Dear all,
From time to time members have announced their own or others' recent
publications on the Sidney-Spenser list. I take to be included in this
statement the announcement of online publications, such as the Edmund
Spenser World Bibliography. Circulation of information about these new or
updated titles can be very helpful to others, but of course a glut of such
postings could also prove tedious to list members. In the past I have
tried to pursue a tolerant and quiet approach to these postings, and
generally speaking the threads they have occasioned have quickly frayed
and ended. But it's probably worth laying down, now, a slightly more
formal set of groundrules.
1. Announcements of recent print and electronic publications can be
helpful, and in that spirit they are permitted on the list where
appropriate. List members are encouraged to use their discretion and not
to strain other members' patience -- in, for example, the frequency or the
tone of these postings. Please also keep in mind that there are other
media through which to reach the scholarly community with news about new
publications, and indeed some of these vehicles (e.g. The Spenser Review)
are designed to perform just this function. Let's try to keep forks in the
fork drawer, where we can.
2. An announcement is not a sales pitch. If you would like to announce a
publication that you are confident will be of interest to the list
membership, and you are reasonably sure that this is the appropriate forum
for its presentation, please keep your announcement short and direct. Web
links to publishers' promotional material can, in such emails, cover a
multitude of sins.
If things get out of hand, I'll review the matter and make a new set of
suggestions. If anyone would like to comment on what I've said here,
please feel free to write to me *privately*, and I will compile a digest
of responses to forward to the list at an appropriate moment.
Thanks for your patience.
andrew
Andrew Zurcher
Queens' College
Cambridge CB3 9ET
United Kingdom
+44 1223 335 572
hast hast post hast for lyfe
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