As the coordinator of the Mark Twain Forum, for a long time I've been
under pressure to change the format of the list from unmoderated to
moderated, in order that irrelevant messages would not be distributed
automatically to subscribers.  I've resisted this pressure for a long
time, since I've always felt strongly that an important property of the
Forum is that it offers Twain scholars and enthusiasts the opportunity to
disseminate information around the world practically instantly--something
that print media cannot do.  However, I've decided to yield to the
subscribers who are understandably frustrated by the non-Twainian messages
that appear here, and will henceforth moderate the list.

     Irrelevant postings have become more frequent, partly due to our own
growth (we've got nearly 200 subscribers), but mostly due to the growth of
the Internet generally.  Forum members have always self-policed the list
contents fairly well, with minimal intervention from me.  Most of the
non-Twainian messages that have crept onto the Forum come from elsewhere
on the Internet, from non-subscribers who've taken advantage of the
open-posting policy of lists like this one to spread a message to many
uninterested people.

     In most cases, the senders don't have bad intentions, but merely
haven't yet learned e-mail etiquette, since like all of us they've been
thrown onto the Internet with no instructions or advice, and inevitably
learn what they need to know by making mistakes.  It was trying the
patience of more experienced subscribers to see such mistakes played out
publicly on the Forum, and so they will no longer appear here.  I'll deal
with them behind the scenes.

     A drawback, though, is that legitimate postings can no longer be
distributed immediately.  Rather, postings to TWAIN-L will be forwarded to
me for approval, and will be posted to all subscribers only after I've
OK'd them.  I want to make clear that I'll be moderating only to ensure
that each message concerns Mark Twain; the value of each individual
message in this respect, however, will be left for subscribers to decide,
as always.  The only postings that I plan to withhold from distribution
are those that don't concern Mark Twain.

     Please be patient in the future, then, while waiting for your
messages to appear on the MT Forum.  I log on at least once per day,
usually more often, and so I hope that this time lag will be slight enough
not to inconvenience us grievously.

     I apologize for disrupting the format of the Forum, and I do feel
ambivalent about the change.  I'm very interested in your criticisms,
suggestions, questions, etc., and urge you to send them directly to me.
If you want to refresh yourself on what this group is about, get the
latest version of the MT Forum Survival Guide (last updated 7 February
1994) by sending a message to either <[log in to unmask]> or
<[log in to unmask]> containing the single line:

GET SURVIVAL GUIDE TWAIN-L

Please be careful to send this command to LISTSERV, not to TWAIN-L.  If
there's something else that you think should be put into the Survival
Guide, please let me know.  In the meantime, I hope this will be the last
non-Twainian message to appear on the Forum for a long time.

Taylor Roberts
University of British Columbia