Monthly Chat Email Template

The Monthly Chat e-mail announcement should be sent to the SL4 Mailing List 48-36 hours before a scheduled chat. This is because the suggested starter topic is announced in the message and if you give too much lead time people will discuss the topic before the chat. This, clearly, is bad, and should be avoided, since the entire purpose of a suggested starter topic is to get the chat started if no one can think of anything to say, not start random chats in SL4 when the regulars are around.

Other chat announcements, especially for special guest chats, should have more lead time, possibly with multiple reminders (though I would say a maximum of two; more is pushing on impolite and annoying). A reminder 2 weeks and again 2 days before the chat is a good combination.

This is the template for the monthly chat. You should modify the things in brackets for the current date.

Subject:  SL4 Chat:  Wednesday, [day] [Month], 9 PM ET

Body:

SL4's monthly chat for [Month] will be Wednesday, [day] [Month], at 9 PM Eastern Time.

This month's suggested starter topic:

[topic title]

[brief topic description]

To participate through a standard IRC client, connect to "sl4.org" on a standard IRC port (for example, 6667) and join channel #sl4:
	irc://sl4.org/sl4

To participate through Java applet, point your browser at:
	http://sl4.org/chat/

To clear up any confusion about timezones, go to
	http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5/java
to see the current time in Atlanta, GA.