Guidelines
RollerCoasterTalk is a mailing list focusing on the discussion of roller coasters and amusement parks. Messages are not moderated before posting. Topics discussed include (but are not limited to) rumors, news, reviews of parks and general information on such things as prices, hours of operation and special events. Don't hesitate to ask a question or participate in discussion. After all, that's what mailing lists are for. Warning! This list can be very active at times! On a good day, this list will see approximately 35 messages, with a daily average of 26 messages. What does this mean to you? Well, if you're really in fact a coaster fanatic, then you'll have A LOT of reading! If you just joined this list for the fun of it, or you joined because you saw it advertised somewhere, you may not realize what you're getting into. If, for any reason, you find the amount of mail overwhelming, you have 2 options:
For those of you using AOL, Compuserve, Netcom and other ISPs that limit your mailbox size, it is important for you to realize the potential number of messages you will receive. Please try to download your mail each day to prevent the mail from bouncing back to the list server. If you are going on vacation or will not be able to download your mail for awhile, change your delivery option to "No Mail"; you can read the messages you missed on the web (see the Digest section for how to change delivery options). If, for some reason, your ISP bounces the messages back to our server, you will recieve an email from a moderator notifying you of the bounced message. If messages continue to bounce, you will be removed from the list and will have to re- subscribe. If the same address is removed three times, it will be permanently banned. Please be considerate. If you cancel your ISP account or change e-mail addresses, than unsubscribe from RollerCoasterTalk first so messages do not bounce.
While posts to RollerCoasterTalk are not moderated before they are sent out to the group, we ask that you refrain from foul language and be respectful of other people. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. We would like to keep this group as informal as possible. While we're all mature adults (or emerging adults), there will be times where your message is not received well by various individuals. This is the way of life and no one has to agree with your opinion. While you might not agree with someone's post or opinion, all we ask is that you respect it. Feel free to post a reply describing why you disagree and offer constructive criticism on their opinion, but starting a flame war will accomplish nothing but making enemies and possibly starting a long, useless thread. Arguing on a constant basis with others will no doubt mark you as a trouble maker on the list and you may find your posts unanswered.
In worst case scenarios you may find yourself locked out of the list, and if problems are consistent, you will be banned. We would prefer that it never has to come to that stage. In over 2 years of being a member of Coaster-Talk (the inspiration for this list) I only saw 2 people banned, both of which were going out of their way to cause problems. I hope that we can have the same track record here.
ADVERTISEMENTS OF ANY KIND ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED! Offending address will be permanently banned from any mailing list. If you feel you have a product or service that might be of interest to the members of the group, please obtain permission from the list owner in advance before posting the advertisement. Advertisements for your personal park/coaster-related pages are OK, but please do not post this more than once a month.
Posting to the list is fairly straightforward. Send e-mail to: [email protected]. All messages for RollerCoasterTalk have a subject that begins with [RollerCoasterTalk] - do not add this yourself! It is automatically appended by the mailing list software. This makes it easier for you to recognize any messages addressed to the list. You can also post via the web on the group site, but you must belong to RCTalk first. If you post via the group site, you are still responsible for using the correct posting format. When you post a message it is important that you follow the below guidelines:
(you will receive your own post, as well)
You can see how readable it is and this will make it easier for people to determine if they wish to read the post or not. Spell check your messages and please do not post in all caps. It is interpreted as yelling and doing it for a sentence or two is fine, but if your message is in all caps, it is unreadable and people will consider you rude and immature. Lastly, if you are posting a question, please give as much information as you possibly can. There are many knowledgable people on this list who can help you, and it will be much easier if you question is complete and straightforward. If you do not receive a response within a few days, re-post your question. If you still do not receive a response, change the subject line and/or modify your question. You may wish to mention in the post that you received no response. There will be times when your question cannot be answered. Don't despair, there are other coaster related resources out there. Another list member may be able to direct you to a helpful source. Or, see the group's list of bookmarks at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RollerCoasterTalk/links. These will direct you to informative sites that may help to answer your question. Also, it is important that you note that posted trip reports will automatically be archived on our group site unless you specifically note otherwise. We understand that some members may wish that their trip reports do not become accessable to the general public on this site, and we will honor any request to not post the review on our site.
If you have pictures, files, etc that you wish to share with the group, there are 2 options available to you:
NOTE: Some e-mail clients (especially MS Exchange) send a rich text copy (RTF) of the message as an attachment. This is shown as an attachment titled "WINMAIL.DAT". Please turn off this option in your e-mail client. If you do not know how to do this, speak to your system administrator or contact a moderator for help. When replying to a post, we ask that you reply to the list for various reasons. There may be others on this list who may benefit from the information. Also, this list is archived (see below). This will be valuable for those who wish to dig through the archives for questions that may have been asked previously. Of course, there are times when a response should be sent to the individual and not the list. If your comments are directed at a single person and the information will only benefit that person, then please reply directly to them. We discourage personal conversations on this list. If you choose to reply to the list, just use the REPLY option on your e-mail client (unless you belong to the digest; see below). This will address the reply to the list address. If you wish to reply to the individual then use the REPLY option on your e-mail client BUT then replace the TO address with the individual's personal e-mail address. You can also reply to posts via the web. Yahoo should automatically quote the message you are replying to, but you must trim it down as usual. If it is not automatically quoted, you are responsible for doing this by using copy (CTRL-C) and paste (CTRL-V) functions.
Quote the original message. Trim it down to only the portion you want to respond to. Do not quote an entire message only to responde to the last sentence. Enter your response below the quoted portion. Here is a sample original message and its reply (for brevity, we'll pretend the following is a complete message from Eric Griswold):
Now, notice that only relevant portions of Eric's post were quoted. He didn't waste space, and he replied under each related part of the message. Some people will quote the entire message and either write their response at the top or bottom of the message. Some people have even quoted an entire trip report and post a one-liner at the bottom. Please do not do that. Follow the above guidelines and you will find it much easier to follow a thread. If people want to read the original message, they can read the original! Some e-mail clients, such as AOL and Prodigy, place a subject like INTERNET MESSAGE or no subject at all in the subject line. Please remove this. You'll be contacted if your messages to the list begin with these. Persons not following these guidelines will be warned. If you continue to reply without editing the outgoing message, we will have no choice but to remove you from the list.
If you do not wish to recieve many individual e-mail messages each day, you have the option of either reading posts online on the group site or subscribing to the digest. The digest will deliver posts to the list in batches of 25 or daily, whichever comes first. This is the best option if you want to receive fewer mail messages and don't need up-to-the minute posts in your inbox. If you subscribe to RollerCoasterTalk via the web, simply change the preset delivery option of "individual emails" to "daily digest" mode. If you subscribed to RollerCoasterTalk via email and would like to recieve the digest instead, visit the group site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RollerCoasterTalk, sign in, and click "delivery options" on the right-hand side of the screen. Simply change the tab from "individual emails" to "daily digest" and click "save changes" at the bottom of the screen. You are now signed up for the digest. If you are subscribed to the digest, then you will have more work to do if you wish to reply to a message. First, you much copy the portion of a single message you wish to reply to. Paste it into a new message (in your email client). Address the message to [email protected]. For the SUBJECT, copy the subject from the original message, but put a RE: in front, so we know it's a reply. So assuming you're subscribed to the digest and want to reply to Eric's message (see above), your subject line (before sending the message) would look like the following:
Then follow the standard reply guidelines for the BODY of the message.
Keep in mind that outsiders (those not subscribed to this list) cannot post to the list. This is primarily to prevent spammers from posting unwanted advertisements. If you have a friend who wishes to SUBSCRIBE, have them send mail to: [email protected]. He or she will receive a subscription confirmation message. A reply to this messsage will complete the subscription. It is also possible to subscribe online. Visit the group page at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RollerCoasterTalk, click on the "Join" link and follow the directions. You will need to have a account established with Yahoo and either a valid Yahoo email address or another email address that has been verified in order to join. If for some reason you wish to UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, there are a couple of ways that you can do so:
NOTE: If you use an e-mail program such as AOL mail, you may have to put something in the SUBJECT field. Put "unsubscribe".
All messages are archived for future reference. The easiest is to point your web browser to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RollerCoasterTalk/messages. I do not know yet how far back the archives will go, but they will be available for anyone to look at and browse through. Also, all trip reports posted to the list will be archived both on the Yahoo! Groups site and this Geocities site on a Member-Submitted Trip Reports page. If you do not wish to have your trip report posted on the Geocities site, please make a note in your post.
-The list owner and moderators reserve the right to rremove a person from RollerCoasterTalk at any time for any reason without notice to the user. -The list owner and moderators reserve the right to ccensor and/or remove messages from this list if it is deemed unsuitable. -The list owner and moderators reserve the right to mmodify this document without notice.
If you wish to receive a reply from a REAL person, please contact the list owner or moderators (contact information below). We will make an effort to reply to all messages but certain times can be busy and we may miss your message. If you don't receive a reply from a moderator in a few days, just re-send the message.
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