We are a fun and informative group. Our e-mails do get a bit lively and colorful at times. And certain days can generate more than 30 e-mails...but don’t let that scare you. Check us out and see for your self. You can sit back and lurk...or you can jump right into the discussions.
Don’t be shy, tell the group why you like DM, who your favorite character is, and where you are from. I love collecting statistics.
Please read the following “Terms and Conditions” carefully. This will give you an idea of what we are about and how we work. And what we like best is to have fun!
Unless otherwise advised I will set you up under regular mail. Should you wish digest, just post me back and I’ll switch you over.

DMAS TERMS AND CONDITIONS
(Diagnosis Murder Appreciation Society)
PLESE KEEP, COPY AND USE AS REFERENCE

CONTENTS:
® Who We Are
® How Do I Post to the List? Is There a Digest? Can I Unsubscribe?
® Do Subject Lines Have to be Changed/Edited?
® Is There Anything I Should Not Post to the List?
® Is Prperly Grammer and Speeling Importnt, Doodz?
® When Replying Should I Quote the Previous Message?
® I’ve Been Insulted! How Should I Respond?

® WHO WE ARE
Diagnosis Murder Appreciation Society including the Barry Van Dyke Admiration Society have been around since January 1998 with a membership now reaching over 320! We have members coming to us from all over the globe and some from as far as Australia and Europe.
It’s sad to report that after eight wonderful years Diagnosis Murder was cancelled by CBS this past spring. We still have Geoffrey Colo with us who worked as the Associate Producer on D.M. He also assisted Chris Abbott, Executive Producer for seasons seven and eight of the series. Geoffrey has been known to leave us with bits of information and will keep us up to date on the still to be aired movies (2 to be exact) which CBS should be releasing this year. MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
If the answer isn’t here http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/8489/FAQ.htm then please feel free to post the question to the group. Just scroll past the production credits and there are the answers.
Five star site ***** http://www.lgoldberg.com Put together by none other than the ex-Executive Producer of Diagnosis Murder - Lee Goldberg!
DM Detective Has it!!...Lost an episode...need an episode...forgot to program your VCR...dog chewed up your best DM tape? Not to worry!! Let Vanessa copy it for you...a small charge will get you to smile again. Post Vanessa at... Vanessa.barlow@gte.net

® HOW DO I POST TO THE LIST?
Once subscribed you will automatically receive mail. On average you can expect anywhere between 10-25 posts daily. If you or your server are not committed to this kind of volume then this list is NOT for you. When subscribed, one address will connect you to all members DMAS@talklist.com
Do we have digest (a collection of the previous day’s mail) in one long post? But of course, simply address your post to requests@talklist.com and put nothing in the body of the letter but ... subscribe digest DMAS.
Changed your mind and wish to unsubscribe, simply address your post to requests@talklist.com with UNSUBSCRIBE DMAS in the body of the message. Do not post this to the list, every post has a tag at the end on how to unsubscribe. Should you have any problems then post me directly at krysstar@idirect.ca
Please acquaint yourself with your reply options. When replying to the group you need only to hit reply. Should you wish to reply privately to the original author, then you have to ensure that the address is changed manually. This will eliminate any embarrassment to you of a post not appropriate for the entire group to see.
**Please ensure you read the following terms and conditions very carefully** INFRACTIONS OF THE RULES WILL RESULT IN “READ ONLY STATUS” AND CONTINUED INFRACTIONS WILL CAUSE “DISMISSAL” FROM THE LIST.

® DO SUBJECT LINES HAVE TO BE CHANGED OR EDITED?
Yes! Please make sure that your postings have a meaningful subject line as many people use this to help determine which posts to read and which to ignore when they are operating under time constraints. If you’re replying to a message and the topic of your reply is drifting from the original subject, then edit the subject line. When you do this, try and provide continuity between the threads.
Finally do not use deceptive subject lines that you think may help attract attention. It may work once or twice but if you keep wasting peoples’ time in this way, they’ll soon start ignoring your posts entirely. Honesty, clarity and conciseness are the best policy when composing your subject lines.

® IS THERE ANYTHING I SHOULD NOT POST TO THE LIST?
The basic rule is that your post must relate to the primary subject of Diagnosis Murder. This is first and foremost a discussion group for the series. Have fun with your membership, enjoy the various discussions, debates and comments. Get caught up in DMAS addiction! In other words we have some serious fun at DMAS.
O.T. (off topic) material to a *minimum* is allowed. Length should never exceed the DM topic accompanying it.
‡ You should not post inflammatory (aka flame) mail to the list. It is perfectly fine to disagree with people publicly, but be careful how you do it. Rudeness, personal insults and harassment will not be tolerated. Don’t air out your laundry for all to see...go to private mail.
‡ Never do a follow-up to the list with a post containing no more than “Me Too” or Right on, brother!” This is a waste of your time and ours to even pull up. If you have something of substance to add to the discussion, then by all means do so, but if you simply wish to express a simple agreement, then do it in private mail.
‡ We have members as young as 12, so please ensure your post is for everyone’s ears. Leave the descriptive, salivating posts for private mail.
‡ Do not post binaries (photos), attachments or other large files to the list. The list does not do well with attachments, they back-up the system and never turn out the way you had originally planned. Mail sent to this list is going into subscribers’ private mailboxes, some of which are not set up to handle really large pieces of mail. The easiest way to handle this is to post an announcement to the list with instructions on how to access the files.
‡ Please combine short reply posts (one liners) into one longer post. This cuts down on the amount of e-mail we generate and the internet costs for others who do not pay by a monthly plan.
‡ Do not post any DM fan fiction, story or episode ideas, these are best left for private mail. The reason for this is that we have a number of producers from DM on board and they are restricted by the studios to participate should we post stories.

® IS PRPERLY GRAMMER AND SPEELING INPRTNT, DOODZ?
What to you think? Grammar and spelling are very important in a textual medium, please try and use your spell check or dictionary. Remember your postings reflect on you, so you should be proud of them. Do use punctuation and put spaces in the right places around it. Also use capitalization properly. (NO SHOUTING please)
Again others will judge you based on both what you say, and how you say it so give each post careful thought.

® WHEN REPLYING, SHOULD I QUOTE THE PREVIOUS MESSAGE?
Yes! You should always provide some context to your replies so that people who may not have been following closely will easily be able to determine what you’re talking about.
However when quoting be very careful to edit the quoted sections down to the bare minimum of text needed to maintain the context for your reply. Don’t forget to cite the author of the original text.
To maintain a logical flow of discussion it is a good thing to include excerpts from previous posts, but it is almost always a bad thing to include the entire text of a message being replied to, be it at the start or end of your reply.

® I’VE BEEN INSULTED! HOW DO I RESPOND?
Ah, congratulations. You’ve never been properly welcomed to the net until you’ve been flamed. Your response can take a number of forms. The first and most important thing you should do is to take a break and cool off. Replies written in the heat of anger are seldom any better than the postings which inspire them. Revenge is a dish best served cold, as they say.Should the post contain inaccuracies that you feel need to be addressed, then it is perfectly reasonable to send a follow up message. However the ideal approach is to ignore any hysteria, and stick with the facts (just the facts ma’am). Be reasonable and rational, point out your attacker’s errors and their attack will usually collapse. Your reputation will survive but the attacker will be viewed as nothing but a jerk.
Should these outbreaks interfere with the interchange of ideas and mature debate then you may find yourself terminated from the group.
* * *
So play nice, play fair, and above all have fun! We ask that new members post (optionally) a brief introduction. Tell us a little about yourself, (where you are from, who your favorite character is and age for demographic reason).
IMPORTANT...MIME encoding interferes with the digest mails. Please turn off, here are some instructions for MIME in Netscape:
To turn off MIME encoding in Netscape:
1. Click on EDIT
2. From the EDIT drop down menu choose PREFERENCES
3. Under Preferences choose MAIL & PREFERENCES
4. Under Mail & Newsgroups choose MESSAGES
5. In the Messages window, under “send Messages Using 8-bit characters” make sure
the circle next to “As Is” is filled in. DO NOT choose “Use the quoted printable
MIME encoding”Any questions regarding DMAS please contact me.