TL;DR: There are no clear Society-wide policies regarding mailing lists; I’ve made a recommendation that they should be covered by the Society Social Media Policies.
Electronic mail has been around for my entire lifetime (give or take a couple of weeks) and is so pervasive that it fades into the background, ceding attention to the showy titans of social media that have emerged over the last two decades. But if the historical sequence were reversed, and email was introduced today, we’d likely see it as a natural evolution of that ecosystem — another social media platform.
Or at least that’s how it seems to me, which is why in discussions of SCA policy I’ve always assumed that the Society guidelines for social media — about offensive content, or copyright, or a dozen other topics — also applied to email.
But I’ve been in a couple of conversations where other people seemed surprised that I would draw that parallel, and the Society’s governing documents and policy handbooks are nearly silent on the subject of email and mailing lists — they are not explicitly designated as part of the Web Minister’s Office, or the Social Media Office, or any other portion of the Society’s overlapping matrix of responsibilities.
In practice, responsibility for mailing lists has usually been taken up by the web ministry, which for many years was the only “technology” office in the Society, but the details of this are inconsistent and vary from kingdom to kingdom.
More recently, as the Society’s office of social media has been established and determined the scope of its influence, it published a definition of social media that clearly encompassed mailing lists: “conversation supported by online tools.” (This definition appears in the Social Media Policy and in the Social Media Handbook, both published in 2021.)
I recently inquired as to whether mailing lists were covered by the social media policies, and was told that they were not a concern of the social media office… but on repeated questioning, the exact boundary of this exception were very hard to pin down, and in the end the Society Social Media Officer and Society Web Minister agreed to review the question and determine a path forward.
I’ve articulated a policy approach that I think makes sense — in short, mailing lists are a type of social media, and are governed by the social media policy, but in some cases are operated by the webministry rather than the social media office — and hope that they consider adopting that recommendation.
Correspondence attached below for the curious.
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Cc: Society Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
Hello,
I was reviewing the list of platforms covered by the Social Media Handbook and noticed that it did not explicitly include email discussion mailing lists, such as the email lists operated by many local branches for conversations among their populace.
Mailing lists clearly do fall under the definition of social media provided by the handbook — “conversation supported by online tools” — so I was wondering whether this was an accidental oversight or there was some specific carve-out that caused mailing lists to be grouped in some other category.
Should we assume that mailing lists are a type of social media channel, and subject to the policies laid out in the handbook?
Or if not, is there some other set of guidelines that govern them?
Thank you!
— Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
From: Society Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
Mailing list remain under the domain of the Web Ministers
Thanks
Brigid
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Social Media Officer
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
That’s fascinating — is there a policy document which lays this out, or explains why a Google Group is different than a Discord channel?
When considering other platforms for “conversation supported by online tools,” how do we know whether they are covered by the Social Media Handbook or not? (For example, which category do other discussion platforms such as Discourse or bbPress fall into?)
The definition of the web ministry in Corpora only covers websites and web publishing, and while the Society Web Ministers Handbook does state that in some kingdoms the web ministry also “provides” mailing lists, it does not set out any policies regarding moderation of discussions on those lists.
Separate from the question of which office is responsible for setting up and administering mailing lists, would I be correct in thinking that the expectations and guidelines laid out in the Social Media Policy document are applicable to mailing lists?
Thanks so much for helping to clear up this confusion!
— Mathghamhain
From: Society Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
Approved platforms are listed in the handbook
Some kingdoms are currently running trials with the approval of my office on additional platforms.
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Social Media Officer
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
Yes, I am familiar with the handbook, but the question I am asking is how we should determine whether something is considered social media and would require the approval of your office.
For example, if someone wanted to set up online conversation forum using Google Groups or Discourse or Groups.io or bbPress, should they contact your office for approval of a social media platform?
Because these are all “conversation supported by online tools” I had assumed that the policies of the Handbook would apply, but it sounds like there is an exception and I would like to understand it.
Does it fall under the webministry if we enable discussion by email, but under the social media office if we enable discussion on the web?
Do the offices split responsibility for platforms that support both?
Thanks!
— Mathghamhain
From: Society Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
I would email my office having already obtained the approval of your ksmo and Kingdom Seneschal that such a trial would be supported.
As a courtesy, I’d also include your web minister
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Social Media Officer
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
I’m confused — does this mean that mailing lists run through Google Groups are governed by the Social Media Handbook?
Does it fall under the webministry if we enable discussion by email, but under the social media office if we enable discussion on the web?
— Mathghamhain
From: Society Social Media Officer
To: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
Hi Nic and I are putting our heads together and will come back to you with clarity hopefully prior to Christmas
From: Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
To: Society Social Media Officer
Cc: East Kingdom Social Media Officer
Date: December 15, 2023
Thanks so much — and my apologies for creating a hassle by raising questions about these weird edge cases!
For what it’s worth, I think there is an easy solution here, and I would suggest the following approach:
- Agree that electronic mailing lists are a type of social media, because they meet the definition in the handbook, and they are used for the same purposes as several of our other social media platforms.
- Declare that rules about offensive content and moderation of problematic discussions found in the Social Media Policy and Social Media Handbook also apply to conversations on mailing lists.
- Confirm that the same rules apply regardless of whether online discussions are hosted on SCA-administered Internet servers or use third-party services; and regardless of whether they are email-only or also support web-based or app-based interfaces.
- Recognize that in some kingdoms, for many years the web ministry has administered some or all mailing lists (as well as a very small number of web-based comment boards), and continue to delegate the responsibility for those discussions to that office — but have the social media office retain oversight of online discussion platforms in areas where this arrangement is not in effect.
This approach seems optimal to me because:
- It’s fair and consistent from the perspective of the membership — the same rules apply when posting to my province’s mailing list as they do when posting to its Facebook group or Discord channel.
- It ensures that the webministry has policy grounds for moderating offensive content on mailing lists without requiring them to write a new handbook about what is or is not allowed.
- It doesn’t create any new obligations for either the web ministry or the social media office, and it leaves responsibility for all existing resources where they are today.
I hope this suggestion is of use to you, and look forward to hearing how you resolve this question.
— Mathghamhain