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IEEE Product Compliance Email Forum
List Rules

** To send a message to the Product Compliance Forum, simply send an e-mail message to the following address: emc-pstc@ieee.orge

All mail sent to this Internet address will be re-sent to about 800 worldwide subscribers to the EMC-PSTC list by an automated list server (listserv). Listserver posting may take up to 8 hours.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the list or to change your configuration options refer to the instructions for the EMC-PSTC listserv.



** Should you have any questions, send them to:


For help, send mail to the list administrators:

  • Scott Douglas:
  • Mike Cantwell:

For policy questions, send mail to:

  • David Heald:
  • Jim Bacher:

* Charter and Guidelines *


24 Feb 2009


This Forum is operated by the Product Safety Engineering Society. The Forum was founded to discuss product safety issues. But, we also discuss product EMC and other product regulatory issues.


We discuss world-wide standards and regulations. We discuss technical issues related to interpretation and measurement. And, we discuss safety and EMC issues not currently published in standards and regulations. This Forum is a tool to help us do our jobs by sharing information.


The IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society Vice President of Communications is the designated owner of this list and has the ability to add and delete subscribers. As this is an unmoderated discussion group, no one will be reviewing or editing any messages sent out. However, it is requested that subscribers take into account the following guidelines when posting messages to this Forum.


MESSAGE CONTENT GUIDELINES


  • Postings and responses should be limited to information or queries relating to Product Safety, EMC, or Regulatory Compliance topics.
  • Posted information should not be confidential or in any way proprietary.
  • Please don't use the EMC-PSTC for private correspondence. Private correspondence should be addressed directly, unless it has broad appeal or interest.
  • Please put your name at the end of any message you send (some e-mail addresses do not identify the sender adequately). Also, it is suggested that you include your position in your company and your company name.
  • Blatant or overt advertising of goods or services is not permitted.
    The listserver is provided as a service by the IEEE, whose policies prohibit anything that might be construed as conflict of interest.

    Exceptions:

    1. Short, non-promotional "trailers" or signature lines for the sole purpose of identifying the sender and the sender's organization.
    2. Answers to queries about goods or services, where the intent of the answer is to inform, but not promote. (When in doubt, send the questioner a private message.)
    3. Brief notification of free classes or seminars is permitted, provided that the content of the classes or seminars is free, is informational, and is not simply an 'open house' or introduction to new services being offered by the host.
    4. New or used equipment wanted, or used equipment offered for sale (not offered by the manufacturer).
    5. This guideline is specific to the use of the this listserver, and in no way inhibits individuals from contacting members privately and independently.
    Similarly, irrelevant postings are not permitted. Irrelevant postings are those whose subject matter is irrelevant to the technical discussions. Please do not post messages about viruses or humanitarian situations.
    Occasional humorous stories relating to EMC or product safety are okay.
  • Posting of job openings is okay so long as they are short (i.e., one paragraph), non-commercial (no agencies or headhunters - no dues involved), infrequent (about one out of every 10 messages or less), and contain an off-EMC-PSTC contact name and phone number or e-mail address. Same goes for jobs-wanted (if you can fit your resume into one paragraph!).
  • Using key words in the title or subject line will assist members who archive the message traffic and may wish to search it later. Suggested keywords include: SPACINGS, SHOCK HAZARD, or a country name (where the information is country-specific).
  • Queries or requests for information should be focused and brief. Respondents should be careful about endorsements - when in doubt, don't.
  • Please don't attach files to messages. Many mailers cannot effectively handle attached files. If you want to make a file available to subscribers, we suggest you announce the availability of the file and make individual arrangements to send the file. Another way is to make files available through anonymous ftp or through the World Wide Web.
  • To minimize unwanted advertising, postings to the forum are restricted to members only. listserv (i.e., the listserver) compares the poster's address to the addresses in the database. If there isn't a match, the posting will be dumped to the bit-bucket. Consequently, members should realize that postings will need to be sent from their subscribed e-mail address and not from an alias or alternate e-mail site such as home.
  • While subscribed to this Forum, and when you will be out of the office for some time, please don't use an "Auto-reply" for your electronic mail. Your auto-reply will reply to each message from this listserver, and it will go to the entire mail list. This is annoying to our subscribers. And, sometimes it tells the entire world of your plans. If you need to use the auto-reply, we suggest you unsubscribe from this listserver, and re-subscribe on your return. Or, filter your external messages into a separate mail folder and don't allow the auto-reply to respond to those messages.
  • Please be careful about cc's to internal e-mail addresses. If you add cc's (and bcc's), be aware that those addresses accompany your posting, and are distributed to the entire world.
    1. If a subscriber responds to your posting using a "reply-to-all" command, the cc's (and bcc's) will also get copy of the reply.
    2. If your cc's are aliases, and if a subscriber responds to your posting, the cc addresses will cause the mail to bounce back to the IEEE listserver, and then back to the administrators (us) as undeliverable. We research the undeliverable messages to purge bad addresses; bounced alias cc's create work for us.

DECORUM


Over the years, this listserver has never had a problem with decorum. We have had no rules addressing decorum.

The administrators do have expectations for decorum in posted messages. Here are our expectations.

Propriety and good taste in conduct or appearance.

  • The conventions of polite behavior.
  • Messages posted to this listserver must have decorum.

Decorum is maintained when messages address technical issues, or are complimentary of individual persons or groups of persons.

Decorum is lost when a message denigrates a lack of technical understanding on the part of an individual or group of persons. Decorum is lost when a message denigrates professionalism, individuals, or specific groups of persons.

Decorum must be maintained even in the face of provocation.

In your reading of posted messages, please recognize that technical assertions in messages may not be technically correct, or may not be technically correct in the context perceived by any one subscriber. Correcting such assertions is an essential function of this listserver. Such corrections must address the technical issues, not the person who wrote the message.

Each subscriber to this listserver must feel free to post a message without fear of being belittled in any way. Decorum is the means by which this is accomplished.

Subscribers posting messages lacking in decorum will be cautioned.

If you would like to discuss decorum further, please do so off-line and directly with me and the other administrators.

If you feel a message violates these rules of decorum, please notify one of the list administrators.

Best regards,
Dan Roman
VP Communications
IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society

All emc-pstc postings are archived and are searchable on the web: https://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/

DISCLAIMER


All postings are the sole responsibility of the message originators. The IEEE, the Product Safety Engineering Society, its volunteers and staff do not assure the correctness or viability of any information distributed by the listserver, nor accepts any responsibility for the use of any distributed information.


We are pleased to be able to offer this discussion group and look forward to extensive use by the product safety and EMC communities. However, we would like to emphasize that this discussion group is simply a tool. Tell your co-workers and agency contacts about this forum. The more people involved, the more valuable this tool will be.