All listees please note. The list mums are hereby issuing notice that there's a few too many nearly-flames flying around on the list just now. A "flame" is an inflammatory or personal statement about another list member that is practically guaranteed to incite an angry reaction of equal or stronger proportion. Lots of lists allow flames, or don't specifically rule them out, but the Sinister rules expressly forbid them: Public Enemy Number One. This applies to all list members equally. The lists that allow them sometimes attract fans for a little while, but as the arguments degenerate to two person squabbles, those lists often don't last very long. Sinister's approaching its fourth birthday, bless you all. Please do remember that you agreed to abide by the list rules when you signed up, and flames just won't be tolerated. Miss Print says so. Statements such as the above are often misinterpreted, and the list mums are very tired, so *please* try and understand before you shout about personal liberty: this is not an attempt to quash opinion. Sinister thrives on well-tempered, thoughtful strong opinion. Many of us will have our own opinions about the arguments going on here and the extent to which wires are getting crossed: are we *really* debating the rights and wrongs of a band doing a tour in a particular location? or the more general question of what responsibilities an artist has towards its supporters? or the tone of a particular email? I don't know, but please decide before you mail a response to prolong this thread of conversation, if you have to, and please try and make it a good-natured and open response with something new to say. Treat the list gently, it might break; and make sure you send things to the list you'd like to read, and would continue to read, from 10 other people a day. You get the list you make. There's also a lot of mails coming in at the moment: it's understandable with feelings running high, recent concerts, tours planned, and those mails about Ken jogging naked with a policeman's helmet on. Please therefore be particularly sparing with those send buttons at the moment. People will have a tendency to get fed up, or drop off as they are swamped with mails. While you might like 35 deliciously random mails (or jokes, or one-liners) a day if you've just joined, if you've been getting 35 a day for three years you might appreciate some gentle restraint or special thought just now as to the 1500 receiving your mails. Not that any of you aren't delectable. It's just, we need to sloooow down just now, because previous experience on the list teaches that this is the time when tempers get frayed. Special restraint please, including the tendency to talk about whether we should talk about it. And if you *haven't* ever posted, and are shy but have something thoughtful, or witty, or apposite to say that we might all like, don't let this put you off: you're probably exactly the person who should be chewing their pencil right now and setting to it. Meant kindly. List Mum Honey xx P.S. I said I'd take over again from surrogate list mum Linda in July. It's August. OK, I'm mum again as from this post, but Linda becomes list auntie who will sometimes come around to take you to the park / spank bums gently when required to as per terms and conditions, when I need to sit on the sofa and eat chocolates all afternoon and watch a weepy movie. OK? +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+