Q-Saints A listserver for Saints out of the ordinary. Q-Saints is an open and welcoming community of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people as well as their friends and family from LDS and Restoration backgrounds. This community is administered by members of Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons. However, participants come from very diverse backgrounds and philosophies. All people with interest in issues of general concern to Gay Lesbian, and Bisexual people from an LDS or restoration background are welcome to join. Membership in Affirmation is not required. If you desire further information about Affirmation, e-mail your request to Dino911@aol.com Rules: Any subject can be discussed within the realm of good taste and respect for others. We ask that all comments be respectful of individual differences. Please see comments under NETIQUETTE below. Confidentiality: This is an electronic forum where postings may be copied and forwarded without the knowledge or permission of the author. The "Screen name" or e-mail address of the author is listed with all postings. Persons with concerns about confidentiality should be careful to use only their anonymous screen names and not their actual name. Any phone numbers or personal street addresses should be exchanged through private direct e-mail and not in postings to q-saints. The list administrators and owners cannot guarantee confidentiality. For further anonymity, an anonymous server can be used. Send requests for information to help@anon.penet.fi. The basics needed to get started: To subscribe, send a message to majordomo@vector.casti.com with or without a subject line and a body containing only: subscribe q-saints To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@vector.casti.com with or without a subject line and a body containing only: unsubscribe q-saints To post a message to q-saints, send your posting to: q-saints@vector.casti.com. NOTE: Please Put QS or qs in the beginning of the subject line to make incoming mail sort easier for everyone on the list. Once your post is sent to q-saints, it will be copied to everyone else currently subscribed. Messages from q-saints will appear on your screen in varying ways depending on your particular e-mail software or "mailer". Most mailers will list q-saints in the "from" field and q-saints in the "reply-to" field. However, the original sender information is never obscured so some mailers may list the original sender in the "from" field and reply to the original sender in addition to or in the place of q-saints. Be careful that when you reply to a message, the "to" field lists q-saints if you want the message to go to all subscribers on the list. If you wish to make sure that your e-mail is being sent to only the original sender or some other individual person you desire you should enter in the correct address in the "to" field. Make sure your "mailer" is sending messages where you want them to go. All postings to q-saints are archived. These archives can be acquired by sending a request to q-saints-owner@vector.casti.com NETIQUETTE E-mail over the internet is a communication medium that is new to many people. It has its own unique properties that require some general guidelines to help avoid both little and big irritations over the net. RULE ONE: If you have questions about using the server, send them to the list administrators at q-saints-owner@vector.casti.com. Don't send operational questions to the general list. As q-saints grows, the volume of messages could become enormous. Mormon-l has up to 100 a day. To send an operational question to the list would be like the New York Times publishing a letter to the editor that asks what page the Television schedule is on. RULE TWO: Remember, you are talking to other people, not a computer. The simple rules of courtesy are easily forgotten when typing a message on a computer rather than speaking to a person. Don't be too quick to judge a person based on a single e-mail message. A rude or angry response to someone (often called a "flame") is doing a disservice to the correspondents and to everyone connected to the network. Be courteous. RULE THREE: Keep the subject line current with the topic you are writing about. Electronic discussions often migrate from one topic to another. If you do not change the subject line to reflect what is being discussed, you will miss part of the interested audience and frustrate those that are interested in one subject but find another being discussed. This is especially true for large mailing lists where many subjects are being discussed simultaneously. RULE FOUR: Keep private mail private and public mail public. If your message is intended for one or a small group of people, send it privately and not to the list. Likewise, don't refer to private mail in a posting to the list without explaining what the context is. RULE FIVE: Remember your audience. Consider your message carefully before you send it. Compose the message in a text editor before you send it. Where possible quote sections of previous messages and then respond to them so that your audience understands what you are reacting to. E-mail messages are often forwarded or copied to wide distribution lists that may include potential employers, family members or friends. Always keep in mind your inability to control distribution as you compose your messages. Rude or inconsiderate postings (flames) have a way of returning. Without body language or voice inflections, it is often difficult for a reader to understand when you are being funny or serious. Short asides separated by pointers are often used to indicate unseen communications i.e. for grin, for big grin, or for very big grin. Emotions are often effectively communicate in text as well; :)= smile, :( = frown, etc. Additional Shorthand often used: BTW for by the way. IMHO for in my humble opinion (some people take the H out because their opinions are not humble) FAQs for frequently asked questions. Carrots (>, <) placed at the beginning of a line indicates that this line is a quote from a previous posting which the author is about to respond to. For any additional questions or concerns, send a message to the administrators at q-saints-owner@vector.casti.com and they will respond quickly. They are wonderful, sweet people who have not only been trained in the mechanics of e-mail and listservers but have also been trained extensively in charm and helpfulness. (We had to invested a lot of training in a couple of them.) So let them show their stuff! Welcome to Q-Saints. Enjoy and grow with us.