List Rules

1. Please try to make the subject of your mails as clear and descriptive as possible, so that anyone who sees the subject will be able to determine at a glance exactly what the email is about. Subjects like “Please help”, “Need advice” etc. do not meet this criterion. “Treo 650” does not tell you whether the Treo is for sale, lost, found, or if you are looking to buy or repair one. We suggest prefixing one of the following standard codes to your email subjects in order to make the intention clearer:

– *FOR SALE/FOR RENT* – if you want to sell or rent something

– *WANTED* – if you are looking for some kind of service or thing to buy

– *INFO* – general announcements of interest to the community

– *MITZVA OPP* – appeals for help (e.g. tzedaka, chessed, etc.)

– *JOBOPP* – postings offering employment

– *JOBSEEK* – postings looking for employment

– *AD* – advertising your small business – subject to the commercial advertising rules as below.

Emails with insufficiently descriptive subject lines will be rejected by the moderators.

2. Please do not write in ALL CAPS – it is bad “netiquette”; it looks like you are SHOUTING!

3. Please DO NOT post virus warnings or any other kind of chain letters or email-based petitions on JJCF. They are almost invariably hoaxes, even if they say they have been verified on Snopes.com.

4. Web-based petitions are only (grudgingly) acceptable if they are relevant to the Jewish community of Johannesburg.

5. A general rule of thumb: if the subject of your email begins with “Fw:”, the chances are it’s not going to be appropriate for JJCF.

6. JJCF operates at all times according to Orthodox Jewish halacha. While we allow anyone to join, receive messages, and post to the list, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to reject any postings that we feel are in conflict with halacha, or not in keeping with the atmosphere that we wish to maintain on the list.

7. No Loshon Hora / flaming. If you have a problem with anything somebody wrote, please take it up with them offline.

8. Similarly, no advertising of or requests for services or activities that are in contravention of Jewish law, e.g. Tarot readings, non-kosher food, tattoos etc.  If in doubt, please clear it with the moderators first.

9. Please note that while most postings are for free, JJCF charges for the following:

  • All property to let/for sale (including holiday timeshares) – 1 credit per property advertised
  • Items for sale above R3000
  • Commercial (for profit) postings.
  • Click here for more details.

10. Please do not repeatedly send the same posting. Unless you are marking down your price or making a substantial change in the posting, please stick to a once-a-week rule of thumb.

11. MLM businesses may advertise their products on the same basis as other businesses.  No recruitment allowed for MLM networks.

12. No political or religious articles. If you see something that you think is very important for JJCF members to read, please post a URL (web link), along with a sentence or two in your own words as to why you think this is relevant to the list.  If you want to publish an opinion piece of your own for the Shabbat Shalom newsletter, please submit it to editors@jjcf.info.

13. As per a ruling by Rav Kurtstag, no requests for welfare/financial assistance by people within the Jhb community.  If you are in financial need, please refer to the Chevra Kadisha.

14. Administrative stuff: if you’ve forgotten how to post/subscribe/unsubscribe/set digest – please, pretty please, don’t post to the list asking how. The instructions are supplied in the footer of every single JJCF email that you receive, plus they are spelled out in the FAQ that gets posted every month along with these rules. If you are completely desperate, contact the moderators: moderators@jjcf.info

15. BE NICE – and show gratitude!  If someone has helped you, basic courtesy would be to send a short “Thank you” email back.