<<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