Given the Tragedy of the Commons, Godwin’s Law, Moore’s Law, and the rise of The Organization Kid, house email lists can quickly devolve into something between Yahoo! Answers, FAILBlog, and exchanges worthy of The Onion.
Instead, we believe the magic of healthy email lists can be created with teamwork and respect.
Key Traits of Excellent Eliot Emails:
Helpful to Many
Share opinions and opportunities that strengthen the community’s collective intelligence. Include a clean web link to original sources, further reading, or next action steps. Only send emails that are relevant to many on the 500 person Eliot Community list. Amplify good behavior and question bad behavior, politely.
The 3 C's:
Concise
Keep things as simple as possible but not any simpler. Most people read email on their phones. Respect people’s most valuable asset, time! We believe in 5 sentence emails.
Curious
We are here to build community, grow in wisdom and “depart to serve better thy country and thy kind”. To do so Eliot House builds a community of trust and respect that fosters learning and sharing. Learning and sharing on the list means reading as well as writing - engaging - not simply "forwarding" and "filtering".
Courteous
Diversity of thought is a virtue. We are here to learn new perspectives; not to win arguments. The Eliot Community is a place of shared discovery and curiosity, not a dumping list for a distant friend's "pub list" and surveys, or incurious broadcasting. New and descriptive subjects lines are respectful.
Hat tip to Parlio for email rules of engagement. For more email best practices see the Email Charter and tips on Good Email Habits.
