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List Rules and Posting Guidelines |
Quick Links:
What can get you moderated or banned:
Flaming *
Pornography *
Spamming the list |
I expect everyone here to be polite and tolerant with one another and to show consideration for the list as a whole. You're not going to agree with everyone here; take that as a given and enjoy your differences, rather than seeing them as a threat.
Don't use these rules as a filter through which you view others' behavior, they are here to help you know how YOU should behave. But do read them all; it took me a lot longer to write them than it'll take you to read them, and I won't have much sympathy if you tell me you broke one because you didn't read it.
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Please remember that everyone has a right to their beliefs and opinions here and I expect you to treat all of those beliefs and opinions with respect, even if you happen to believe they are wrong. No matter how wrong you think someone is, try to watch how you phrase things. There is usually a gentler way to disagree with them if you think about it. If a post is obviously intended to harm, upset or embarrass someone, I will consider it a blatant flame and take action. If you are only teasing someone, you need to make sure that's clear, in your post, to everyone on the list, or it may *look* like a flame. Also, avoid teasing someone about things they seem sensitive about, especially if you don't know them well.
If you feel someone has flamed you, feel free to let me know and I will do my best to help you both work it out when I can.
This refers to graphic stuff that is clearly not appropriate for our younger listmembers and would be objectionable to most of the rest of us, here. Sometimes the list conversation will get suggestive; nothing wrong with that.
What will get someone banned immediately is deliberately posting a lot of material, especially off topic material, just to be annoying or because they refuse to accept that they can't post it here. See Most forwarded mail for more about spamming the list.
Forwarding private mail to the list without permission
This is usually only a problem if it's done maliciously - to get revenge on someone for some private mail the poster didn't like. I take a very dim view of this sort of behavior and will very likely ban people for it. When an honest mistake is made, I generally recommend an apology but will not take further action myself unless there have been other problems.
Complaining on the list about someone or their posts, or arguing with list policy on the list, are strictly prohibited. If you have a problem you want to bring to me privately, fine - I will try to help you with it as much as I can. Anyone trying to get more attention for their problems by posting them to the list *will* get more attention - long enough for me to ban them. I will also ban people if they inform me that they intend to ignore the rules whenver it suits them to. I figure if they won't make any effort, why should I?
It's also important to remember that we're all on the same side here. I've got no problem with joking about "us vs. them" (i.e. - Gloria's Geeks vs. Monica's Mocha Latte Freaks) but don't take it seriously or it is YOU looking for the fight. Not the person who posted such a silly concept. Not everyone will share your tastes, but that doesn't make them the enemy.
This is frequently a problem, as many common forwards are nothing more than spam to most of us, so I have a simple way of deciding if you should forward something to the list - is it about the show or the people who work on it? If not, don't forward it here. Many listmembers are very well meaning and want to help people, but most of what gets forwarded around the 'net are hoaxes, and even the jokes, poems and prayers get old after the first twenty copies you get. If you think some warning might be real, send it to me at TBAAngel-owner @ yahoogroups. com - I recognize a lot of 'em on sight and can give you a fairly quick answer on many of them.
Don't try to sell anything on TBAAngel unless I've given you permission to post about it. This includes TBAA related merchandise, and I would appreciate it if you'd clear charity related posts with me first as well. Lately, the most common problem we have with soliciting is people advertising other lists here. If you've got a list with a related topic, ask me first. Otherwise don't send list invitations here. A brief note about your list in your .sig on an on-topic note would be all right, of course.
People get confused about the topic of the list a lot. The topic is the television show "Touched By an Angel." It is not religion or angels or your personal life, although you may discuss any of these things IN RELATION TO THE TV SHOW. It's a discussion list with a specific topic, so this is only common courtesy! Anything about the show, its characters (as portrayed on the show, and this does include God) and/or the people who work on the show is considered on topic. Articles referencing the show are on topic. Poetry and works of fiction involving TBAA may be posted here ONLY if they're short - less than 200 lines or so - but you might want to check out the TBAA fanfic list anyhow; that's at yahoogroups.com and it's for all sorts and lengths of fiction so it is the more appropriate forum. I encourage list members to post a short intro when they first join; these are considered on topic.
Prayer requests are NOT on topic. I will allow a brief prayer request to be added to the end of an on topic note, but there are several forums for prayer that are more appropriate and this forum is for discussion so I won't feel guilty for not allowing you to post them here. Keeping your posts appropriate and on topic is one part of that 'consideration for the list as a whole' I was talking about up at the top.
On very rare occasions, when we have low list traffic volumes, I may relax some of the topic rules a bit for a set period of time, but this is very rare and I will warn you first. Remember I am the only one who can relax the topic rules - if anyone else tries to tell you they don't matter, they are probabaly trying to get you in trouble, and we *do* have a few troublemakers around here.
Keep your language clean, please, and avoid vulgar or obscene language. We do have some younger subscribers so we need to be mindful of how we are saying what we say when we post. That being said, not everyone sees the same words as vulgar or obscene, so try not to get too upset at another list member for language.
Spoilers: I only ask that people who get some sort of advance information about an upcoming episode of the series put "SPOILER" at the beginning of the subject line of their post. Information is considered advance (spoiler) information until the episode in question has aired on the east coast of the US. If your episode airs later and you don't want to be spoiled, I recommend you simply avoid reading list mail until it has aired. Spoiler space within a post is not necessary, but use your judgment.
Try to avoid "me too" posts - we want to hear what YOU are thinking, not just that you agree with someone else.
Don't quote more than four lines of a note you're replying to per point, unless you absolutely have to. It gets hard to find what YOU said when there's more of what THEY said, and we already read that bit.
You can combine replies into one note, even with more than one topic, rather than sending six short notes in a row to the list. It's often easier on mailboxes and eyes if you do this.
Don't send attached files through the list; the list is set to remove them from messages. If you have a picture or file to share, that can be uploaded to our list space at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TBAAngel - follow the shared files link.
Some listmembers will not be able to read formatted text. Your best bet is to set your mail software to send plain text rather than 'styles', 'rich text format (rtf)' or 'html'; most software will be able to do that nowadays. Also try to keep each post under 250 lines, again because some mail systems can't handle longer posts .
If you have questions about any rules, feel free to contact me with them at TBAAngel-owner @ yahoogroups. com.
Take care,
Jennie
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