Administrivia: Let's stay on topic please

[Paul M. Moriarty]

Folks,

I know that we stray off-topic from time to time.  All lists do to some
extent.  Please remember that we have rules that I ask that you abide as a
condition of list membership.  I'll attach them below.

The C's have assembled the best team since the Bird years and I'm really
looking forward to enjoying the ride this season.

- Paul -

--- List Rules ---

This page defines the terms of service for using igtc.com and the services
supplied by this site. We request that all users of our site abide by the
rules we have defined for their use. If you're unwilling or unable to abide
by these rules, please do not use our services. Violators of our rules may
find their usage privileges reduced or revoked.

Rules for Using Our Services

We are trying to keep our usage rules simple, to give our users as much
flexibility as we can while protecting them from the abusers. We want to
assume that our users are mature adults and will act appropriately, and work
with us to abide by the spirit of the rules; by doing so, we can avoid a
list of rules that looks like they were written by a lawyer with a
headache...

We have a few key rules for using our site:

If you are using one of our services and see something you feel is
inappropriate, please report it to us. Do not attempt to 'fix' the problem
yourself -- that almost always makes it worse, and many times gets in the
way of an administrator who's already working on it. Also, trying to do it
yourself will probably get you in trouble with us instead of (or with) the
other person, and you won't like that. Let the people in charge handle it.

If an administrator asks you to stop doing something, stop doing it. If you
disagree with the request, we'll talk about it, but ultimately, this isn't a
democracy. The site admins have the final say. If a non-administrator asks
you to stop doing something -- use your judgment. If you agree with the
complaint, stop. If not, you decline politely, or ask the administrator to
mediate. If a disagreement escalates into a flamewar, everyone involved
could be subject to disciplinary action.

If we don't get complaints, it's difficult for us to act on them, because we
aren't mind-readers. If you don't like how something is being managed or
used, let us know, but please don't assume that because you complain we will
do something -- we'll investigate and decide what (if anything) needs to be
done on a case by case basis.

There are a few things which we will not tolerate, and which can lead to
losing your posting privileges or be completely banned from the site:

Attempts to "hack" the site or circumvent site security.

Abuse of the site, the administrators or the users of this site.

Posting chain letters or any of the e-mail hoaxes circulating the net. If
the hoax is already documented in one of the hoax sites (like the Symantec
Center or the Ciac hoaxbusters page, posting it is grounds for removal from
our sites. We are very serious about killing these hoaxes off the net, and
we have no tolerance of people who forward them around without doing basic
research as to whether they're accurate or not. These things are nothing
more than viruses -- e-mail viruses that infect mailing lists. If you infect
our list, we'll treat it as a serious offense.

Excessive profanity or inappropriate language. We are tolerant of some
profanity, but we also realize that some of our members are upset by its
use. We don't believe it makes sense to outlaw it outright, but we also want
our users to be sensitive to the other members of the list and show some
discretion. We don't like to make occasional use an issue, but when it gets
out of control, we'll ask you to tone it down.

Any attempt to harvest e-mail addresses for commercial purposes, or to use
e-mail addresses or any user information on this site for any purpose not
related to this site will be considered grounds for immediate banning of
this site.

Spamming or commercial posts -- Do not post commercial posts unless you have
the approval of the admin, or the forum area explicitly allows it. All
unapproved or misplaced advertising and commercial postings will
reconsidered spamming and will be treated as such with banning from the site
and reporting your activities to your ISP. Within the forums that do allow
this, messages that are not relevant to the topic of the forum will be
deleted, and we will consider banning repeat offenders.

We reserve the right to delete messages from our system that we feel are
abusive or inappropriate for our audience. We reserve the right to relocate
posted messages to more appropriate locations on our site if they're posted
in an incorrect location. We also reserve the right to report cases of abuse
to a user's ISP for further disciplinary action.

Try to stay on topic -- but realize that topics will wander, just as a
conversation at a party does. If a topic wanders, be patient, tune out or
change the subject. Don't yell at people about it.

Keep your messages short -- succinct is good. Long and rambling is not.

Spelling and Grammar do matter. The Internet is a written medium, and poorly
written or sloppy messages make it hard for other users to take the content
seriously. If you don't care enough about your thoughts to present them
well, why should anyone else care about them?

Don't guess -- if you don't know the answer to a question, don't guess. Look
it up, or let someone else answer it. There are few things more frustrating
to a user than to ask a question and get four answers, only one of which can
be right -- and not knowing which one is.

Edit included messages in replies to minimize the amount of text. The more
you hide your words by surrounding them with included text, the less likely
people will find and read them.