Copyright (C) 1999 by Stephen P. Masticola. All rights reserved.
		    Commercial use of any part of contents,
		   including email addresses, is prohibited.

		 ***********************************
		 * Welcome to the pipes mailgroup! *
		 ***********************************

Thanks for subscribing to the Pipes mailgroup! Digests are mailed out
as people submit things. (That varies from once a week to a bit less
often. But, the more you use the group, the more you'll get out of it,
so feel free anytime.)

If you have some unusual information or anecdotes of interest to the
Digest -- about tobacco, shops, books, or anything you think your
fellow pipeists would be interested in knowing -- please drop us a
line. Pipe collectors can use the group to buy, sell, barter, or find
information. Pipe carvers can find out about techniques, sources of
supplies, designs, etc.  People interested in cigars, tobacco
blending, or almost anything related can find compatriots here. If you
have questions to ask or anecdotes to tell, they're more than welcome.

Below are a few administrative points.


If you didn't want to receive the Digest:
-----------------------------------------

We try hard to send the Digest only to people who really want it.
However, occasionally someone makes a mistake. If your subscription is
in error, please mail me at the address below, and we will cancel the
subscription immediately. We apologize if this has happened.


Submissions:
------------

Submissions to the Digest should be emailed to the moderator.
(moderator@pipes.org, or the address you received this from.) The
not-too-demanding preferred format for submissions is:

- Plain ASCII, Unix style (no carriage returns)
- Between 64 and 80 columns wide
- Left justified.

Other policies about submissions are listed below.


What to do if you have problems with the mail or Web:
-----------------------------------------------------

The Digest is sent as a single document in plain ASCII, limited to 80
columns.  It tends to be 50-100K long.  Occasionally, mailers have
trouble with documents of that length.  For obvious reasons, we can't
debug problems at the receiving end, or give advice on how to use your
site's mail reader(s) to read the Digest.

If a copy of the Digest gets torn up in the mail, let us know and
we'll send you another. However, if you're experiencing recurring
problems in reading the Digest, contact your site's postmaster
(variously known as the sysadmin, sysop, guru, etc.)  That's the
person who's most able to help you.

For problems with the Digest's Web site, contact the Webmaster
directly:

  Web site:	Steve Beaty (beaty@pipes.org)


Resources:
----------

The Digest maintains a Resource Guide which contains lists of
smokeshops, mail-order places, clubs, other net resources, etc. Check
there for useful information, and feel free to add your favorite!

There is also a FAQ, a "How To" guide for new pipe smokers, and a
series of excerpts from the book, "101 Ways to Answer the Question,
'Will you Please Put Out that #(!&*!$ Cigar'," (Hague et. al., 1987.)

Back issues and most of the resource material are available on the
World-Wide Web:

	http://www.pipes.org/

or by FTP:

	ftp.netcom.com:brookfld/pipes_digest

Or mail your request to the moderator.

Thanks to Steve Beaty for setting up the Web page!


Cigars, etc.:
-------------

The Digest welcomes discussion of cigars, quality cigarettes, snuff,
Boer war cavalry tactics, etc. In fact, the Pipes Digest gets quite a
lot of cigar discussion (despite the name.) Feel free!


Subscription requests for yourself and friends:
-----------------------------------------------

Subscriptions by nonmembers will be mailed only to the originating
address (or trivial variants thereof). 

Current members of the mailgroup are welcome to request subscriptions
for friends. Nonmembers may only request subscriptions for themselves.


Address changes:
----------------

If your mailing address changes, please let me know, so that I can
continue sending you the Digests. Please send me both your OLD and NEW
addresses when you do this.

If you haven't received the Digest in the past month, please send
me mail, so that I can fix the problem. (If there is a problem;
sometimes, things just get slow.)

To keep the list from getting cluttered with non-working addresses, it
is the Digest's policy to drop subscribers if either (a) their mail
bounces twice in a row, or (b) their mail bounces with a "User
unknown" or equivalent error.  This policy is pretty standard for
mailing lists.


Flame policy:
-------------

One thing I've discovered is that everyone who smokes pipes, does so
for the pleasure and peace it brings. (Ever see a Pipe-enders clinic?)
I'd like everyone to feel as if they can smoke and chat among friends
here, just as if you were at home (or maybe in a more peaceful place :-9.  
So, to that end, antismoking rhetoric will be /dev/nulled, and flames
are to be used only for the purpose of lighting up. 'Nuff said?

So far, we've had few problems in that regard, though. Knock wood!
(Unless it's briar :-)


Advertising, "for-sale" notices, and commercial use policy:
-----------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to announce pipes, cigars, or other tobacco-related items or
services for sale or trade in the Digest. Such announcements will be
included in one issue.

Ongoing commercial concerns can be placed in the Resource Guide, and
in one issue of the Digest. However, the Digest is not a commercial
vehicle, and does not permit repeated advertising. 

Special events of interest to the members, such as sales, can also be
announced in the Digest. Please limit the length of these
announcements to 5-10 lines, and the frequency to twice a year or
less.

The Pipes Digest postings are copyrighted by the moderator. The Digest
may be freely distributed for any non-commercial use, as long as the
copyright notice remains intact. Commercial use of any part of the
material in the postings, including the names and email addresses of
the members, for any purpose whatever (including, but not limited to,
unsolicited advertising mailings) is expressly prohibited by the
policy of the Digest. 

Unsolicited advertising is also a violation of generally accepted
Internet etiquette, and of explicit usage rules at most sites.
Violation of this policy will result in removal from the list, and
also in whatever other disciplinary actions the moderator, and the
violator's site administrator, deem appropriate.  

The Digest also reserves the right to deny membership and Resource
Guide listings to any company, person, or organization which engages
in advertising by unsolicited electronic mail, excessive multiple
posting to newsgroups ("spamming"), or other such abusive practices.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the moderator will give
the benefit of the doubt to the complainant in such cases.  Please log
all requests for mailings if you maintain a mailing list for your
business.


Harassment:
-----------

Yes, it happens. 

>From time to time, some ignoramus tries to use the Digest to harass an
innocent person.  Usually, this harassment takes the form of a bogus
subscription request, with a nonsmoker as the victim. Other forms of
harassment have been tried; I'd rather not go into that here.

If you have been harassed by a bogus subscription, please mail me at
the address below. You'll be taken off the list immediately. If you
have been harassed in some other way, please keep all relevant mail,
and send me the details.

Anyone who uses the Digest for harassment will be referred to their
local system administrator for appropriate disciplinary action. We
support and actively protect the rights of both members and
nonmembers.


Anonymity:
----------

If you wish to submit an article anonymously, please put a note to
that effect at the start of every article you submit.  However, please
do not not post anything that you would not want to shout from the
rooftops.


Other Issues:
-------------

The moderator reserves the right to reject any articles which he feels
may put him, the poster, other members, or anyone else at legal risk,
or at risk of harassment.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


Sorry for the yucky administrative stuff. But, once again, thanks for
joining, and may the last puff always taste as good as the first! Hope
to hear from you soon.

					Smoke in peace,
					~\U Steve.


 U/~ U/~ U/~ U/~ U/~ U/~ U/~ U/~ U/~ U/~    |||_______{@}__)  (__{@}_______|||
(                                      *   *                                  )
 ) Pipe smokers will rule the world!    * *        Internet Pipes Mailgroup  (
( (if they don't run out of matches...)  *  (for all who enjoy fine tobacco)  )
 )                                       *                                   (
(  Web Site:                             *            http://www.pipes.org/   )
 ) Steve Beaty, Webmaster                *                  beaty@pipes.org  (
(                                        *                                    )
 ) Steve Masticola, moderator            *               masticol@pipes.org  (
(                                        *                                    )
 ) Web and mail sites provided through   *     Washington Internet Services  (
(  the courtesy of:                      * http://web.wa.net/, sales@wa.net   )
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