On Moderated and Un-Moderated Status

[Steve]

Just want to make a few general comment to encourage new members to
the various Harry Potter for Grownups Groups.

First, don't be discouraged or get the idea that you are being picked
on by the Moderators and List Elves. I give you my absolute assurance
that everyone, even the best of posters, have had many posted sent
back when they first joined. 

I can't even begin to count how many I was rejected, and at the time I
felt very slighted. But in hindsight, my first post weren't that good.
I did everything wrong. I posted right away without observing for a
while. I posted things that I thought were brilliant discoveries like
the motto on the Mirror of Erised being ancient Aramaic for blah blah
blah whatever, when, as many oldies kindly and gently pointed out,
although I could almost see their eyes rolling, that it was simply
written backwards - erised = desire. And let's not forget that my
spelling and grammar were terrible. 

Of course, I swore they were all anally retentive fascist, but they
were kind and patient, and they held me to the standard, and
eventually I came around.

So, my point is don't take it personally. Don't think that you are the
only one. I assure you every single new member is going through the
same things you are. And, I want to remind you that even us 'oldies'
still get posts rejected, and/or receive warnings and howlers when we
get too carried away or start to get sloppy.

Also, many 'newbies' worry that what they are posting has already been
discussed. I'm here to assure you that YES it has already been
discussed, but we don't let that stop us from discussing it again. 

If you post a very well discussed point, others may give you a quick
answer or refer you back to a previous discussion. That is NOT a
rejection of your idea. Please re-read those old discussions, you
obviously have an interest or you wouldn't have posted on the subject,
reading those old posts will bring you up to speed with everyone else,
and will stimulate a hundred new thoughts and ideas on the subject.
You will be greatly rewarded for your effort, in that you will be able
to give more depth and thought to your original idea, and may even
discover a new angle (which happens all the time) on an old subject.

The Yahoo Groups Search feature; OK, we all agree is sucks, but it's
not entirely useless. If you have been around long enough that you've
found one or two old posters whose opinions you value, try adding
their username to a couple search terms you are interested it. That
will at least narrow the search down to someone's opinion you are
interested in. Example; in the search box put [ pippin_999 Snape
Vampire ] then keep hitting the [NEXT] button in the search results. 

Yahoo NOW only searches about 150 posts at a time, it used to search
about 500; so you have to hit the [NEXT] button many many times to
search back any length of time. 150 posts represents about one days
discussion, so I am REALLY serious when I say you have to hit the
[NEXT] search button many many times. I've on occassion seach back
through 10's of thousands of posts; imagine how many times I hit that
stupid button.

Another tip, if you are searching, to keep your search going and
prevent your having to start over at the beginning, if you see an
interesting link, right-click and open it in a new window, that way
you preserve your search page and when you are done reading the
interesting post, you can go back to your search window and keep
searching.

Another search tip, don't use the [PREVIOUS] button to search
backwards, instead, just use your browsers [BACK] button to go back to
page spans you have previously searched.

Your opinions and ideas are valued in the main group and in all the
sister groups, so if you really truly have an interest in discussing
these books, hang in there and keep trying; I absolutely guarantee it
will get better.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/b_boymn