Welcome Message (admin)

[Flying Ford Anglia]

No: HPFGUIDX 9338

Hello and welcome to the Harry Potter for Grownups discussion group!

Welcome especially to new members who found out about us from 
Salon.com and CNN. In the interests of getting to know you and you 
getting to know us as quickly and easily as possible, please read 
this message thoroughly. If you have any questions, please contact 
the moderators at hpforgrownups-owner at egroups.com.

We're dedicated to in-depth, thought-provoking and fun discussions of 
the Harry Potter books, as well as the movies, merchandising and 
other aspects of the phenomenon we've come to know and love. While 
there is no age requirement to join the group, you should note that 
most of our members are over 18. Mature teenagers may enjoy the 
group, but may find themselves more at home in a group of their peers.

In any case, we strongly encourage use of proper spelling, 
punctuation and grammar in posts, and expect all our members to 
observe common sense, courtesy and netiquette at all times. You can 
find out more about the netiquette of this club in the Files section 
of the eGroups site. The Moderators will also be sending out a 
separate netiquette message later this week.

We moved here from Yahoo! Clubs, and have archived the messages from 
that service (about 8,000 of them!) at a separate eGroup with a 
search feature. You can access them by joining the HPforGrownups-
Archives eGroup -- either send a blank email to HPforGrownups-
Archives-subscribe at egroups.com or visit 
http://www.egroups.com/group/HPforGrownups-Archives

We're currently going through "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" 
on a chapter-by-chapter basis and holding detailed character 
discussions on a weekly basis. For a list of the contributors, see 
the files section. For details of past discussions, you can use 
eGroups' nifty search function.

To help new members get into the swing of things, a team of members 
is in the process of compiling an extensive set of substantive FAQs 
(Frequently Asked Questions) in essay format, gleaned from past list 
postings and covering subjects such as Mysteries and Inconsistencies, 
Wands, Wizarding World Governments and major character sketches. 
We'll post them as they are completed and notify the group. REALLY 
frequently asked questions, such as the order Harry's parents come 
out of his wand, the gleam in Dumbledore's eye can be found in the 
RFAQ, which is still under construction.

For detailed information on every aspect of the HP books, we highly
recommend the Harry Potter Lexicon, maintained by Steve Vander Ark, 
one of our members. It can be found at 
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon

Please take a few minutes to look through the Files, Database, Links 
and Polls sections of the club, where you will find even more HP-
related information.

We're also investigating the possibility of a UK Tour, taking in 
sights relevant to HP such as King's Cross, Edinburgh, the Scottish 
Highlands and more. Planning has moved to the HPTour eGroup -- to 
subscribe, send a blank email to HPTour-subscribe at egroups.com or visit
http://www.egroups.com/group/HPTour

General questions can be directed to the List Owner, Penny 
Linsenmayer, at pennylin at swbell.net

Legal stuff:

In posting to this group, you grant the Moderators the right and 
license to use the content of your messages in other contexts. At 
this time, the Moderators intend to use this permission only for 
purposes of archiving and creating topical FAQs for the group, but 
reserve the right to use them for other purposes. If you have any 
concerns about infringement of your copyright, you are advised to 
contact the List Owner. Should you have any further questions, feel 
free to contact the List Owner.

***

Neil, the Mechanimagus Moderator