Welcome to the Plaid Ranch House mailing list!

These are a few ground rules to help everyone enjoy him or herself a little more. We're not really big on rules around here, so these are the minimum we can get away with and still cover everyone's, erm, assets.

1. This list is for the residents of the virtual Plaid Ranch House. We started out on the Now Voyager mailing list, which used to be the mailing list for the Kate Mulgrew Appreciation Society. However, we are not affiliated with Now Voyager or KMAS, Inc., in any way. Never have been, never will be.

2. Anyone who is or used to be on the Voyager Voyeurs mailing list is welcome to join the Plaid mailing list at the discretion of the list owner . What this means is if you caused trouble on the VV list and the list owner thinks you're likely to repeat your performance on the Plaid list, don't count on getting on. This is a place for friends to meet and relax, not to put up with stupid fanboys (or girls). You don't HAVE to be recommended by a Plaid, but it helps. :) So far we've never had to ask anyone to leave the list, so we must be doing something right.

   We do have people on the list who have never been on the VV list; they have ALL been recommended by a Plaid list member. This seems like a good way to do things.

3. What starts on the list, stays on the list. Please don't forward posts to other mailing lists, chat rooms, online forums, other people who aren't on the list, etc., without express permission of the original poster. This group is really like a family; hence, sometimes things are said that are very personal to the parties involved. Please respect this.

4. NO POSTING BINARIES TO THE LIST. Especially no posting of obscene or pornographic .gifs or .jpgs. Some of us read our mail at work. :) Posting obscene or pornographic images WILL get you removed and banned from the list, without exception.

5. I shouldn't even have to say this, but NO POSTING SPAM TO THE LIST, EVER. This includes, but is not limited to, "make money fast" schemes, pleas for help, net hoaxes (a la the bloody @#$@% Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe), chain letters or any other kind of bulk mailing. Spam is bad. Spam really irritates your otherwise friendly list owner and causes her delete button finger to get itchy.

6. No really nasty flame wars. Civility is a virtue. :) We have been known to have heated discussions before -- quite often, in fact, and we are definitely not into censorship -- but name-calling and nasty remarks are uncalled for. Remarks that get "personal", are racist, homophobic, sexist or anything else nasty like that are likely to get the participating parties a little time-out. If you really feel the need, take it to private mail.

7. Please don't post excessively long articles or fan fiction to the list. If you have something you'd like to share with the rest of us, post the URL or tell us where to download it. This way, we don't waste bandwidth.

8. Try to keep the language mild in the subject line of your posts. We're all adults here; a little swearing is acceptable and even expected. :) But please make sure any swear words are in the body of the message and not the subject line. Again, this is to protect those of us who read our mail at work.

9. Send us those spoilers! But please post spoiler space for at least a week following the airing of an episode. This applies not only to Star Trek, but to any TV show or movie in general, especially new ones.

10. Please don't give out the login and/or password to the members-only directory. The directory isn't there to exclude people; it's to protect our members' privacy. Also, please do not forward anything from the members-only directory to ANYONE. If they need to have access to it, they'll have the login and password.

11. In general, be excellent to one another! And please, enjoy yourselves. That's what we're here for. :)