ADMIN - welcome/spag/netiquette

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 18198

Greetings all,

WELCOME

Welcome to all our recent new members!  You should get a note from one of
our List Elves, and if you have any questions about the club or its
unfathomable rituals, please contact them by rapping on the big oak door
labelled hp4guelves at yahoo.com.  You can reach the Moderator Team at the
HPfGU Hexquarters: hpforgrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com.


SPAG

No, not related to spam.  Darla referred to a "requirement" for good
spelling and grammar on the list.  Yes, there are references to "strongly
encouraging" this, in our welcome message and elsewhere.  To clarify, this
is aimed at avoiding incomprehensible, hastily-written posts, all in lower
case, with kooky spellings (if U C wot I mean) and no punctuation.  It is
*not* meant to discourage intelligent postings from people or Elves for whom
English not the first language, for example (many of whom write in excellent
English anyway!) or who may make the odd spelling error or typo (we *all* do
that).  The intention is to make posts as easy as possible to read or skim.


NETIQUETTE

A quick wand-poke on a few netiquette points (please see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/netiquetteTIPS.htm  for
the full list of netiquette tips)

**Canon-Fanon/Opinions: Rebecca Bohner noted some recent confusion in
relation to Sirius Black's sexiness.  If your opinion relates more to fanon
and is not supported by canon, please strap on the FF prefix or post to OT
Chatter.  Otherwise, please remember to say that it is your opinion,
thought, idea, speculation or wild, lust-filled fantasy.

**Headings: Make sure your message subject heading is appropriate (or at
least present...!) and indicative of the content before hitting send.  If
the thread has changed, please change the heading.  Use the prefixes FF (for
fanfic-related posts), MOVIE (for movie-related posts), SHIP (for
relationshipping posts)  As for fantasy casting: Trying to shoehorn your
favourite actor into the boots of Sirius Black or Remus Lupin?  That goes to
OT Chatter...

**OT posts:  As a rule, anything *not* related to Harry Potter should go to
the OT Chatter list.  On the odd occasion we do post something OT on the
main list, I suggest that we continue to prefix it 'OT', for clarity.
Strongly tangential topics, such as the origins of magic, are okay on the
main list with an OT note, but may have to be moved to OT Chatter if they
drift too widely.

**One line and short posts:  The list was slowed down by the recent Yahoo
gremlin, but when it's at full speed, it gets *very* busy.  With this in
mind, please try to avoid posting short comments or single sentences that
don't really add anything to the debate ("LOL!", "Me too!", "I agree!" etc).
If appropriate, drop someone a note offlist to let them know that your
enjoyed their post, or whatever.

**Responding: Please remember to (a) give some details of the originating
post (including the name of the sender) (b) if the original post was very
long, please refer only to those parts to which you are responding and chop
the rest out.

Thank you, kindly.

I will now cast a 'model behaviour' spell:  "Regulato Observatum..!"  It
doesn't work on everyone, but it's always worth a shot..

Neil
________________________________________

Flying Ford Anglia
Mechanimagus Moderator

"The cat's ginger fur was thick and fluffy, but it was definitely
a bit bow-legged and its face looked grumpy and oddly
squashed, as though it had run headlong into a brick wall"
["The Leaky Cauldron", PoA]

Check out Very Frequently Asked Questions for everything
to do with this club:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/files/VFAQ.htm