Yes, it's true that this isn't structured as a traditional FAQ, but it's intended to serve the same purpose.
IMPORTANT: In April 2012, Copyediting-L (CE-L) and Copyediting-Off-list-L (CEL-O) were migrated from Indiana University's Listserv server to a new Sympa server.
A description of all the commands you can send to Sympa related to your subscriptions to CE-L and CE-O is available on the page Submit IU List commands via email.
Copyediting-L is not an editing service or business and does not employ anyone. Copyediting-L also is not a professional association for editors; it is an email discussion list only. There are no annual dues. We do not maintain a directory of members, although we do maintain a list of subscribers who are freelancers (see the "Freelancers" tab on this website).
By reading or posting messages to Copyediting-L (aka CE-L), you agree that CE-L's list owners and members cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by this system. This includes, but is not limited to, damage caused by its users, hackers, and hardware or software failures. There is no guarantee of reliable service or security of information. All information placed on CE-L is to be considered public. While we do our best to stop inappropriate use of the list and harassment, we cannot prevent it entirely. List owners reserve the right to limit posting, suspend accounts, or deny access to anyone at any time. List owners will never ask you for your password; anyone who does so is a fraud.
Copyediting-L uses a tagging system to categorize messages so that non-digest subscribers can include or exclude specific topics. All posts should have an identifying tag in the subject line, and tags must be spelled and punctuated precisely. (You have to type the tag in yourself; there is no automation for adding a tag. For additional information on tags, see the heads "Subject Lines and Tags" and "Valid Tags" below.) There is also an auxiliary "off-list" list (Copyediting-Off-list-L) for discussions not directly related to editing.
Copyediting-L is a busy list. We recommend that you choose to receive individual messages because this allows you to filter the list mail based on the tags that subscribers use in their subject lines. Subscribers who choose the digest format always receive all messages posted to the list.
Please quote sparingly. As editors, we should be able to trim quoted material to include only the essential parts. When a post includes a long and involved explanation to set the stage for a question, there is no need for respondents to repeat the introduction in their answer. Those who quote excessively will receive reminders from a list owner; continued excessive quoting may result in posting limitations.
Please use a spare and nonpromotional signature. At the end of your messages to CE-L, it's helpful to see your full name, your email address, and one or two links to places such as your LinkedIn profile, your business website (if you're self-employed), or your employer's website where we can find out more about you. But please do not provide us with a 15-line signature promoting your business, your books, and the editing-related events you will be participating in. We enjoy hearing from you, but we do not want to have to see that much material about you in each message you post. We just want to learn from discussions with you, and you to learn from us.
Respect each other. Diversity in editing and opinions about editing is encouraged. Civilized argumentation and debate are fine. Character digs, personal attacks, and inflammatory language are not. You are responsible for what you write. Those who cannot be civil will be removed from the list.
The Copyediting-L (CE-L) archives: https://list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/copyediting-l
The Copyediting-Off-List-L (CEL-O) archives: https://list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/copyediting-off-list-l
Access to the archives is limited to subscribers. You must log in to view the archives. If you have not previously created a password, click the "First Login" link in the upper left corner. Then on the page you are taken to, look for the "First login?" link. Click it. On the new page that you are taken to, type in the email address that you are subscribed under, and then click the "Request first password" button. Follow the instructions in the automated email that you will receive.
CE-L and CEL-O are set up so that only the list owners can see the names and e-mail addresses in the list of subscribers. Other subscribers will, of course, see your name and e-mail address when you post messages. The archives are available only to subscribers. This does not mean that what you post to the list is private. Anyone may join the list, and subscribers may forward your messages to others. Don't post anything that you wouldn't want your parents, your life partner, your children, your extended family, your neighbors, your immediate supervisor, your coworkers, or your clients to read.
In December 1992, Carol Roberts started this list at Cornell University. The second list owner was Beth Goelzer Lyons. Bill Blinn and Jane Lyle served as list co-owners from the late 1990s through 2013. Katharine O'Moore-Klopf and John Renish became the list co-owners at the end of 2013, and then Katharine became the sole list owner in February 2016.
Subsequent references to Copyediting-L also apply to Copyediting-Off-List-L except when specified otherwise.
Copyediting-L is an unmoderated list, which means that your posts are sent to the list immediately without being reviewed by a list owner. However, subscribers who engage in unacceptable behavior may be placed on moderated status or removed from the list.
The default mail setting is digest, which means that you will receive one or more digests. All digests from the previous day are sent at 6 a.m. Eastern time. Digests are not edited or condensed. To make the list posts easier to manage and to improve timeliness, the list owners enthusiastically recommend changing your account settings to receive individual messages. See "Managing Your Subscription (Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Etc.)" to learn how to make changes to your subscription, including unsubscribing.
Only subscribers can send messages to Copyediting-L. If the address you use to send mail varies in any way from the address you used when you subscribed, the server will not recognize you as a subscriber. Contact a list owner for help.
Copyright restrictions apply to all Copyediting-L and Copyediting-Off-list-L material, including the archives and this document. Copyediting-L and Copyediting-Off-list-L material may not be used anywhere online, or in material to be published in any manner, without the permission of the author or authors, who retain full copyright to their words, and without crediting the author or authors. Even if you believe that reposting elsewhere a snippet of someone's post from either email list might constitute fair use under U.S. copyright laws, you are expected, as a condition of remaining a subscriber to the lists, to obtain permission from the original poster or posters before reposting the information—with credit to the source(s)—elsewhere. The reason for this condition is that what constitutes fair use is open to interpretation. If you cannot obtain permission from an author, do not use their material from Copyediting-L or Copyediting-Off-list-L.
If you engage in a private (offlist) discussion with a listmate, do not then quote anything from that discussion without first obtaining the author's permission to include the material in messages that you post to Copyediting-L or Copyediting-Off-list-L.
For information on U.S. copyright law, see the appropriate section of the website of the United States Copyright Office. For information on fair use, see the U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index online.
These guidelines are subject to interpretation by the list owners, who make every effort to apply them consistently and fairly. Those who fail to comply with the guidelines will receive off-list reminders and, if inappropriate posts continue, may have their posting rights restricted, suspended, or revoked.
Please keep messages as short as possible. CE-L is a busy list, and needlessly long messages are tedious.
When replying to a message, keep only as much of the original text as is necessary to frame your reply.
Use a descriptive subject line with the appropriate tag. Many people use the subject line to decide whether they want to read a message, and some use the tags to filter messages. See "Subject Lines and Tags" for details.
Copyright restrictions apply. Provide a complete bibliographic citation for all copyrighted materials and obtain permission as required from the original author before posting.
Poll or survey questions (Example: "How many of you ...?") are permitted on the list, but those who ask such questions should request that all responses be sent to them privately. It is their responsibility to compile the responses and provide a brief summary to the list.
Any Copyediting-L subscriber who has problems with any particular discussion on the list or has questions about list operations should write to a list owner about the problems, at copyediting-l-request@iu.edu, not post to the entire list about the problems. Copyediting-L is for talking about editing, not for complaining to the whole list about colleagues or for requesting instructions about list operations.
Political comments are not permitted on the main list. The Internet is home to many political discussion lists, but CE-L is not one of them. Evangelizing for Windows, Mac, or Linux platforms is unwelcome. Choose your computing platform, your religion (or lack thereof), your word processor, and your pet to suit yourself. Allow others to choose theirs.
Posts reporting minor typos in publications or mispronunciations by radio or television personalities are not appropriate. People have been confusing "libery" with "library," "Febuary" with "February," and "Calvary" with "cavalry" since these words entered the language. Likewise, grocery store signs using "it's" as a possessive are singularly unremarkable. The planet Earth is surrounded by air, but most of us do not find this fact to be worthy of comment.
Advertisements are forbidden, whether for your own services or the services of others. Do not request referrals onlist. Brief (up to 10 lines) "help wanted" ads are allowed if you include off-list contact information. Brief (up to 10 lines) announcements of editing-related conferences, seminars, and meetings that are open to non-members are also allowed if you include off-list contact information. Do not post an entire conference schedule, and do not post the announcement more than once.
Do not post a question that can be unequivocally answered by consulting a dictionary, the Chicago Manual of Style, the AP Stylebook, or any other common reference. Questions about variations in the answers provided by those references, as well as questions about interpretations, are welcome.
Do not point out grammar or spelling mistakes in messages unless the author has explicitly asked for such advice. We are all human. We all commit typos. In short: Respect each other. Diversity in editing and opinions about editing is encouraged. Civilized argumentation and debate are fine. Character digs, personal attacks, and inflammatory language are not. You are responsible for what you write. Those who cannot be civil will be removed from the list.
Avoid posting messages from other lists. If you have a list of one-liners that you want to share, post three or four of them to CEL-O (not to CE-L) and offer to send the full list to those who contact you privately. If you've received an e-zine or e-mail that contains information you feel would be helpful to others, describe it and provide a link to the original or offer the full message to those who request it.
Do not post urban legends or virus warnings.
While it might seem unfriendly or even rude, we discourage posting thank-you messages to the list. CE-L subscribers tend to be generous in sharing their knowledge and expertise, and if everyone thanked each person who helped, about half of the list traffic would be thank-you notes. Unless someone has gone to extreme measures to help you, please send thank-you messages privately.
If you are traveling and would like to meet CE-L subscribers in your destination city, post a message to the list and indicate the dates you will be in the other city. Follow-up arrangements should be made off-list.
If you place a URL in your post, please also include information about where the URL leads and why CE-L subscribers would want to go there. Post the full URL inside greater than and less than symbols. Example:
<www.copyediting-l.info> or <https://www.copyediting-l.info>
Please be sure to include < and >, and do not use a URL-shortening service. After several years of explaining to people that URL-shortening services such as bit.ly, tinyurl.com, and goo.gl would help communicate URLs that are long enough to break across lines, we must now take the opposite approach because certain system administrators have concluded that these services are evil and thus may reject messages that contain shortened URLs or blacklist email addresses that are known to send messages containing shortened URLs.
You may occasionally see some unfamiliar terms in CE-L posts. For example:
The number-one bothersome trait the list owners hear about fairly regularly is excessive quoting. Questions often contain additional information that makes the question complete and detailed. Much of this extra information need not be (and should not be) quoted in the reply.
For CE-L subscribers who receive digests instead of individual messages, excessive quoting is even more troublesome.
Some subscribers summarize the question succinctly instead of quoting. This takes extra time and effort, but it substantially reduces list clutter. We don't all have the time or the inclination to summarize, but we should all at least be able to edit the quoted material to omit those parts that have little bearing on the answer.
Before sending a message to the list, please examine it.
If the quoted text is longer than your reply, please examine the message again with particular attention to point 2.
At the end of your messages to CE-L, it's helpful to see your full name, your email address, and one or two links to places such as your LinkedIn profile, your business website (if you're self-employed), or your employer's website where we can find out more about you.
But please do not provide us with a 15-line signature promoting your business, your books, and the editing-related events you will be participating in. We enjoy hearing from you, but we do not want to have to see that much material about you in each message you post. We just want to learn from discussions with you, and you to learn from us.
No message is complete until it has a tag and a descriptive subject line. No new topic should ever begin with the CHAT tag. Tags may be written in upper case, lower case, or mixed case.
Before sending either an original message or a reply to someone else's message, glance at the subject line to confirm that the tag and the descriptive subject are properly formatted and appropriate to the subject matter. If you are replying to a message that has no tag or an incorrect tag, please add or correct the tag. You have to type the tag in yourself; there is no automation for adding a tag.
Here is some clarification about terminology:
CE-L message subject lines carry both a subject-line tag and an email list identifier.
[CE-L] is NOT a subject-line tag. [CE-L] is the email list identifier that the list software prepends to each message's subject line before delivering the message to the entire list. The software is set up to do that because many different email lists use the software, and the identifier helps readers keep straight which list's emails they are reading.
You will see, in subject lines that listmates have handled correctly, both the [CE-L] list identifier AND a subject-matter tag. For example, take a look at the following subject line of a message:
[CE-L] USAGE: Subjunctive mood
USAGE: is the subject-line tag that the CE-L member typed with her own fingers before clicking Send on the message. [CE-L] is the email identifier that was added by the email list software to the subject line after the CE-L member clicked Send on her message.
You, as an email sender to Copyediting-L, must type in a tag yourself before sending out a message. You do not ever have to type in the email list identifier [CE-L] in your message's subject line. You will not see the server prepend [CE-L] as it is happening. The server does this after you send your message and before it distributes your message to the email list.
Tags must be spelled exactly as shown below. Please note that JOB-OP has a hyphen between the two words. The tag must be followed by a colon. The colon must be followed by a space. The space is then followed by the subject. Example:
USAGE: A properly formatted subject line
Do not add square brackets, parentheses, or anything else around tags. They should only be followed by a colon and a word space.
The server will add [CE-L] or [CEL-O] to the left of the tag. You will not see this as it is happening. The server does this after you send your message and before it distributes your message to the email list. Please do not add this on your own.
Except for CHAT, tags may be combined. This should be done sparingly, though, and CHAT should never be combined with any other tag. No topic should ever begin with a CHAT tag. If the topic is so far afield that the first post would require that it be labeled CHAT, then the message belongs on CEL-O, not on CE-L.
URGENT is not a tag. If you need a prompt answer, place the word "URGENT" in the descriptive subject section. Example:
QUERY URGENT: This is incorrect
QUERY: URGENT This is correct
STYLE is not a tag. Please do not use it as a tag.
If you write a message starting a new discussion and forget to add a tag to the Subject line before you click Send, please do not re-send the message with a tag added. Just make sure to add a tag to the Subject line of any replies that you send.
If you reply to a message for which the original poster forgot to include a tag, please do add a tag to the Subject line before you click Send.
You have to type the tag in yourself; there is no automation for adding a tag.
If you cannot decide between two tags, you may combine them by typing one tag, a space, the second tag, and then a colon. Please do this sparingly and keep in mind that CHAT should never be used with any other tag. Dual tags follow this format:
TAG TAG: Descriptive subject
Copyediting-L is located at the center of the self-service section of the Internet. You are expected to manage your own subscription either via the Web interface, which is largely self-documenting, or by e-mail. When you are sending a single command to the server, you should place it in the subject line. Sending multiple-line commands is possible, but the message must be entirely plain text and without a signature. An explanation of how to send multiple-line commands is in the "Overview" section of this page on the Indiana University website.
Because Sympa is a computer program, you must follow the single-command format exactly.
Send your message from your email address (the one that you used for subscribing to the list) to list@list.iu.edu. Make sure that your message is in plain text rather than in HTML. Place your command on the subject line of the message (not in the message body). In the command, type the appropriate command (e.g., unsubscribe) from the bulleted list below, followed by either copyediting-l or copyediting-off-list-l (depending on which list you are dealing with), and then your first name (shown as Firstname in the following examples) and your last name (shown as Lastname in the following examples). Note that in the following examples, {list} is simply a placeholder for the name of the list (copyediting-l or copyediting-off-list-l) that you will type in. Please delete that placeholder before you send your message.
Example: unsubscribe copyediting-off-list-l
If you have difficulties with this process, please contact a list owner at copyediting-l-request@iu.edu.
The Copyediting-L (CE-L) archive: https://list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/copyediting-l
The Copyediting-Off-List-L (CEL-O) archive: https://list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/copyediting-off-list-l
If you choose to receive individual messages, you may specify which topics you want to receive. Those who subscribe to the digest will always receive all messages. This does not apply to the off-list because no tags are used there. Selecting topics can be done via the Web interface.
As a service to Copyediting-L subscribers, Ann Fothergill-Brown (celery.free@gmail.com) maintains a directory of freelancers (part-time and full-time). The list is on the Copyediting-L information website (https://www.copyediting-l.info), and Ann sends it privately to anyone on request. Keep in mind that there is no control over what happens to the list once it is posted. To be added to the list, you must be a Copyediting-L subscriber, and you must submit a request that adheres to the process outlined on the "Freelancers" tab.
To add yourself to the list, send a message to celery.free@gmail.com and use the format specified below. Those who fail to follow the format will not be listed.
Doe, Jean
100 Elm St., City, State/Province, Zip/Postal Code, Country
jdoe@example.com
607-555-1212 (fax 607-555-1313)
Type of work: Copyediting, proofreading, indexing
Type of materials: Books, journals, manuals, technical materials
Experience: Since 1950
Subjects: Business, computers, mathematics, natural resources
Note: If you unsubscribe from Copyediting-L, your directory entry will be deleted.
The Web interface for each list gives you access to the archives. The archives are closed to non-subscribers, but users should keep in mind that anything posted to the lists is potentially visible to everyone in the world.
The Copyediting-L (CE-L) archive: https://list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/copyediting-l
The Copyediting-Off-List-L (CEL-O) archive: https://list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/copyediting-off-list-l
The first time you use the Web interface, you will be asked to enter your password. If you haven't yet set one up, you can do so from that screen. You will need to enter the e-mail address from which you are subscribed and then type a password. The server will send a message to the e-mail address you gave it, and you must reply to that message to confirm that you are who you say you are.
Once you have successfully established a password, the server will offer to write a cookie to your computer. This will save the password on your computer so that you will not need to enter it again from that machine. If you use other computers, you will need to enter the password once from each location to create the cookie.
To search the archives, select the Search Archives option.
Next, type the phrase you're looking for into the Search Archive text box. When specifying the phrase, do not place it inside quotation marks as you might do for a Google search. Before clicking Search, be sure to specify a date range. If you specify no range, the search will include only the most recent few months. Try to narrow the date range, though; selecting all dates may cause the search to time out on the server.
In 2002, we added CEL-O, the "off-list list," for use by those who want to discuss non-editing-related topics with other CE-L subscribers. Anyone wishing to subscribe to CEL-O must first subscribe to CE-L. New subscriptions must be approved by a list owner, who will confirm that the request is coming from a CE-L subscriber. The CEL-O archive is at https://list.iu.edu/sympa/arc/copyediting-off-list-l
CEL-O runs on the same Sympa software that powers CE-L, so all of the standard list management commands described here apply. No topics are banned on CEL-O. That means that even political discussions are not banned. But those who post excessively or who are abusive to others will be removed at the sole discretion of the list owners.
Never cross-post a message to both lists. However, if you want to start a discussion that is vaguely related to editing, you may post the original message to CE-L (and ONLY to CE-L) with a CHAT tag. Place this text at the TOP of the message: Please respond on CEL-O.
Messages sent to the following addresses will reach a list owner: copyediting-l-request@iu.edu for CE-L; copyediting-off-list-l-request@iu.edu for CEL-O.