TBAY:The Point is...(was:Re: [HPFGU-Feedback] RE: We'd Like to Pick Your Brains About TBAY)

[Jen Reese]

First, cheers to Risti and Dumbledad for making me laugh tonight; 
It's a shame you don't like TBAY, Dumbledad, because you're 
certainly good at it!

I don't always 'get' TBAY, even after reading Hypothetic Alley and 
taking a spin in the bay myself, but I'd hate to see it become a 
separate list. Sometimes I pass TBAY by if it's a theory I'm just 
not interested in (or if it's too long, truthfully)and it would help 
to have a primer that included some basics as well as answering 
questions for getting started. 

Here are the questions I had as a beginner, not very long ago, when 
I faced a blank page trying to write my one and only TBAY. (I know 
most of these answers now, but didn't when I started and had to ask 
my list elf):

1) Can anyone participate? (I wondered this because most of the 
people doing TBAY were mods at the time I started)

2) How do you include other listees in the TBAY--do you have to ask 
permission?

3) Can you put words in their mouth, ones you think they might say, 
or do you have to quote directly from their posts?

4) Does the canon have to be interspersed within the TBAY format, or 
can you write all the TBAY part first, then have a separate canon 
discussion at the end?

5) Do I need to put post #'s in if I use someone's exact ideas 
without getting permission, so people know where to refer back to 
(and to give credit to the original theorizer)?

*****Now an important question I don't know the answer to and would 
like to******

6) What if you and several other people are on a thread on-list and 
the issue seems to be heading toward a possible theory. Each of you 
have contributed thoughts, but one person decides to make it into a 
TBAY unilaterally. Is that pretty much accepted practice? 

So, I'm all for keeping TBAY part of the main list, having a guide 
of some sort, not only for the actual theories but "Getting Started 
in TBAY" information for the post etiquette as well. 

Jen Reese