim your reply - the shorter the better.

Please, no RTFM-type answers.

Sending Anonymous Mail

Please understand that this feature is intended to get members to speak-up and speak-out. A posting which is inflammatory, off-topic or otherwise inappropriate for the TDATA-L Forum will be edited or censored. Also keep in mind that the List Owners will forward your note as time permits, so there may be a significant delay from when you send your note to ANOMY.ANOM to when it actually appears on the list.

Rules of Conduct

The following are the Rules of Conduct for the TDATA-L Forum. The rules have been kept short and are focused on making the membership to this Forum a valuable and enjoyable experience.

<> This Forum has been created for those interested in the Teradata product line. It is expected that some off-topic discussions will occur, but they should be avoided. Should an off-topic discussion get too far away from Teradata or if there are complaints from the group about an off-topic discussion, the List Owners retain the right to terminate the thread. An effort should be made to stay on-topic and take off-topic discussions off of the list.

<> This list is being supported privately by two Teradata enthusiasts and although products can be discussed, this list cannot be used for marketing or product promotion (see the following section). At some point in the future, to help with the cost of this list, it might be necessary to seek commercial support (aka 'advertising'). Hopefully, that time is a long way in the future.

<> The List Owners have the final say concerning the membership of this Forum. Open discussion on this Forum is to be encouraged, but severe or repeated violations of the Rules of Conduct can and will result in permanent removal from this Forum. The members of this Forum are largely professionals and professional behavior is expected.

<> Since there is an expectation of professional behavior, obscenities and/or personal attacks (aka 'Flaming') will be a reason for revoking your membership. This Forum is unmoderated and so such postings will be distributed to the group when they occur. Once the List Owners detect the violation, action will be taken. Consider your membership to this Forum in the same terms as you consider your employment: You can get away with some things, but don't push too far. Professionalism is the key.

<> Attachments can not be sent to the Forum. Instead of simply sending an attachment, ask those people who are on the Forum to respond and then send the attachment directly. The problem is that attachments are not handled by the DIGEST process. A web site is currently being prepared for the TDATA-L Forum and when ready, attachments can be sent to the List Owners for placement on the web site.

Thank you in advance for adhering to the Rules of Conduct. Following these rules will ensure that this Forum will be a useful and enjoyable tool for all members.

The Posting of Promotional/Marketing/Commercial Material and Billable Postings

As stated in the Rules of Conduct, postings containing marketing, solicitation or promotional material for products or services are not welcome on this Forum and should not be sent. However, given the membership of this Forum and that it's the largest and most active forum for the Teradata Community, some people will insist on violating the Rules of Conduct by touting their product or services.

The policy in the past has been to remove these people from the Forum. Instead of a punitive approach, we have adopted a policy where people who feel that they must absolutely send such a note to the TDATA-L Forum will be charged for that note. The rate has been set at $1.35 USD per subscriber per posting (this works-out to a charge of $675.00 USD at 500 subscribers). This is a real debt that is excepted to be paid promptly, if not paid it will be turned-over to a collection agency for resolution.

If you feel that the answer to a Forum question requires that a specific product or service be mentioned, then contact the List Owners for review and forwarding to the Forum. If you post to the Forum first and ask later, then you run the risk of being billed as above.

The best way to avoid accidental charges is to avoid posting notes that could be interpreted as promoting or marketing a product or service.

Making Announcements to the Forum

We would like to make it possible for announcements of general interest to be made to the Forum. Those announcements might be a conference call, a call for beta testers, the distribution of freeware, etc. For an announcement to be made, it must be without cost and open to all members of the TDATA-L Forum.

When calling for beta testers, a single post (per product) announcing the beta-program will be permitted. A second post notifying people that the beta test program is over will be permitted. Once again, the beta program must be free of charge and open to all members of the TDATA-L Forum.

If you would like to make an announcement to the TDATA-L Forum, please send that announcement to the List Owners for review. After we agree on wording and content, the announcement will be sent to the Forum by the List Owners.

If you chose to send an announcement directly to the TDATA-L Forum without the prior approval of the List Owners, then see the details about our billable rate in the prior section.

For NCR Employees

The way that NCR handles e-mail can be a problem. The LISTSERV processing requires that when you post to the TDATA-L Forum, the e-mail address from which you are sending your note must be the same one as your subscription address (else it will be rejected). NCR uses what they call a 'QuickLook ID' to identify their employees, but many NCR people have signed-up to the TDATA-L Forum using an alias. People who have used an alias are unable to post to the TDATA-L Forum - although they can receive notes without any problems.

If you have signed-up to the TDATA-L Forum with an alias and would like to send notes to the Forum, please send a note with your QuickLook ID to the List Owners and they will change your e-mail address for you.

Our Privacy Statement

As much as reasonable, we protect the identity of our membership. The membership list is not available to anyone other than the TDATA-L List Owners. Although we make a reasonable effort to mask our membership, remember that you reveal your identity when you send a note to the TDATA-L Forum. You can post notes using ANOMY.ANOM if you wish to remain anonymous.

Other than the information that you provided when you subscribed (name and e-mail address), no further information is gathered about you, your interests or associations.

Automatic Removal from the Forum

It should be mentioned that the LISTSERV which hosts the TDATA-L Forum, due to repeated errors from your ISP, may automatically delete you from the membership of the TDATA-L Forum. Unfortunately, the way things work in the Internet world, you may or may not be notified of that removal. If you should find yourself removed, please don't hesitate to join again.

If you have been removed by the List Owners, you will receive a note outlining the reason for your removal. If you have been removed for violating the Rules of Conduct, then your removal is permanent.

In Closing

If you have decided that this Forum is for you, then welcome to our community. Your on-going membership to the TDATA-L Forum indicates your acceptance to the terms and conditions contained in this Welcome Letter.

Once again, welcome to the TDATA-L Forum. We look forward to your participation.

The List Owners:

Jay Selkie
John Hall

Dated: 2001/08/28

NOTE: All prior Welcome Messages are superceded by this version.

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