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Netiquette

When replying to a post, only quote the portions that are necessary to ensure readers understand what you are responding to and delete the rest. This is essential when quoting from the digest version. If you are sending in a critique of a submission that is very large, also try to cut out any material that is not necessary to your critique.

When the topic of a thread has gone off on a tangent, please try to update the subject field to reflect this change. It helps us all keep track of what is going on, and makes it easier to find messages in the archives at a later date.

Sometimes, communication to other people on the list should be made through personal e-mail if the topic is one that is not of general interest to the group as a whole. Try to stay on topic.

Please respect the copyrights of our members. Do not send copies, whole or in part, of any manuscripts posted to our group to anyone who is not a member.

There are four levels of participation that come with being a member of our group.

Critiquing: Everyone must critique. You should be doing a minimum of three critiques or a substantial commentary per week, or two critiques or commentaries per each submission of your own.

We all want feedback on our work. What makes this group special is that we can and will give honest opinions, though we all strive to do so without being cruel. We aren't here to have unwarranted praise lavished upon us. We know our work isn't perfect and expect other members to tell us where we went wrong. Our Critique Guidelines will provide you with more information on the process of giving a good critique.

Writing: This is probably the main reason why you joined, so it shouldn't be a problem, but we all have times when we're too busy or too lazy to write. Keep in mind that at Wizards World excuses like these don't make up for your lack of participation. Even if it means submitting a small piece, make the commitment to write every week. The Submission Guidelines will answer any questions you might have about the process. Please read these at your earliest convenience.

Discussion: The core of any community is communication. We have no minimums in this area, but we would like to see all our members participate in offering advice, encouragement and personal knowledge to our discussions and conversations on the list.

Hosting: While you won't be asked to host Challenges as often as you are expected to participate in the previous three, it is still an important aspect of our group. Everyone must take their turn at the head of our most important group activity. For more information of what is involved in Hosting, please read How to Host a Challenge.

If personal circumstances do not permit participation at the required level for more than a two week period, please email the moderatorsand let them know about your situation so that arrangements can be made.

Please disable the HTML feature in your email program. Special formating can interfere with the readability of your mail on different e-mail programs. Do not use fancy backgrounds or fonts.

Also, when copying and pasting things into your mail, be careful that there is no special formating that will render your work unreadable. For instance, "smart quotes" or special formating such as "Ľ" will show up as a mish-mash of strange symbols and boxes.

To avoid this, save all your work as a simple .txt file, which will remove any unusual formating. Copying and pasting from .txt files shouldn't cause compatibility problems between e-mail systems.

Topics

Everything related to writing, writing technique, marketing, theory, ideas, the writing life, and so on!

Things to Avoid

Do not send chain letters, junk mail or unsolicited advertising to the list and try to limit off-topic discussions.

Do not post virus warnings unless you have confirmed that the virus is not a hoax by first visiting: SARC

Do not post in anger. It is better to let the moderators deal with any inappropriate behavior than to start a flame war. Notify the moderators of any problems you are having with list content.

File Attachments

While our list does accept file attachments try to avoid their use whenever possible. Some people must pay for their connections based on time spent on-line and downloading attachments only adds to their bill. It is better to include submissions as part of the e-mail text wheneber possible. For more information on the appropriate use of attachments please read our Submission Guidelines.

The group archives are an automated process that comes as part of the egroups service. Archives can be accessed by members only by signing into the egroups.com site and accessing WizardsWorld under "my groups". You need to log in to do this.

While it is possible to delete messages from the archives, the best thing to do is not send anything to the list that you don't want archived (or information that someone else might not want archived).

If something does make it to the list that you would like removed from the archives, please send a personal e-mail to one of the moderators. If possible, include the message # in your request. Message #s can be found by viewing the archives at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/wordwizards.

Note: Since egroups has been swallowed up by yahoo, you will need a yahoo ID to access the archives. If you don't have one, it's just one more annoying process to add to your list of stuff to do. Sorry, folks, can't be helped at this point.

Remember that the archives will be accessible by any members that join us at a later date. You may wish to keep this in mind when discussing any sensitive or personal issues.

Participation in our weekly writing exercises is required from all our members. You will also be required to host the Challenges every so often.

Challenge responses must be submitted by the following Sunday in order to receive "full credit" for the week. We do realize that longer projects may take more time and that time constraints can sometimes gets in the way, and we happilly accept anything no matter how late it is.

For more information on our Challenges you may visit the Challenge Page and our Submission Guidelines

Our group is focused not only on writing but on becoming published. We believe that you must set goals for yourself if you are going to seriously work toward the goal of ultimate publication. In keeping with this, all our members make a public contract with themselves declaring their personal plan in reaching this goal.

Our Pacts are as individual as our members, and no two are exactly alike. You will be required to compose and sign your own contract in the first two weeks of your membership. For help in creating your Pact, visit our Pact Page.

After joining the group you will be asked to write a profile for yourself to be placed on our website. This profile is due withing the first week of your membership. Your profile should include an introduction of a few paragraphs, followed by another section, which answers at least ten of the questions found in our Semi-Official Questionnaire.

To update your Member Profile please send the new information to xibarblue@aol.com.