College Distribution Lists (D-Lists)

This article explains the etiquette guidelines for using Reynolds college d-lists emails.

Key Points:

• To meet various Reynolds departmental and organizational communication needs, the Department of Technology (DoT) has created and maintained college distribution lists (d-lists).
   
• Users should mindful of whether an email really needs to be sent to a d-list or if it can be sent to individual people instead.  The following key questions should be answered to make this determination.
   
  • Does everyone at the college really need to know what you are trying to send?  If the answer is yes, then the use of the All Staff d-list may be appropriate.  Otherwise, the next question below should be answered.
     
  • Does a specific subset of people at the college really need to know what you are trying to send?  If the answer is yes, then the use of a campus d-list may be appropriate.  Otherwise, emailing individual people may be the better choice.
     
  • Is the subject of the email pertaining to legitimate college business?  Do not use any college d-list to send messages that are not conducive to college operations such as "yard sale" or "lost dog" notices.
     
• Other guidelines of etiquette for properly using college d-lists include the following:
   
  • Avoid using file attachments whenever possible as they take up space on our mail server.  Instead, place the document in a web application such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, or SharePoint, and then provide a link to the file in your email.
     
  • Do not send out warning messages on issues where you are not the responsible point-of-contact.  Instead, refer the issue to the responsible department where they can decide if a broadcast email is appropriate -- this will help minimize the chance of causing a false alarm.  For example, warning messages about computer viruses or fraudulent emails should be referred to the Reynolds Department of Technology Help Desk.
     
  • Do not click on Reply All when responding to a d-list email unless you want everyone included in the d-list to see your reply.  Instead, click Reply to just respond back to the sender directly.  Email is not the place for such mass dialogue.
    
    Tip: Senders can prevent users from being able to click Reply All in a d-list email by placing the college email address in the Bcc (blind carbon copy) field.