Administrative Questions

[plinsenmayer]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C3877
From: plinsenmayer
Subject: Administrative Questions
Date: 7/11/00 4:02 pm  (ET)

Hi:

You all have been busy in my 4 hr absence from the computer. Uh
 . . where to start?

I am the founder as Neil said (by default, the original founder, Barbara
Drey, asked me to step in so the club could continue). But, Barbara is
still around (I hope!).

Chats -- The official chat time is on Sundays, 3:00 p.m. (EST) - 6:00
(EST). If people want to chat amongst themselves, the chat room is
always available I guess. I only joined my first chat this past Sunday
as I was dying to discuss GoF!

Spoilers -- As I said before, let's use Spoiler Warnings and Spoiler
Space re: GoF for the next month or so. People deserve a chance to read
it. We're also agreed that we will put "Spoiler -- Chapter 14" in the
subject line. That way, if someone has read to Chapter 16, they can read
the message safely. But, if they're only on Ch 10, they'll want to avoid
that message. I must admit I don't think I've been diligent myself about
the Chapter references in the subject line, but I will endeavor to do
better. <g> Not everyone read it all in one gulp.

I must confess that I do somewhat agree with the person who said that
people who haven't read GoF should perhaps avoid the boards until they've
finished. That was the route I took (of course, I also turned on my
computer to a very full to bulging in-box of email). But, I don't think
the majority of people are out of line in wanting spoilers for Book 4.

No Spoilers needed for Books 1-3.

With a book discussion group like this, it's my personal opinion that
you can be presumed to have the basic knowledge about Books 1-3 when
you join. In another month or so, I would say people who join will be
assumed to have knowledge of all 4 books. I don't mean that people who
haven't read all of them (or any of them) are unwelcome at all. I just
mean the rest of us shouldn't be expected to put spoilers on all our
messages. Because otherwise, *all* the messages would be spoilers. Make
sense? I really hope I'm communicating this in a non-offensive manner.

Dee and others who have not read all the books are more than welcome
in my book! Please don't get me wrong (I really don't want millions of
flames on this one). I will say that I personally would never join this
club until I'd read them (but that's just because I wouldn't want the
books to be spoiled for me).

Side note: Dee I was also going to suggest the public library to you, but
I saw a later post where you indicated that's not an option either. Sorry
about that. We'll keep hoping you can get them soon.

My basic point: no spoilers on Books 1-3 (and we will take off the
spoiler reqmt for Book 4 at some point).

I think this is getting long so I will discuss chapter discussions in
my next message.

Penny