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Start Welcome Message.
Last updated on: Tue Sep 27 18:35:15 EST 2005.

Welcome to the Bears Mailing List.

Read everything in this message, and then SAVE IT - you will need to refer to this 
information later! The moderators reserve the right to not answer any e-mailed 
questions that are answered in this message! 

CONTENTS:

WARNING ABOUT EXPLICIT CONTENT; THOSE UNDER 18 MAY NOT SUBSCRIBE
THE BEARS MAILING LIST
WHAT IS A BEAR?
THE RULES
ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
SUBSCRIBE
UNSUBSCRIBE
CHANGING E-MAIL ADDRESS or INTERNET PROVIDERS
WHY DID THE DIGESTS STOP?
RETURNED POSTS
MODERATOR MAIL
POSTING MESSAGES
POSTING ANONYMOUSLY
BACK ISSUES AND ARCHIVES
RELATED RESOURCES
ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY


WARNING ABOUT EXPLICIT CONTENT; THOSE UNDER 18 MAY NOT SUBSCRIBE
The content of this mailing list is created by and for adults; the content may include frank 
discussions relating to sex and the male anatomy. Those under the age of eighteen may not subscribe to the bears-digest; subscribers who are found to be (or suspected of being) underage will be unsubscribed from the mailing list. 


THE BEARS MAILING LIST
The Bears' Mailing List (aka "The BML") is an Internet mailing list created in August 1988, 
in digest format, for gay and bisexual men who identify as bears, and for those who enjoy the company of bears. The list is hosted at Queernet, an Online Policy Group service managed by Roger Klorese, and is currently moderated by George Varas. The BML is designed to be a forum to bring together those who share bear interests for conversation, friendship, and exchanging experiences, opinions, and ideas.


WHAT IS A BEAR?
The definition of a "bear" has been an often-contested issue, but today the definition is 
more extensive. The physical charateristics lean toward men of medium to stocky to heavy builds; facial hair (any kind; beards are most common), and sometimes body fur - all in varying degrees. There are also varieties of bear "species" for men with similar criteria, such as hairy slender men ("otters"), larger bearish men ("grizzlies"), younger or submissive bears ("cubs"), clean-shaven bears ("behrs"), and so forth.

There are books and magazines on bears that cover the issue more extensively. For the purposes of this list, we encourage the subscribers of our forum to use the previous paragraph as a loose guide.


THE RULES

01. The BML is a list whose topics must relate to bears and bear-related issues, as well as 
gay male issues in variety. Although the list is gay male-centric, women who share interests 
in these topics are welcome, provided they are fully aware on the decided orientation of the 
list. The tone of the BML discussions is determined by its members; those uncomfortable with discussing sexually explicit topics should not subscribe.

02. Both subscription and unsubscription requests are managed by OPG/Queernet's automated server, Majordomo. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you follow the directions given later in the Welcome Message for sending postings and administration requests! Sending the wrong requests to the wrong places delays processing and digest mail-out. Requests which don't follow the procedures run the risk of not being processed. You will also have to use Majordomo to unsubscribe (we won't do that for you). More information on Majordomo follows further in this message.

03. The complete list of members is confidential, and the moderators will ensure that it 
stays that way. Keep in mind that electronic mail is not in and of itself secure, so members 
should not assume their identities are completely secure from discovery. 

04. The BML is a text-only list - which maintians its low file size and allows
for timely processing of the digests. No MIME enclosures or attachments should be
sent with any posts (such as GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs, RTF files, MS Word docs,
PDFs, .etc). Avoid sending HTML-encoded email; the HTML will be stripped, so any encoded text or signatures will not come through. Subscription to the BML is free, but the communications technology to support it is not, as it costs universities and companies money for maintaining websites and bandwidth traffic. Keeping the BML digest as lean as possible helps keep the list timely and inexpensive for us and for our host, Queernet.

05. The moderators may limit or end discussion threads on topics that have gone on 
too long, or have either become redundant or lost relavence to the original post. 
We will usually give a 48-hour notice of a topic closing; will will end a thread abruptly
should the submissions regarding the thread become volatile, or consistently not follow
the list rules. There are no subjects relating to bears or beardom taboo on this list.

06. There are definite criteria that must be present in order for you post to be
approved for submission to the digest: a.) Messages must have a subject to be published - 
messages which are received with no subject or with a subject of the form "RE:Bears Digest
vNN nXXX" will not be forwarded to the digest (a good way to avoid this is to not hit "Reply" 
too quickly in your email program); b.) Messages with more included text 
(from earlier messages) than original text will not be forwarded to the digest; 
c.) Similarly, one-line posts (such as "me too" or "woof") will not be approved - 
(have more to say!); d.) if you have a signature for your posts, make sure it's limited to 
five lines - your post won't go through otherwise; e.) reply posts that end up quoting an entire digest will not be approved, period.

07. We suggest new subscribers post an introductory bio (which may be anonymous
if desired) within one month of subscribing. It may be as discreet or as
descriptive as you like. Introductions help to welcome you to our subscribers,
and we always enjoy learning about our new list members.

08. Postings to the digest must be sent from the account that is subscribed
to the digest. Our mailing list software keeps spam out by screening out mail
from non-subscribers. If your e-mail address changes, you will need to unsubscribe
your old address and subscribe your new address. If your ISP makes changes to your
mail address, you must change your subscription address to reflect the change. 

09. The operating language of the bears-digest is English. The moderators are
English speakers, and while they may have working knowledge of other languages,
they cannot read and approve messages in other languages for timely approval.
Messages in languages other than English which are intended for publication
in the digest will be accepted if they are accompanied by a reasonably accurate
translation of the message in English language and if they meet the other
guidelines shown above. There are websites that can assist in translations to
English for free; see the Web Sites under Related Resources below.

10. We do not repost copyrighted material - it is illegal. Don't send in
articles from other sources, such as the New York Times, Time Magazine,
CNN, MSNBC or others' published reviews or work regardless of origin
 - we won't post it. If you feel the article is relevent, either summarize or
paraphrase the article, and include the URL for readers to go to if there is one. 

11. Keep in mind that this is a private email list - not a usenet newsgroup nor a 
forum or bbs. You may not make back or current issues (in whole or in part) available via
your web site or to other forums, weblogs, and the like; nor may you forward it on a regular 
basis to others not on the list. If you do forward or repost the digest and its contents 
without permission, you will be unsubscribed. We may also contact your ISP and 
inform them of the copyright infringement.  (See #10 for copyright information.)

12. We don't post third party messages, except in very rare circumstances. 
For example, we don't post submissions for a friend who isn't on the list,
isn't on the net, etc.  We suggest trying the many free email services available
for those who may need an email account to subscribe.

13. Posts to the list should be within germane guidelines; in other words, posts
that are overtly rude, threatening, or inflammatory (aka "flames" or "flamebait") will
not be approved. You may get a warning or an explanation as to why your post was not 
approved; continued posts of that nature will run the risk of the poster being unsubscribed,
or possibly banned for the list. 

14. Posts are not edited by the moderators; but if the moderators feel that a post may be
on the border of being unacceptable, it will be discussed with the poster in private. Our 
subscribers are free to discuss any issues with the moderators. The moderators also 
may occasionally comment into the digests on various threads.

15. Bear-related businesses and clubs are welcome to promote their organizations' products 
and activities on the bears-digest within reason (keeping the length and frequency moderate); clubs and organizations may NOT gather e-mail addresses, URLs, and the like from list postings for the purpose of creating unsolicited (by the recipient) mass mailings
and marketing schemes. Members of the digest who are found to be mass-mailing unsolicited messages to other bears-digest members will be removed from the list.  If you include a URL that uses a verification service, please indicate this as a courtesy to readers. 
Pay-for-peek adult websites are not allowed.

16. We hold what is called a compilation copyright on material appearing in the digest. 
This means that anything that appears in the digest is the property of the moderators.  
You hold a separate copyright on your postings. No one may repost or reprint the digest 
in any form without explicit permission of the moderators. You may, of course, repost or
reprint your own contributions without our permission. 

17. All moderators' decisions are final.

Welcome to the BML!

Your hosts,

- - George and Roger


ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
The Bears Mailing List is moderated; it is our intent to provide a place
to discuss various issues 'bear,' and we expect folks to behave in accordance
to the list rules and guidelines. This does not mean the BML runs on autopilot;
we do read all submissions, and will provide assistance when requested or necessary. 

This list is currently only available in digest format. 
Subscription/unsubscription requests are managed by an automated server
called Majordomo. It is *VERY IMPORTANT* that folks use this to
subscribe and unsubscribe, since we do NO manual subscriptions to the list. 


SUBSCRIBE:
Send a mail message to:

    bears-subscribe@groups.queernet.org

Third-party subscriptions to the bears-digest are NOT supported.  Please
don't attempt to subscribe your friends, another account, etc. These will
not be approved. 

UNSUBSCRIBE:
Send a mail message to:

   bears-unsubscribe@groups.queernet.org

Also note that we don't permit subscriptions through email
anonymizing services, redistributions of any sort, nor any third-party 
subscriptions (that is, we don't support subscriptions which intend 
to subscribe a user other than the account sending the message to Majordomo).


CHANGING E-MAIL ADDRESS or INTERNET PROVIDER:
Wait until you've had your new account for a full 24 hours, and then
send a mail message to majordomo@groups.queernet.org from your NEW ACCOUNT
with this line in the body of the message:

   changeaddr old-address@goes.here

("old-address@goes.here" should be the former address ... it appears 
in your "Welcome" message.)
   
We ask you to wait 24 hours because it takes your ISP some time to get all
the bits for your e-mail account in place, and they're not always in place
when you get the notice from your ISP. If these details aren't all in
place when you subscribe you make extra work for us and we can't guarantee
you will subscribed to the digest. 


WHY DID THE DIGESTS STOP?
If you stop receiving digests, you should first check with your Internet
Service Provider to determine if there have been any problems with e-mail.
Having received their assurance that there have been no problems, you
should simply resubscribe using the directions above. We remove you from
the list if we receive bounce messages; we won't try to write you at that
address since it would probably bounce back to us. 

We also unsubscribe you if:
 - We receive a message that your mailbox is full.
 - We receive more than one message saying that the digest can't be
   delivered due to a mail/network problem. 
 - Your mail program sends us messages indicating that the mail we
   send you has been received.
 - You forward your mail to another account (because you are on an 
   extended trip, at a Bear function, etc.), and your forwarding
   instructions are incorrect, or we get an "out-of-office" auto-reply.


RETURNED POSTS

-I'M A MEMBER BUT YOU RETURNED A POSTING SAYING I'M NOT A MEMBER!
YOU HAVE TO POST MY MESSAGE - I'M PRESIDENT OF XYZ BEARS!
Regardless whether or not a moderator knows who you are, or if you are
known in the "bear community" - if Majordomo said you're not a member
(that is, if the Majordomo program can't match the address to one in
the subscription list), we won't post your submission. And please don't
send us mail telling us that we HAVE to post it, we'd BETTER post it, etc.
We will always work with you to try and resolve problems, but rudeness
and imperatives will ensure that we will not bother (and can risk permanent 
removal from the list).

- I SUBMITTED A POST BUT IT DIDN'T APPEAR IN THE DIGEST...
There are several possibilities: you may have sent the message to the
wrong address, your ISP has had a delay in sending outbound e-mail,
Queernet was unavailable to take your message (rare, but occasionally
possible), your message had a subject line resembling "Re: Bears Digest
V..." or your message featured an incomplete URL (complete URLs begin with
a protocol name like "http://" or "ftp://"). Ensure that none of these are
the case, and try again. 

Keep in mind that your post may not have been approved if it does not follow the
list rules! Check to make sure that it does - the moderators may not notify you that
your post was not accepted if it doesn't follow one of the rules given in the
Welcome Message (this is why we tell you to keep it!).


MODERATOR MAIL
Other administrative questions and requests should be sent to: 

   bears-owner@groups.queernet.org 

Items sent to bears-digest-approval are read and processed by us, but
please keep in mind that it may take a while to respond. Do NOT send
requests to the individual e-mail addresses of the moderators; it delays service,
and we will not guarantee a response.  Also, please do not phone
the moderators or email them at their personal email addresses. 

   
POSTING MESSAGES
Anything sent to "bears@groups.queernet.org" will be forwarded to the entire
membership of the list in the next available digest (after reviewing
it to ensure it meets the guidelines).


POSTING ANONYMOUSLY
Subscribers may post anonymously if they wish. When posting anonymously,
you MUST use this special posting address:

   bears-anonymous@queernet.org

You should also use a unique pseudonym in either the text or the subject of
the message; this helps make discussions clearer. We will remove headers
and obvious identifying information and post your anonymous message with
your pseudonym. Messages posted anonymously should not solicit e-mail
replies. 

If your post is bounced back from bears-anonymous or if it does not work, email the moderators  at bears-owner@groups.queernet.org , and we'll post it anonymously for you.


BACK ISSUES AND ARCHIVES
We currently do have back issues or archives up for our list; we will notify the list when these
are available.


RELATED RESOURCES
The details about sites and services described below are provided on an
"for your information" basis. The folks who operate these facilities
support them; contact them directly for assistance. 

Unless otherwise noted, the following sites are *NOT* supported by those
who support Bears Digest.

- Babel Fish Translation: http://babelfish.altavista.com/
  Free translation blocks of text or web pages between English and
  nine different languages.

- PawzBears: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PawzBears/
  This group has been established to have a forum for discussion of HIV
  issues in the bear community, and to create a community for HIV+ bears.

- Cigar Studs: http://cs.queernet.org/
  The premiere e-mail list for Gay Cigar Smokers - over 1000 cigar smoking & 
  cigar loving men online since 1994.

- PlanetOUT: http://www.planetout.com/
  The Web's best site for news, resources, travel, shopping, and information
  for the gay & lesbian community.

- Bear Radio Network: http://bearradio.net/
  Launched in the October of 2003, Bear Radio Network is a webcast featuring
  some of the best gay, lesbian and gay friendly  artists on the net. Our
  objective is to introduce our audience to a diverse selection of music,
  an alternative to the pure techno/house format.

- Resources for Bears:  http://www.resourcesforbears.com/
  A full resources site with profiles, club listings, calendars, online services
  and bear-friendly businesses, as well as reference guides and the latest bear-related
  news. Serving the bear community since 1994.


ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
The Bears Mailing List (aka "The BML") was started in August 1988 by 
Steve Dyer and Brian Gollum.
The BML is hosted by Queernet, which is run and administrated by Roger Klorese. 
Henry Mensch would later became the moderator of the list. 
In 1996, Bob Thurman and Steve Arrants joined as moderators. 
Henry Mensch stepped down from his list duties in May 1997.
Steve Arrants stepped down from his list duties in October 1998.
Alex Schell joined as moderator.
Bob Thurman stepped down from his duties in October 1999.
Dave Wilson joined as moderator.
Dave Wilson left his list duties without notice in November 2003.
George Varas joined as moderator.
  
End Welcome Message.
27 September 2005.

For assistance, please contact the groups.queernet.org administrators.

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