Be a welcome SCUBA-L member.

Some good guidelines exist at http://www.ncte.org/resources/primer.html. It is worth a look.

Unwanted Advertisements

SCUBA-L is a discussion list, so posts with a purpose of advertising anything for sale are not appropriate. On a discussion list, everyone joins to benefit from each other's experience and question/answer exchanges. With an advertisement, there are only two beneficiaries, the seller and buyer. The other several hundred members receive the useless announcement that has no benefit to them. SCUBA-L is also world-wide. Buying gear that is expensive to ship will be unattractive anyway. Imagine what it would be like if several hundred members decided to sell their gear at the end of a diving season. It would be an e-mail mess!

Consider the well known problem with unsolicited e-mail today. People buy 1,000,000 e-mail addresses, hide their identity, and send advertisements in bulk. No particular target....just not caring about the value of the message to the recipient. Imagine doing that to members of the list that know you, and will respond!

Can I sell my used gear at all?

Sure, there is a method. The bottom few lines of an e-mail message is YOURS! It does not have to be of a particular subject. It is considered a signature area. Those who would like to sell some gear can comment on a topic that is active on the list, and place a short announcement of the intent to sell gear in their signature.  This makes the post legitimate, and hopefully interesting to all members. Keep it short, and don't post the details to the list. Announce what you have for sale, and ask for private inquiries. Those who are interested will write you to ask color, size, etc. A good post might look like this:

Off-Topic Posts

SCUBA-L is a discussion list that is strictly for SCUBA subjects. But, these can range from travel experience, aquatic environment protection, hotels at a dive site, or ANYTHING a diver might find USEFUL in their DIVING endeavers. Announcements that a band is playing on television on a particular night is NOT appropriate for SCUBA-L simply because one of the members dives. If they will be playing under water, that would be an appropriate topic. Just remember, If you think your topic might NOT be related to the enjoyment of SCUBA, then it probably isn't appropriate for the list. Again, such announcements belong in the signature of a legitimate post