ENTS Trees Discussion List Info

ENTS Trees http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en 

The official email list of the Eastern Native Tree Society (ENTS). ENTS is devoted to celebrating trees in science, art, photography, poetry, music, medicine, mythology, history, and collecting research data for a variety of purposes. ENTS is the premiere tree measuring group of the eastern forest.  Cofounders of ENTS include Dr. David Stahle, Will Blozan, Robert Leverett, the late Dr. Michael Perlman, Matthew Therrell, and Joseph Choiniere.

Hosted by Google Groups  http://groups.google.com 

List Owner:  Robert Leverett

Founded:  September 24, 2007, successor to Topica group founded Feb 23, 2002

Access
Anybody can view group content
Only members can view group members list
Anyone can join
Members can create and edit pages
Members can upload files
Only members can post
Group email

EMAIL Settings 

1) Go to the Google Group website: http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en

2) Sign in using your email address and your password

3) On the Right side, about the seventh item down (in regular text) is "Edit my Membership," click on that.

4) This takes you to a screen on which you can edit your email settings. I recommend either Individual emails in which you will get every email, or Digest email, in which all of the emails are sent as a single file. For any setting but Individual emails you will not receive the attachments. The third option is No Emails, then you can view the posts from the ENTS/Google Groups website with the attachments shown as thumbnails for download. I do not recommend the Abridged email option as it seems pretty worthless to me.5) If you have problems contact a list manager, and they change your settings.

 

PERSONAL PROFILE Settings

I would like to encourage people to post a short profile about themselves to the ENT Google Group page.  This is not required but is encouraged.  It allows you to post your name, where you live, a brief note about yourself, and even at your option a tiny thumbnail photo.  This information makes it easier to get together with others in your local area for tree measuring and exploration trips.  It lets you participate in the action.  If you become more active in the organization, a larger photo and biographical note can be submitted for inclusion on the ENTS website (here) http://www.nativetreesociety.org 

1) Go to the Google Group website: http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en

2) Sign in using your email address and your password

3)  At the top of the page, above the header , on the right side in the middle of several items is the word "Profile'.  Click on the word Profile.

4)  This takes you to a page where you can edit your profile information.  In the blue heading near the top on the left side next to the words My profile click on the link that reads  "edit."

5) This takes you to the "Edit my profile"  page.  Upload a photo thumbnail (It will be automatically resized so crop your upload tight to your head).  Add your other information, including your location in the provided text boxes.

6) Click on the "Save" button on the bottom of the page to finish.


David Kelley breached the topic of discussion list posts, and I agree with most of his comments.  Here are some things to consider when posting to the ENTS discussion List..

1) If the topic of a discussion thread is changed, start a new discussion from a blank email with the new topic heading and email it to entstrees@googlegroups.com    If you read from the website http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en there is a button in the discussion heading that you click to start a blank new post.  It is important to start with a blank email rather than replying to a post and changing the header. This does not change the hidden routing information and Google Groups does not recognize this as a new topic and will lump it with the old one.  Google Groups is a not very smart automated sorting system.  Please help it sort your discussions into the right headings.

2) It would be very useful if the Subject heading reflected meaningfully in the content of the post.  This way people can better decide whether the topic is one of interest to them, and they will fit better on the website..

3) If you post about a particular site, you should say where it is located.  While you may be familiar with all of the local parks in your area, many of us will not be.  So list the geographic location to at lest the state level, and the region within the state.  The name of the particular park, forest, or other location if it has a name and the city if it is a city park should be included.  I can't organize the data by location for the website if I do not know where the site is located.  Most of you do pretty good on this (or perhaps I have read so many I may recognize the location even if it is not listed).

4) Spell Check - a good tip.  My dictionary for my Windows Mail must have  some misspellings in it because I have it set to check spelling before I post and there still are mistakes.  (occasionally unfortunate word switches that I do not catch)

5) Remember that as we are now linking on the website directly to the threads on the Google Groups site for most of the topics.  If you post something silly there it will become part of your permanent record.  (Actually if it is too egregious, and you really want it gone forever,  list managers can delete individual posts from the archive.)

This list is not moderated, nobody want it to be moderated, and it will not be moderated, so it is up to the individual members to try implement these suggestions.  I think overall it would make the list more useful to everybody if we tried to follow these suggestions.

Thanks and keep posting.

Ed Frank. May 16, 2009