Forbidden Topics on DorothyL - The Official Website

Forbidden Topics on DorothyL:

Are there "forbidden" topics? Topics which have been discussed to death, are contentious and never get resolved, or are just a fact of life on the Net and DorothyL in particular? Yes! Remember DOROTHYL is a conversation that has been going on for over a Decade. If you want to learn what people thought about one of these topics please check the Archives. On the no longer short list of these topics:

Discussion of Awards Judging Processes and Solicitation/Advertisement of Awards Votes or Nominations. Please note that discussion of books that have been nominated for or have won awards is allowed and encouraged. So are announcements of award nominations and winners. What we mean by "Discussion of Awards' Judging Processes" should be pretty obvious: if you're talking about the judging rather than the books, you're in forbidden territory. That territory seems to be the flaming and insulting of the judges and that is another thing on the list below. Note that DorothyL is primarily a mystery readers' discussion. Writers are encouraged to go elsewhere to discuss writer specific controversial issues. Civilized discourse is encouraged. When in doubt ask a moderator before posting.
ALL discussion of the publishing industry which includes discussion about print on demand (POD), self-publishing, Publish America, etc. DorothyL is primarily a mystery readers' discussion. and discussion of the publishing industry belongs on another list.
Questions about Moderator decisions or Technical questions about DOROTHYL subscribing, unsubscribing, whether you've been receiving digest or not, viruses (see FAQ). All such questions are answered elsewhere in this document. Any problems should be addressed to the moderators who are in reality really nice people who will help you in anyway they can. We cannot intervene with your Internet Service Provider to alter their or your settings. You must talk to them yourself.
ALL Virus warnings must be passed through diane@kovacs.com *before* posting. MOST will not be posted to DOROTHYL. Full Information on these is available at SARC: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html FSecure is also excellent http://www.fsecure.com/virus-info/ and has good up-to-date info on real virus/worms and hoaxes.
Discussions of SPAM: meaning both the obnoxious unwanted email kind and the semi-edible foodstuff are off-topic.
Politics or religion of any type -unless its part of an actual mystery story or book - the moderators will be very picky about this.
Advertising which is NOT a mystery book or mystery event is ABSOLUTELY off-topic and will get you removed from DorothyL. Advertising of mystery books does not include publishing lists of books that you have for sale.
The place of BSP in DorothyL (Blantant Self-Promotion -- the act of aggressively promoting one's own books, appearances, etc.) Since most of the subscribers seem to tolerate it and some seem to really appreciate it, BSP is here to stay. We can't return to those BSP-less days of yore, and since further discussion will never bring about absolute agreement on the place of BSP, there is no point to discussing it. If you don't like it, use your scroll or delete key; if you do, great, but we don't need to hear about it.
Flamewars: not only is flaming others publicly inappropriate, but so is the discussion of who did what to whom and why. As our Mrs. DeWinter said: "Flame wars happen. People's feelings get hurt. Fight it out but don't waste time and digest space psychoanalysing why someone said what they did. This has been happening on an almost yearly basis and it's getting boring."
O.J. Simpson
Grammar that is not specifically addressing some specific aspect of a mystery book or movie: this is a mystery discussion group not a grammar debating society
Harriet "Wars" - Check the archives if you really want to know.
Posting of newsletters however marginally on topic is strongly discouraged.
Whether DorothyL authors get better reviews simply because they are DorothyL authors
Chain letters on any topic.

Other topics may be added to this list at any time. These topics are on here largely because they cause endless squabbling and hurt feelings -- we will NEVER reach consensus on them. If you want to see what has already been said, check the archives. Please remember that The moderators reserve the right to moderate on any posting or topic we feel is inappropriate. The moderators are the lawmen and judges of DorothyL. If you have a problem with a topic or feel someone is beyond the pale, please come to us. Topic vigilanteism is frowned upon. Most issues are dealt with by setting the poster to review until they confirm that they understand they need to read the Dorothyl Guidelines and abide by them.