It's weird, because it's guidelines for designing action alerts,
but to tell you the truth, if spammers designed their spammail this way,
I don't think I'd take nearly as much offense at the spammail I get.
I wonder if I can use these as the newly defined guidelines for
forkposts...
I particularly dig #15:
> (15) DO NOT use a chain-letter petition. A chain-letter petition is an
> action alert that includes a list of names at the end, inviting people to
> add their own name, send in the petition if their name is the 30th or 60th
> or etc, and in any case forward the resulting alert-plus-signature-list to
> everyone they know. This idea sounds great on the surface, but it really
> doesn't work. The problem is that most of the signatures will never reach
> their destination, since the chain will fizzle out before reaching the
> next multiple of 30 (or whatever) in length. What's even worse, a small
> proportion of the signatures will be received in the legislator's office
> many times, thus annoying the staff and persuading them that they're
> dealing with an incompetent movement that can never hold them accountable.
I can't tell you how many pitiful chain-letter petitions have crossed my
email in the last 10 years. Will people never learn?
> From rre-request@weber.ucsd.edu Wed Sep 17 23:34:23 1997
> Subject: Designing Effective Action Alerts for the Internet
> X-Url: http://communication.ucsd.edu/pagre/rre.html
> X-Mailing-List: <rre@weber.ucsd.edu> archive/latest/1678
>
> Designing Effective Action Alerts for the Internet
>
> Phil Agre
> Department of Communication
> University of California, San Diego
> La Jolla, California 92093-0503
> USA
>
> pagre@ucsd.edu
> http://communication.ucsd.edu/pagre/
>
> Version of 17 September 1997. Copyright 1997, all rights reserved.
> You are welcome to forward this article in electronic form to anyone
> for any non-commercial purpose.
>
>
> An action alert is a message that someone sends out to the net asking for
> a specific action to be taken on a current political issue. Well-designed
> action alerts are a powerful way to invite people to participate in the
> processes of a democracy. Having seen many action alerts in my twenty
> years on the Internet, I have tried to abstract some guidelines for people
> who wish to use them. Even if you do not plan to construct any action
> alerts yourself, I do not recommend that you forward anybody else's alerts
> unless they conform to at least the spirit of these guidelines. If I
> sometimes seem stern or didactic in my prescriptions, please forgive me.
> It's just that I've seen badly designed action alerts do an awful lot of
> damage.
>
> Although an Internet action alert should always be part of an issue
> campaign with a coherent strategy and clear goals, I won't discuss the
> larger strategic questions here. Instead, I will simply divide action
> alerts into two categories, single messages and structured campaigns.
> Single alerts are broadcast in the hope that they will propagate to
> the maximum possible number of sympathetic Internet users. Structured
> campaigns are typically conducted through mailing lists specially
> constructed for the purpose, and their intended audience may include
> either the whole Internet universe or a narrower group of already-
> mobilized partisans.
>
> Both types of action alerts are obviously modeled on things that have been
> happening on paper, through telephone trees, and lately via fax machines,
> for a long time. What computer networks do is make them a lot cheaper.
> A networked alert can travel far from its origin by being forwarded from
> friend to friend and list to list, without any additional cost being
> imposed on the original sender. This phenomenon of chain-forwarding is
> important, and it behooves the would-be author of an action alert, whether
> a single message or a whole campaign, to think through its consequences:
>
> (1) Establish authenticity. Bogus action alerts -- such as the notorious
> "modem tax" alert -- travel just as fast as real ones. Don't give alerts
> a bad name. Include clear information about the sponsoring organization
> and provide the reader with several ways of tracing back to you -- e-mail
> address, postal address, URL, phone number, etc. Including this contact
> information makes sense anyway -- you want people to join your movement,
> and this means establishing contact with you. One way to establish
> authenticity is by appending a digital signature, presumably using PGP.
> Few people will check the signature, though, and many people will remove
> the signature when they forward your message to others. So there's no
> substitute for clearly explaining who you are and giving people a way to
> reach you.
>
> (2) Put a date on it. Paper mail and faxes get thrown away quickly, but
> action alerts can travel through the Internet forever. Even if an alert
> seems to have faded away, it can sleep in someone's mailbox for months or
> years and then suddenly get a new life as the mailbox's owner forwards it
> to a new set of lists. Do not count on the message header to convey the
> date (or anything else); people who forward Internet messages frequently
> strip off the header. Even better, give your recommended action a clearly
> stated time-out date, e.g., "Take this action until February 17, 1998".
> If you think there will be follow-up actions, or if you want to convey
> that this is part of an ongoing campaign, say so. That way, people will
> contact you or look out for your next alert.
>
> (3) Include clear beginning and ending markers. You can't prevent people
> from modifying your alert as they pass it along. Fortunately, at least
> in my experience, this only happens accidentally, as extra commentary
> accumulates at the top and bottom of the message as it gets forwarded.
> So put a bold row of dashes or something similar at the top and bottom
> so extra stuff will look extra. That way it will be very clear what you
> and your credibility are standing behind.
>
> (4) Beware of second-hand alerts. Although it is uncommon for someone
> to modify the text of your alert, sometimes people will foolishly send
> out their own paraphrase of an alert, perhaps based on something they
> heard verbally. These second-hand alerts usually contain exaggerations
> and other factual inaccuracies, and as a result they can easily be used
> to discredit your alert. If you become aware of inaccurate variants of
> your alert, you should immediately notify relevant mailing lists of the
> existence of these second-hand alerts. Explain clearly what the facts
> are and aren't, implore the community not to propagate the misleading
> variants, and provide pointers to accurate information including a copy
> of your own alert. This action has two virtues: first, it may help to
> suppress the mistaken reports; and second, it positions you (accurately,
> I hope) as a responsible person who cares about the truth.
>
> (5) Think about whether you want the alert to propagate at all. If
> your alerts concern highly sensitive matters, for example the status of
> specifically named political prisoners, then you will probably want to
> know precisely who is getting your notices, and how, and in what context.
> If so, include a prominent notice forbidding the alert's recipients from
> forwarding it.
>
> (6) Make it self-contained. Don't presuppose that your readers will have
> any context beyond what they'll get on the news. Your alert will probably
> be read by people who have never heard of you or your cause. So define
> your terms, avoid references to previous messages on your mailing list,
> and provide lots of background, or at least some simple instructions for
> getting useful background materials. In fact, you might consider making
> the e-mailed alert relatively short and include the URL for a Web page
> that provides the full details. Your most important audience consists of
> people who are sympathetic to your cause and want to learn more about it
> before they can take action. Write your alert with that type of reader in
> mind, not the complete insider or the apathetic stranger.
>
> (7) Ask your reader to take a simple, clearly defined, rationally chosen
> action. For example, you might ask people to call their representatives
> and express a certain view on an issue. In this case, you should provide
> a way to find that representative's name and number, and explain how
> to conduct the conversation: what to say, how to answer certain likely
> questions, and so on. The purpose of such a script is not to impose
> your thinking but to help people to learn a skill that might otherwise
> be intimidating. Decide whether to ask for e-mail messages (which can
> be huge in number but near-zero in effect), written letters (which will
> be fewer but more effective), or phone calls (which fall in between).
> Consider other options as well: perhaps the sole purpose of your alert
> is to solicit contacts from a small number of committed activists, or
> to gather information, or to start a mailing list to organize further
> actions.
>
> (8) Make it easy to understand. It is absolutely crucial to begin with a
> good, clear headline that summarizes the issue and the recommended action.
> Use plain language, not jargon. Check your spelling. Use short sentences
> and simple grammar. Choose words that will be understood worldwide, not
> just in your own country or culture. Solicit comments on a draft before
> sending it out.
>
> (9) Get your facts straight! Your message will circle the earth, so
> double-check. Errors can be disastrous. Even a small mistake can make
> it easy for your opponents to dismiss your alerts -- and Internet alerts
> in general -- as "rumors". Once you do discover a mistake, it will be
> impossible to issue a correction -- the correction will probably not get
> forwarded everyplace that the original message did.
>
> (10) Start a movement, not a panic. Include a phrase like "post where
> appropriate" toward the beginning so that people aren't encouraged to send
> your alert to mailing lists where it doesn't belong. Do not say "forward
> this to everyone you know". Do not overstate. Do not plead. Do not say
> "Please Act NOW!!!". Do not rant about the urgency of telling everyone
> in the world about your issue. You're not trying to address "everyone";
> you're trying to address a targeted group of people who care about the
> issue. And if the issue really is time-critical then just explain why, in
> sober language. Do not get obsessed with the immediate situation at hand.
> Your message may help avoid some short-term calamity, but it should also
> contribute to a much longer-term process of building a social movement.
> Maintaining a sense of that larger context will help you and your readers
> from becoming dispirited in the event that you lose the immediate battle.
>
> (11) Tell the whole story. Most people have never heard of your issue,
> and they need facts to evaluate it. Facts, facts, facts. For example,
> if you think that someone has been unjustly convicted of a crime, don't
> just give one or two facts to support that view; most people will simply
> assume they are getting half the truth. If your opponents have circulated
> their own arguments, you'll need to rebut them, and if they have framed
> the facts in a misleading way then you'll need to explain why. On the
> other hand, you need to write concisely. Even if you're focused on the
> actions, good explanations count more. After all, one of the benefits of
> your action alert -- maybe the principal one -- is that it informs people
> about the issue. Even if they don't act today, your readers will be more
> aware of the issue in the future, provided that you don't insult their
> intelligence today.
>
> (12) Don't just preach to the converted. When you are very caught up in
> your cause, it is easy to send out a message in the language you use when
> discussing the issue with your fellow campaigners. Often this language
> is a shorthand that doesn't really explain anything to an outsider. If
> you really care about your issue, you'll take the time to find language
> that is suitable for a much broader audience. This can take practice.
>
> (13) Avoid polemics. Your readers should not have to feel they are being
> hectored to go along with something from the pure righteousness of it.
> Some people seem to associate non-polemical language with deference, as
> if they were being made to bow at the feet of the king. This is not so.
> You will not succeed unless you assume that your readers are reasonable
> people who are willing to act if they are provided with good reasons.
>
> (14) Make it easy to read. Use a simple, clear layout with lots of white
> space. Break up long paragraphs and use bullets and section headings
> to avoid visual monotony. If your organization plans to send out action
> alerts regularly, use a distinctive design so that everyone can recognize
> your "brand name" instantly. Use only plain ASCII characters, which
> are the common denominator among Internet character sets. Just to make
> sure, do not use a MIME-compliant mail program to send the message; use a
> minimal program such as Berkeley mail. MIME is great, but not everybody
> uses it and you don't want your recipients getting distracted from your
> message by weird control codes. Format the message in 72 columns or even
> fewer; otherwise it is likely to get wrapped around or otherwise mutilated
> as people forward it around the net.
>
> (15) DO NOT use a chain-letter petition. A chain-letter petition is an
> action alert that includes a list of names at the end, inviting people to
> add their own name, send in the petition if their name is the 30th or 60th
> or etc, and in any case forward the resulting alert-plus-signature-list to
> everyone they know. This idea sounds great on the surface, but it really
> doesn't work. The problem is that most of the signatures will never reach
> their destination, since the chain will fizzle out before reaching the
> next multiple of 30 (or whatever) in length. What's even worse, a small
> proportion of the signatures will be received in the legislator's office
> many times, thus annoying the staff and persuading them that they're
> dealing with an incompetent movement that can never hold them accountable.
>
> (16) Urge people to inform you of their actions. If you are calling on
> people to telephone a legislator's office, for example, you should provide
> an e-mail address and invite them to send you a brief message. Explain
> that you'll use these messages to count the number of callers your alert
> has generated, and that this information will be invaluable when you speak
> with the legislator's staffers later on.
>
> (17) Don't overdo it. Action alerts might become as unwelcome as direct-
> mail advertising. Postpone that day by picking your fights and including
> some useful, thought-provoking information in your alert message. If
> you're running a sustained campaign, set up your own list. Then send out
> a single message that calls for some action and include an advertisement
> for your new list. If you must send out multiple alerts on the same
> issue, make sure each one is easily distinguishable from the others and
> provides fresh, useful information.
>
> (18) Do a post-mortem. When the campaign is over, try to derive some
> lessons for others to use. Even if you're burned out, take a minute
> right away while the experience is still fresh in mind. What problems
> did you have? What mistakes did you make? What unexpected connections
> did you make? Who did you reach and why? Which mailing lists was your
> alert forwarded to, and which of these forwardings actually caused people
> to take action? Good guesses are useful too.
>
> (19) Don't mistake e-mail for organizing. An action alert is not an
> organization. If you want to build a lasting political movement, at some
> point you'll have to gather people together. The Internet is a useful
> tool for organizing, but it's just one tool and one medium among many
> that you will need, and you should evaluate it largely in terms of its
> contribution to larger organizing goals. Do the people you reach through
> Internet alerts move up into more active positions in your movement?
> Do you draw them into conferences, talk to them by phone, meet them in
> person, become accountable to them to provide specific information and
> answer questions? If not, why do you keep reaching out to them?
>
> (20) Encourage good practices. The Internet is a democratic medium that
> provides us all with the time and space to do the right thing. So let's
> use the Internet in a positive way and encourage others to do the same.
> You can help by passing these guidelines along to others who might benefit
> from them (including people who have sent out badly designed alerts), and
> refrain from propagating alerts that do not conform to them. Remember,
> forwarding a badly designed action alert actually harms the cause that it
> is supposed to support. Modeling thoughtful, constructive action on the
> Internet, however, provides everyone with a living example of democracy in
> action.
>
> Acknowledgements. I appreciate the comments and suggestions of Steven
> Cherry, Nathan Newman, Steven Snedker, and Larry Yates.
>
> [This is an updated version of an article from the January 1994 issue
> of The Network Observer, http://communication.ucsd.edu/pagre/tno.html]
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
This town loves a winner.
-- John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.