<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> The Listowners are pleased to announce that we now have 2500 subscribers from these 40 countries: Anguilla, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA. With this continued growth in subscribers and the limitations of available resources at St. Johns, we need to remind everyone to read the initial files that are sent to new subscribers. These files let you know what information is available in reference files, the logfiles, and at our WWW sites. Each subscriber receives a copy of several informational files when they subscribe. Many of the questions a newly-diagnosed celiac may have are answered in these files, as are the guidelines for appropriate posts to the list. For these reasons we ask you to read these files before making a post to the List. Here is a summary of key points to remember: (1) This List relies highly on the use of reply summaries to efficiently share information. Therefore, when someone posts a question to the list, we ask that you send a reply directly to them and NOT back to the list. Then, a week or so later, the person who posted the question can make a single post back to the list summarizing all the replies they received privately. This helps reduce the volume of e-mail on the list while still allowing the sharing of information. When you post a summary of the replies to a previous question, please include the word summary in the subject line. Most of our summaries have been excellent within the last few months. A critical shortcoming is the lack of details on how to verify some comments. The poster's e-mail address or the source reference is not being provided. The major exception would be when a product is reported as being GF and you have evidence that this is not true. Please remember that symptoms alone are NOT evidence of a product's GF status; we need knowledge of the ingredients that can be supported and independently verified. (2) We ask that you cut and paste or use your mail program to partially quote a message when you are replying to it. Many people are replying with the complete text appended in their replies to the List or the poster. Try to include only a minimal amount of text from the original message; just enough so that we will understand the context in which your reply is made. (3) Your location is critical when talking about products. We are international in scope and this information is critical for determining if a product is globally GF or only GF in the poster's location. This information must also be included in the summaries. (4) Personal questions are never allowed on this List. A common mistake is to attempt to ask the List for John Doe to contact you because you lost their address or there is a problem with their mail service. You can use a logfile search to find someone's e-mail address or to retrieve a previous post you've misplaced. (Look in a post made on 14 Aug 1997, entitled "How to find previous posts", for more information. This can be found in logfile LOG9708B, or by going to http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/celiac.html and selecting "August 1997, week 2".) This also applies to requests for local information. We have several hundred contacts around the world that have offered to provide information about local services. They are referenced in support group files. (See http://rdz.stjohns.edu/lists/celiac/index.html#support for more information.) When this fails a logfile search for posts from a certain location can be found when posters include that information in the post. (5) Signature blocks must be kept small, about the equivalent of three full lines. Free services such as JUNO and HOTMAIL often add their own signature lines at the bottom of your posts, so if you are using one of these services it is even more critical that you keep your signatures short. Please remove phone numbers and addresses from signatures (these compromise your personal privacy, as well as taking up space) but DO include your city, state/province (if applicable), and country. (6) All previous posts are available in our logfiles. Please use a search technique (e-mail or interactive from the WWW site) before you ask a question. (7) Please keep in mind that product ingredients can change daily. When you state that a product is or is not GF please give a source of of the information and a time reference. If you avoid (or use) a product because of a personal reaction, then state that as the reason; don't make a blanket statement that it is or is not GF. (8) Posts should only be sent to the List in plain text format. Mail programs that produce fancy, "mime", or html formatting must have these options turned off. All that fancy formatting comes across as unreadable gibberish in many mail programs, and it also takes up valuable disk space. The width of your posts should be set to no wider than 80 columns; 72 columns is preferred. Some mail programs default to 110 columns or the width of the window you are typing in. These messages show up on the list with line breaks about 2/3 the way across the screen and continue with a new line. Sometimes these lines have spurious "=20" and "=" at the line breaks. The effect is a choppy-looking message that is very difficult to read. Please keep in mind that the goal of the Celiac List is to be another source of information on how to improve your GF lifestyle. It can never replace direct contact with the manufacturer, a celiac friend, or a local support group. For the Listowners, Michael Jones ([log in to unmask]) Orlando, FL USA Visit the Celiac WEB site at: Http://rdz.stjohns.edu/lists/celiac