Read This! Administrative notes...

[Murthy Yenamandra]

Hello foax,

I've been noticing a creeping influx of M&D posts and quotations without
spoiler warnings. This is just plain wrong! I'm enclosing the spoiler
warning guidelines at the end of this message - please read them again
(even if you think you know them) and try to be nice. Don't make me post
them everyday. And while you're being nice, when you're following up to
someone else's post, try to cut down the amount of material that you
quote to the barest minimum necessary to supply the context. Remember:
we want to know what you have to say, but we've already seen the stuff
you're quoting. The more you quote, the more we agree with the other
guy!

In recent weeks, there has also been a steady stream of people joining
and leaving the list and sending all sorts of commands (and multiple
copies of them) to the wrong address and wondering why they take so long
to work (that's because if you send them to the wrong address, I have to
process them manually). Please note that the address to send commands is
<waste at waste.org>. The body of the request should be:

    subscribe pynchon-l			(to join the regular list)
    unsubscribe pynchon-l		(to leave the regular list)
    subscribe pynchon-l-digest		(to join the digest version)
    unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest	(to leave the digest version)

Murthy

-----

Discussion of _Mason & Dixon_:
-----------------------------
 
With the publication of _Mason & Dixon_, many of us hope to keep our
reading experience uncluttered, and so we ask you to follow these
Spoiler Warning Guidelines to accommodate everyone and make the First
Reading of the long-awaited Book an enjoyable experience filled with
Unanticipated Pleasures.
 
If your message includes comments on or references to the contents of
_Mason & Dixon_, please indicate that in your subject header.  Identify
the highest page number that you feel relates to your comments and use
the following subject line:
 
    Subject:  M&D [page number]
 
If you are responding to someone else's message, be sure to edit the
subject line to change the subject (if you are introducing M&D content)
or the page number (to reflect the extent of your comments). Do not
include references to _Mason & Dixon_ content on the subject line
itself. In the body of the message, include the line:
 
    ***** Mason & Dixon Spoiler *****
 
at the beginning of your message. And if you feel it necessary, include
a few blank lines after the above warning to avoid accidental reading on
email programs with preview windows.
 
Be aware that a lot of your questions or comments about _Mason & Dixon_
may remain unanswered or undiscussed because few people may have read
them or the corresponding parts of the novel.


-- 
Murthy Yenamandra, Dept of CompSci, U of Minnesota. mailto:yenamand at cs.umn.edu
"It is of no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is
 our preaching." -- Saint Francis of Assisi