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When posting messages to the IxD Discussion mailing list, please observe these guidelines, which include rules for list submissions, list etiquette, and our privacy policy.

On this page:

• Moderation and Monitoring
• Staying On Topic
• Changing Subject Lines
• Email Message Formats and Attachments
• Email Message Size and Length
• Mail Delivery
• Undeliverable Messages
• Privacy Policy
• Replying to Email Messages
• Cross-Posting Email Messages
• Posting Job Listings
• Advertisements for Products and Services
• Profanity and Harassment
• Plurality of Voices

Moderation and Monitoring

IxD Discussion is not a moderated list. However, to ensure that new subscribers have not subscribed solely to spam the list, our list administrators moderate the first two posts from each new subscriber. We do not check the content of other posts prior to sending them out. Therefore, we rely on each and every one of you to use the list responsibly.

While IxD Discussion has only a few rules, we vigorously enforce them. We monitor the discussion for respectful usage. When a subscriber violates our guidelines, our list administrators issue a warning. If the abuse continues, our list administrators removes the subscriber from the list.

Staying On Topic

The Interaction Design Association (IxDA) sponsors IxD Discussion to provide a forum for the discussion of interaction design issues, best practices, and methods among practitioners, teachers, and students of interaction design and others who are interested in interaction design. All discussions on this list must relate to interaction design. While discussions may encompass disciplines such as user-centered design, information architecture, or visual design as they relate to interaction design, please keep the primary focus of your topics of discussion on interaction design. For example, a discussion of color theory would be out of place here, but one about the best highlight color for required values would be perfectly appropriate.

Changing Subject Lines

If the focus of a topic of discussion is changing, please modify your message’s subject line to reflect that change. Otherwise, people have difficulty judging from the subject lines whether postings are of interest to them.

You can indicate a change in topic using a format that indicates not only the new topic, but also the topic from which it derived, as follows: New Topic (Was: Old Topic).

Email Message Formats and Attachments

You can send plain text, Rich Text, or HTML email messages to the list. Do not attach any files to your messages. If you want to refer to a document, image, or sound in your message, you can publish the file on the Web, then provide a link to it in your message. Do not embed image, sound, or other files in HTML email messages.

Email Message Size and Length

When composing email messages, you can use either Rich Text or HTML formatting when it helps the readability of your messages. However, bear in mind that Rich Text and HTML email messages have larger file sizes, and that the use of these formats sometimes results in poorly formatted replies.

Please try to minimize the length of your responses to postings by trimming the text of the messages to which you’re replying as much as possible. As a general rule, small files download more quickly and, therefore, are more usable. Also, ensure that your signature is of a reasonable length and contains no advertising.

Mail Delivery

If you are going away on vacation or business, please set your Mail Delivery option to Disabled on your Mailing List Membership Configuration page. For instructions, see IxD Discussion Help.

Please be aware of the impact on other list subscribers if you set up your email application to send automatic replies while you are away. If the list receives automatic replies from your email application, our list administrators must unsubscribe you from IxD Discussion. Then you must subscribe again to continue participating in the discussion.

Undeliverable Messages

If the list server is unable to deliver messages from the list to your email address—for example, because your mailbox is full or your email address has changed—our list administrators must unsubscribe you from IxD Discussion. Then you must subscribe again to continue participating in the discussion.

Privacy Policy

The Interaction Design Association considers anything in the messages that you post to IxD Discussion to be public information. We may post this information to our Web site or otherwise reuse, save, or search it. Also, search engines can index this information.

The Interaction Design Association considers responses to messages that you send only to individual subscribers to be private. If you receive private responses to your postings, please do not forward them to the list or otherwise make them public without first obtaining the permission of those who sent them to you.

Replying to Email Messages

To reply to the entire discussion list, click Reply All.

To reply privately to a person who posted a message to the list, click Reply.

Note: This setup minimizes the risk of subscribers’ accidentally posting private messages to the discussion list.

Cross-Posting Email Messages

Please do not send a single email message to

• multiple mailing lists—regardless of whether the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) hosts all of the lists or both IxDA and one or more other organizations host the lists
• IxD Discussion and individuals who are not subscribers of the list

If recipients reply to a cross-posted message, but are not subscribers of one or more of the mailing lists to which the message was sent, the administrators of all lists of which they are not subscribers must individually handle their replies. Please be considerate of your mailing list administrators and refrain from cross-posting messages. When posting a message to IxD Discussion, please address your message to only discuss@ixda.org.

Posting Job Listings

When posting a job listing to IxD Discussion, please include the following information in your message’s subject line:

• "JOB:" prefix
• job title
• location
• company name or, if you are a recruiter, Recruiter
• Full Time, Part Time, or Contract

Advertisements for Products and Services

Because it is important for interaction designers to keep abreast of new products and services that might be useful in their work, a vendor can advertise such a product or service once on this list. Please refrain from placing any sort of advertisement in your signature. Our list administrators permanently ban from the list anyone who repeatedly violates this guideline.

Profanity and Harassment

We expect professional courtesy from subscribers who actively participate in discussions. Please refrain from using profanity. Our list administrators do not tolerate any sort of harassment of list subscribers. Flaming, name-calling, insults, taunts, or other behaviors that inhibit the free expression of thought on IxD Discussion are cause for the offending subscriber’s being permanently banned from the list.

Plurality of Voices

IxD Discussion exists so members of the interaction design community can easily communicate with one another. Excessive posting by any one subscriber tends to inhibit others’ participation in the discussion, and it becomes difficult to maintain a plurality of voices. If an individual subscriber consistently makes excessive postings to this list—that is, posts more than 10 messages a day or 50 messages a week—the list administrator warns that subscriber. If this pattern of behavior continues, the list administrator removes that subscriber from the list.