Announcing the resurrection of SPENSER-L
Last updated Tuesday, October 6, 1998

Yes, it's back! After a long hiatus, the list has been reborn. I had thought about keeping the original list membership, but since e-mail addresses tend to change quickly (mine did, and may do so again soon if I find a better ISP), I decided it was easier to have everyone re-subscribe than to try and weed out the invalid addresses through trial and error. At any rate, below is the list charter; read it through and if you want to join, the directions are contained below.

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SPENSER-L is an Listserv-style list devoted to discussions of Robert B. Parker's literary private eye, Spenser (no, we don't know his first name).

• Discussion topics include the following:
  1. Spenser novels, as well as any other non-Spenser Parker (i.e. Jesse Stone). In short, anything Robert B. Parker writes is fair game.

  2. Published material pertaining to Spenser, but not written by Robert B. Parker (e.g. Spenser's Boston, the ubiquitous "spenser cookbook" project, etc).

  3. Other genre series, like the Travis McGee novels by MacDonald, the Elvis Cole novels by Robert Crais, etc. Of course, the focus will be on all things Spenser, but some digression is allowed, especially when it comes to recommended reading lists.

  4. Spenser: For Hire - The television series. Episodes, actors, anything related to the TV show (minimal discussion about the TNT cable channel, which currently airs the series, is also tolerated, but don't let this turn into an I-Love-TNT list, OK?).

  5. Spenser: the TV movies (also on Lifetime). Four of them have been made so far (not sure if any others are in the works). They're ok for discussion too.

  6. Parker interviews, signings, bios, etc. Anything Parker-related is ok.

• Stuff that will NOT be tolerated in any way include:
  1. Spams. Everything and anything about spams. For those of you lucky enough to have never encountered these, let me explain. A spam is an unsolicited message sent in bulk to vast amounts of recipients. Often, a spam will be sent to a large number of newsgroups or mailing lists by an automatic program (called a robot, or 'bot for short). Spams are usually ads for a product or service, and regardless of their content, they certainly don't belong on SPENSER-L.

  2. Any other message in a similar vein (ad for a product or service, or anything that is basically for personal gain). If you have something you want to offer to the public that is Spenser-related, clear it with the moderators first before putting it on the list.

  3. Flame-wars. Let's face it, folks, we can all abuse each other on our own time. Flame wars will be politely reminded not to do so by yours truly, ONCE. The second time it happens (for the same topic, that is; I understand that we all lose our tempers every now and then; matter of fact it happens to me all the time), I'll kick ya off the list. Debates and intelligent arguments are one thing, flames are another. It is better to keep silent and be thought a fool, but if you must open your mouth and remove all doubt, do it by private e-mail, please.

  4. Trolls. A troll is a precursor to a flame, usually a message meant to start a flame war. A good example of this is sending the message: "Kirk is a weenie" to a Star Trek list. You get the picture.

  5. I dunno, anything non-Spenser-related, I guess. Let's try to keep it focused, eh?

• Administrivia:
  1. SPENSER-L is NOT a LISTSERV list! The functionality is similar, and some of the LISTSERV commands may work, but there are no guarantees. For example, the "sub" command will not work; you have to use "subscribe". But I'm getting ahead of myself.

  2. The list is open and unmoderated. That is, anyone can join, and any list member can post directly to the list. There are list moderators, but we do not have to pre-approve submissions (and we hope to keep it that way). However, the list is not public. You must be a list member to post a message (this also helps to cut down on spams).

  3. With that in mind, here's how to join the list. Send a mail message to listserv@mystery.bayside.net with the following line as your message body (not the subject):

     SUBSCRIBE SPENSER-L (Your E-mail Address)

     
     Example:   SUBSCRIBE    SPENSER-L    HAWK@MYSTERY.BAYSIDE.NET
     
     Leave the rest of the message blank. If you have the ability to suppress your signature, be sure to do so. The list server will probably ignore lines it doesn't recognize, but why make it any harder?

  4. All list postings should be directed to spenser-l@mystery.bayside.net. This is the address of the actual list itself. Anything sent here will automatically go to the entire list, so make sure this is really your intent when writing a message to this address.

  5. All administrative messages (unsubscribe, list, subscribe, etc.) should go to listserv@mystery.bayside.net, just like subscription requests.

  6. Please note: You have to sub. and unsub. yourselves - we currently do not have the ability to add and drop via moderator e-mail.

  7. There are three moderators at present. They are:
     1. Mike Loux - Creator/maintainer of Bullets and Beer, the first (and some say best) Spenser page on the web. He can be reached at mloux@neca.com.

     2. Paul Ullucci - Creator/maintainer of CyberBoiled, a page devoted to fiction on the web (as well as an excellent Spenser section). He can be reached at spenser-pu@juno.com.

     3. Denis Hamelin - Creator/maintainer of The Spenser Audio Collection. The best sound bites on the web! He can be reached at dhamelin@uqac.uquebec.ca.

     OK, that's about it! We welcome you to SPENSER-L, and I hope you enjoy your discussions here!

     Slainte!

     Mike, Paul and Denis