About The List

McAnally's is the name of a mage-friendly pub in the Harry Dresden books, and this list tries to emulate a happy, "anything goes" sort of pub atmosphere.

The list is high-volume, and we recommend that new members lurk for a couple of weeks to get a feel for the general atmosphere, and the kinds of conversations that take place. Then, when you're ready to contribute, jump on in!

Subscribing And Managing Your Subscription

If you want to unsubscribe or otherwise manage your list membership, try the web interface at http://www.jim-butcher.com/mailman/listinfo/mcanallys first. You'll find everything you need for managing your subscription there.

If that doesn't work, drop a line to mcanallys-owner AT jim-butcher DOT com, and one of the list moderators will get in touch with you.

Finally, don't send unsubscribe messages to the list as a whole—that's unhelpful and antisocial. Try the web interface first, and if that doesn't work, mail the admins.

Posting Etiquette And Rules Of The Road

We hate having rules, but some are necessary to keep the pub a family kind of place where nobody gets thrown through a window. We're a generally benevolent lot, but these rules are not negotiable—violating them will both draw you to the attention of the moderators and get you a warning, and may get you summarily removed from the list.

Rule The First: Be Nice

Flame wars are not tolerated here. Nor is namecalling, the hurling of insults, or snideness.

For example:

BAD:

"That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard."

"My opinion is X. Anyone who disagrees is an idiot."

"I didn't do anything wrong. You started it by calling me a jerk, which clearly means you're a pea-brained idiot! I'm not sorry, either!"

"I can't believe you got offended at that. It's not my fault you're an oversensitive wimp."

"My opinion is X. Here's why:"

"I disagree, and here's why:"

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry I offended you."

The list moderators reserve the right to end a topic by saying enough is enough.

Rule The Second: Use Spoiler Space When Appropriate

There's a lot of traffic on the list about movies, shows and books where plot points are revealed and discussed. These are colloquially referred to as "spoilers".

A spoiler is a plot point which, if known or revealed, may materially affect someone's enjoyment of a movie, show, or book. It's hard to find a compromise on spoilers that makes everyone happy—after all, spoilering everything is overkill (if there's someone out there who doesn't know that Darth Vader is Luke's father, we feel sorry for you), but not everyone has read the latest by AUTHOR_NAME, or seen Buffy, all seven seasons.

To preserve list harmony, this is the current policy:

1. If you're going to talk about a particular work of fiction, whether television, film, book or other media, you must prominently identify the title in the subject line. For example:

   Subject: STORM FRONT character questions

2. If the item in question is less than two years old, you must do two things:
   
   
   1. Use spoiler space—a warning ("Spoilers follow!") followed by a minimum of 25 blank lines at the beginning of your message.
   2. Put SPOILER: in the subject line of your message.

   For example:

   Subject: SPOILER: ACADEM'S FURY Tavi's problem

As you can see, sane. Here's how it'd work in practice, using Jim's books as an example:

The Dresden Files up through Summer Knight (Book 4)—Rule 1. You can talk openly about them, so long as you put the name of the book in your subject line.

The Codex Alera series and the Dresden Files from Death Masks (Book 5) on up—Rule 2. You must use spoiler space, and SPOILER in the subject.

We thank you for your support.

Rule The Third: No Fan Fiction

No fan fiction on the list. Period, end stop. Sorry.

Why? Simple.

1. Jim can't notice it.
2. If Jim notices it, he has to call the lawyers on you.
3. Don't make Jim notice it.

Most authors operate under a don't ask, don't tell policy. If they acknowledge a fanfic (or fanfiction in general), they're taking a legal risk that the fanfic author could try to sue the author for "stealing" something the fanfic author wrote that happens in a book the author publishes later. This HAS happened...forget to whom, though. Bradley? Somebody like that. It's caused authors like Anne McCaffrey and Feist to go after people that write fanfics for their series. They'll have pages taken down, and go after webarchived mailing lists that have fanfics of their stories listed. So, bad news all around.

Rule The Fourth: No Casting Discussions

Do not discuss movie or show casting on the list. That goes for the Jim Butcher universe and/or any other universe. A casting discussion is defined as "Who do you think should play X?" or "I think X should play CHARACTER_NAME, he's so DREAMY!"

"But why not?" you cry. Here's why not, from Fred in July 2004:

This whole casting conversation has gone the way of "advocacy". By this I mean that it is now a conversation where no one is going to be convinced one way or the other, much like a debate over whether Windows is better than Mac is better than Linux, etc, etc. It also means that this is a conversation of a type that is guaranteed to escalate into less and less polite behavior, and louder and louder diatribes as it goes on.

And what it does, on its silent side, is scare people off. All of you on soapboxes, take a step down. Look back into the shadows of the pub. Emptier than usual, isn't it? The fact of the matter is, each and every time the casting discussion explodes throughout the list, the list loses another healthy chunk of readers.

I, myself, have stopped reading and participating in this list—save for stopping in to read whatever Jim has to say—due to the hyperbolic levels of message-explosion that occurs particularly centered around casting discussions.

I've been fine with these discussions in the past when they've been good-natured, but when I was recently encouraged to look in to what was being said on them now because of complaints I've received, it's clear that the conversation has stopped and the yelling has started. So no more.

If people want to continue to have casting conversations, fine—for one, there are at least a few fan-provided bulletin boards out there in the community. Go find them, and post on them. If you're desperate for email, I can create a casting mailing list that's separate from McAnallys.

But as far as McAnallys is concerned, the discussion is starting to make the beer taste skunky, and I can't let that happen to our pub.

Rule The Fifth: Trim Your Quotes And Write Responsibly

Do not, and we really mean this, reply to a 200+ line post by including the entire previous 200+ lines with something like "me too" or a paragraph of your own at the top. Lots of people get the "digest" of McAnally's, and it's a neighborly act to keep the noise down so the signal stays clear.

Include only enough of a prior conversation so that it's clear to which point you are responding. If you feel the need to include 200 or more lines, you need to rethink your posting.

Rule the Sixth: Other Forbidden Topics

We'll occasionally declare certain topics off-limits in order to preserve the health of the list. Currently on the roster of "don't post about that!" is:

• Politics (there are a million other places to talk politics; do it there, not here)
• Specific threads the moderators have declared "closed"

Who's In Charge Here?

The moderators/admins are, as of this update:

Fred Hicks (iago AT iago DOT net)

Ashton Treadway (ashton AT exeter DOT org)

If you see a list posting with ADMIN: in the subject, it's from one of the moderators. Read it.