New here....Pls Read This 1st

Welcome to the Xena forum.
I'm not one of the technical wizards here, but I've been on this
forum since the first season of Xena, and there's little doubt that
the success of the show is bringing in dozens of fans here every day.

According to the monthly statistical posts from Frozina, the average
number of daily posts here at the beginning of the forum's
existance was 53, Jan. 1996. In Jan. of this year the average
was 400.

If you don't want to lurk and learn how things go, and are hot to
post something right now, your first time in, here are a few pointers,
based on something of a courtesy code some of us try to maintain here:

1. When posting your messege, it's only necessary to click on the post
ing button one time. More clicks result in multiple copies of your
post appearing on the list, and at the same time, pushing other posts
off the bottom of the list, often before many people, who work different
shifts, or live in different time zones, can read them.

2. Add your E-Mail address to the end of a post and use E-Mail for
replies of a personal nature, for sharing information of a lengthy
nature, like copies of your fan fiction, poetry, etc. If you share
a family computer, or use a school computer and don't have an E-Mail
box of your own, you can get them free at various places on the
internet, including rocketmail at http://www.rocketmail.com
or hotmail at: http://www.hotmail.com
Also keep in mind that personal messeges on a public forum are open
to anyone who wants to read them, to not only other fans here, but to Xena
production staff, writers, cast and crew of the show, newspapers, magazines
TV journalists, and anyone who wants to look in on Xena fandom.
Is what you're posting something you want to share with the world?

3. If you really want to carry on a personal communication with a
particular person, get together in a chat room, there are plenty of
Xena chat rooms around the web, including:
Universal chat at: http://www.realhollywood.com:4080/chat.html
The Xena Pub at Ultimate TV at: http://www.ultimatetv.com
Worldchat Broadcasting System (WBS) at: http://www.wbs.net
If you're an IRC or AOL user, ask around for the address or keywords
to the Xena chats.

4. When posting a reply to a lengthy post, you can snip off the original
post from the reply, and save a little space on the servers messege
spooler, which regularly experiences spooler overload crashes, but it
helps to do what we can to keep those crashes to a minimum.

5. Spoilers....a spoiler is a post that contains a synopsis,
comments, or complete details of an upcoming, or currently airing,
Xena episode. However, as a syndicated program, Xena does not air at the same time on the same day or even the same week in some locations, as network shows. Some people like to know about episodes ahead of time and a some do not. Out of courtesy to those who don't want the surprise "spoiled", we denote a spoiler in the post title with these marks: << >>. A sample post title might look like this: <<Great Ep The Debt>>
Some folks also add a note or spoiler warning to the beginning of
their posts, and space down several spaces to prevent accidental
reading. Example:
This is a <<SPOILER>> Read no further if you don't want to know about
this ep before you view it.
*
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
*
.......Begin your post

In further consideration of those who do not want to know details of
an upcoming or current episode, please refrain from putting details
in your post title that give away the plot. Such titles as: "Why did
so&so have to die?" or "Wow, Gab has a child!" - are not appreciated
by many forum members. Use a little thought and keep your titles
from giving away the plots or endings.

6. It's not really necessary to do a lot of flag-waving to get people to read what
you have to say. It seems to be common for new members here to use numerous
small posts to ask or comment on episodes, characters, actors, etc.
With a little forethought, perhaps jotting down your ideas, we may provide
more forum space for others and ourselves, and save the spooler from
yet another crash, if we consolidate questions or comments into one larger
post.

Many little posts attached to your handle, also tend to make it look like the poster is
overly into seeking attention, which can actually turn people off from reading
anything they have to say. Past history here, has shown us that trouble
makers, (or trolls as we call them) tend to post in this fashion as well, so don't
be surprised if many little posts are ignored more than one well thought out
larger post.

These are not rules carved in stone, and no one is forced to follow
them. They are merely courtesies, that we can all practice toward a
better and more enjoyable forum for everyone. We all are here with a
common interest in Xena. A little common courtesy seems little to ask
out of respect for the common interest we share here. You might be
surprised at who takes notice of them. In fact, it was once mentioned
by Lucy Lawless (Xena) herself. Courtesy costs you nothing and the
rewards speak for themselves.

Thank you for reading.