WRITER’S LISTS DON’TS

Seen on writer’s lists I’ve been on online and am still on. Yes, this is sort of a rant. Or maybe more than sort of.

Your signature line is longer than any of the emails you send to the list.
You only come on to announce that you’ve been published.  And you also have a long signature line. Or none at all (see below).
You’re a writer, but you don’t sign your emails.  How is anyone supposed to remember you?  Your email address may give us a hint, but not always.
How does this work exactly?  You’re trying to email someone privately who is on a list you’re on, but your email won’t go through.  So, you go on the list and ask the other person to contact you.  If you couldn’t get through before, how on earth do you think you’re going to after they contact you? 
Or, you lost all your addresses when you had a computer crash.  You didn’t back up your address book, of course, so now you go to the lists every time you need an address. 
Your emails are usually full of typos and spelling/grammar errors.  Why would you think this was okay? (I admit I make mistakes on lists—everyone does– but certainly my posts are not full of them.)
You use two names, and you use them indiscriminately.  No one is sure who you really are, and most don’t care.
You only come on to rant and complain about the list.  You hardly ever contribute, but you know best how it should run.
You’re the king or queen of one-liners.  You never have much to say, and it really, really shows.

And you may be wondering why you’re not getting very far in this writing biz.  Any of these hit their mark? Too harsh? Maybe, but apparently no one has told some of the writers who are doing these things that there’s a better way. I hope this helps.