Guidelines for the Get Smart Group

1. All mail should be about Get Smart.

2. Please read the FAQ before posting. Whenever new information is released to the list, the FAQ is updated as well. Rather then posting " is anything new?" read the FAQ to see what's new. Messages that ask a question that is answered in the FAQ will be deleted.

3. Be nice. There are people on the list from different countries and of all different ages. Try to keep the tone of your message polite, just as you would in face to face communication. As Max would say, "The Forces of Niceness should prevail."

4. Please use capitalization and punctuation in your messages. We don't expect perfect grammar or spelling, but you must capitalize the first word of sentences and use the appropriate punctuation at the end of them. I realize that there are a lot of people who believe that Internet communication should be casual and without rules, but I'm not one of them. I believe that we need to understand each other and following basic grammar rules allows for that. Anyone old enough to join this list should be old enough to form a complete sentence.

5. The discussion of politics and religion, except in relation to how they are portrayed in Get Smart, is not allowed on this group. This includes religious and political signature files or greetings.

6. The group is dedicated to discussion of the real Get Smart, not Peter Segal's Not Smart movie of 2008. Brief and general discussion of the movie and its sequel are allowed. No contests or promotions for the movie or its sequel are allowed with prior approval of the moderator.

6. No attachments should be sent to the list. The list software can not handle attachments and your posting will automatically be rejected. The best way to overcome this is to announce to the list that such items are available through private e-mail. For example, "I've created a Hymie screen-saver, anyone interested can e-mail me for a copy." Also, no fancy JAVA messages or messages with animations should be sent.

7. Your message must have real content. A post that merely states "I agree," or "I don't know the answer" or "Me too" are pretty useless. Tell us why you agree or disagree, not merely that you do. If a question is asked and you don't know the answer, please don't post "I don't know. We want the answer, not to know how many people don't know the answer. There are over 1,200 people on the list and if everybody just said "me too" to posts they agreed with, the list would become useless. Posts that are generally empty will be deleted without explanation.

8. Fan fiction is not to be posted to the list. If you write fan fiction, feel free to promote it by sending a URL and very brief summary to the list, but do not send entire stories or clips. In addition, each story may only be promoted once. Erotic or NC-17 fiction may not be promoted on the list. There is a separate list for fan fiction, run by the incredibly talented Amanda and I recommend it highly for all fan fiction writers. Instructions on joining that list can be found on her website.

9. This is an all-ages list so appropriate language should be used. Discussion should remain the PG range.

10. Please don't just post URLs or links to other sites without any comment. Whether it's eBay auctions, other GS sites, or photos, tell us WHY you're posting the link. What about it interested you? And we've all seen the Get Smart pages on IMDB and Wikipedia and other TV and movie sites, so don't post them unless you have a specific issue with something in them.

If you have any questions, problems, or complaints about the list, individual posts, or these rules, please e-mail me privately.