WELCOME

Welcome to Freeline, a support and discussion group for Australian freelance journalists, editors and writers. Founded in 2005, this group began life as an email list in Yahoo groups, then moved to Google groups, where it continues to host lightly moderated online discussions.

Group members are journalists, writers, and other freelancers (including some editors) with different specialities and interests. There are now over 200 members with many attending events and coffee meet-ups organised by members; any member is welcome to organise a free / cost recovery event.

We welcome any Australian working freelance journalist to join the online discussion. There is no joining fee and you do not have to be a member of the MEAA (journalists’ union) – though many of us are. Members who no longer work as a freelance journalist and may have a conflict of interest (eg because they have taken a position as a staff editor / publisher / PR agency who may employ or pitch to our members) are asked to remove themselves from the group voluntarily.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS GROUP

We have a website: http://freeline.net.au
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/freelineAU
Twitter account: http://twitter.com/sydfreelancers

LinkedIn Group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=137423&trk=anet_ug_hm

HOW FREELINE WORKS

This is an email-based discussion board. You will receive an email each time someone sends a message to Freeline (though you can log in and change the options to receive these less often). If you want to reply to a message, either reply to the Group (if you want all 200+ members to see the message) or reply to the person who sent the original email.

If you want to post a question, suggestion, link or other information useful to freelancers, simply send an email to freeline-sydney@googlegroups.com and it will be sent to the list after approval by moderators.

You can also view past messages online (go to groups.google.com.au, you must be signed in to google under the email you registered with).

POSTING GUIDELINES FOR FREELINE

The prime objective of this forum is to discuss and share information about freelance journalism, writing and editing issues, to offer each other a helping hand with work and contract issues and provide a friendly environment in which to discuss ideas and problems. We do this in a positive and constructive environment that respects a range of opinions. Moderation of your messages generally occurs for the first three or so posts or if a complaint has been received from another list member.

Please post messages in line with the following guidelines:

1) Relevance. Message content must be related to freelance journalism, writing and editing.

2) Necessity. As everyone is swamped by email nowadays, messages must add new content to an ongoing discussion, ie more than the equivalent of "I agree" or "Me too". Messages which contain a response solely of interest to an individual should be emailed to that person only, not to the entire group.

3) Tone. While it's essential to have a free and open exchange of views on important issues, there's no need for aggressive content, which has the potential to spark a ‘flame war’. Keep it topical, not personal.

4) Defamation. If posted material is considered potentially defamatory, it will be removed from the archive.

5) Copyright and Attribution. Please ensure posts are original and that copyright is not breached. Rather than post an entire article, please supply a link to a web page. Members can also submit files or pages to this site and then post a link to these.

6) Job postings. We welcome messages about genuine freelance journalism, writing or editing jobs. Where possible please supply expected payment rates. Responses to job posts should occur off-list.

7) PR, Spam and self-promotion. This is not a site for marketing or self-promotion, please don’t circulate press releases, marketing, political, charity or other promotional material, no matter how worthy; there are other groups for journalists with these interests.

8) Confidentiality. Messages posted to the group are regarded as confidential and may not be forwarded to people outside the group without express written permission from the author/s of the message.

IDENTIFY YOURSELF

Please add your full name to your group profile as soon as possible.

To do this:

- Join / log in to Google Groups through selecting 'Sign in' at http://groups.google.com

- Go to Freeline Sydney http://groups.google.com/group/freeline-sydney and sign in

- From the menu at the Top Right of your screen - click on Profile

- You are taken to your profile - select 'Edit'

- Update your profile with your full name and please add some information about yourself & your work in the 'About Me' section.

Thanks for your cooperation with these guidelines. Happy posting!

Freeline SYDNEY ARCHIVE - 2005-14 freeline.net.au