Review the FAQ's list here and read the archive of past posts before asking "general" questions like "how tall is John Corbett," "where is he from," or "how do I send him fan mail." Typical questions such as these have already been answered at one time or another.

The address for posting messages and replying to other posts on the list is johncorbett@yahoogroups.com

Keep your posts on-topic, e.g. anything related to or involving actor John Corbett, the characters he's played and the shows he's been in. If you have information of an off-topic nature that you feel the group would be interested in knowing, please put "off-topic" in the subject header. Please keep off-topic posts to a minimum.

When starting a thread, ALWAYS include something in the topic header relating to your post. The ListServ will automatically insert "No topic" if one is not provided by you. "No topic" threads confuse people and make individual posts harder to find when going back later to look up a particular post in the archive history.

Don't use ALL CAPS IN YOUR POSTS. It's considered "shouting," is hard to read, and it ANNOYS people! ALL CAPS should only be used when emphasis in a sentence is necessary.

Don't send attachments of any kind. Images and sounds are converted to miles of ASCII text code in the ListServ and it gunks up member's in-boxes. If you wish to display an image, please upload it to your own personal website and provide the URL link to the image's location in your post.

Don't send chain e-mail including virus warning posts.

Don't send joke posts unless they're relatively on-topic. Please use appropriate discretion with rude, tasteless, or sexual innuendo jokes. Not everyone will find such jokes funny.

You can ask for tapes of JC's shows on the list but please ask people to reply to you via private e-mail. If you want to respond to a tape request, please respond directly to the person making the request; don't send a group post out.

As the topics in a thread change, alter the topic header accordingly. E.g. if we start out discussing "Northern Exposure," and then migrate to "The Visitor," take the initiative and change the topic header to "The Visitor."

When replying to other people's posts, cut and paste the relevant points from their posts into your response. We don't have to read their whole post over again in order to remember what they said or to understand your reply.

Don't respond to someone else's post by saying "Me too!" This wastes space and people's time. A response of "I agree because..." is much more informative. Be sure your message is intended for the entire list and not just one individual.

If you would like to respond to multiple posts, please group them all together in one e-mail. This limits the amount of individual e-mails people receive in their in-boxes.

Do not flame other members! If you disagree with their opinions, respond by saying "I disagree because..." Keep personal attacks and petty arguments off this list; it's not why people are here.

Do not use racial slurs or terms that other people could find offensive. There are members from all over the world on this list. They represent different countries, religious affiliations and cultural backgrounds. For the benefit of everyone, please try to maintain a respectable amount of "political correctness" and present a polite demeanor at all times. In other words, use your heads people; think before you hit "send!"

Have a problem with what I or somebody else said rhetorically? E-MAIL ME!
Have a concern about the posts of another member? E-MAIL ME!
Have a concern about what I or somebody else said to you? E-MAIL ME!
Hopefully these are enough examples, but, if in doubt, E-MAIL ME!

If I am to correct a problem, or head one off at the pass, I need DIRECT input from the individual with the problem or concern. All members are here voluntarily. Consider this a proactive list. If you have a problem with any list serve you subscribe to, you should take the issue up with the list owner. Going to another member is wrong; they can't help you. If you have a problem with the list, but don't say anything to the list owner, you should just unsubscribe. Why stay and be subjected to a perceived injustice?

I hope this makes sense. This section was added to the faq as a result of an actual incident.

There's hundreds (if not thousands) of internet acronyms. E-mail me your favorites and I'll add 'em to the list. Here's a few acronyms commonly used on the John Corbett ListServ:

JC - John Corbett (DUH!) :o) LOL - Lots of laughter/laugh out loud ROTFL - Rolling on the floor laughing IMHO - In my humble/honest opinion BTW - By the way BRB - Be right back TTYL - Talk to you later TTFN - Ta Ta for now NX - Northern Exposure NX NG - Northern Exposure News Group DLB - Don't Look Back WBB - Wedding Bell Blues TS&P - To Serve and Protect DBNS - Desperate But Not Serious OHG - On Hostile Ground SATC - Sex and the City MBFGW - My Big Fat Greek Wedding

In case of crisis, do not blame the list owner (that's me kids!) Please remember that running this list is a hobby and unpaid. If unusual things happen (e.g., repeated bouncing of messages, delivery errors, inappropriate postings, etc.), they will be fixed as soon as possible. When problems occur, be patient.

List members who use freebie accounts such as YAHOO.COM or HOTMAIL.COM to access this list, please pay particular attention...

Yahoo Groups is now sending "probes" out to all e-mail accounts in the Yahoo Groups system. Don't be alarmed - all they're doing is checking to make sure the e-mail account you signed up with actually works and is still active. Personally, I'm glad they're doing it because it saves me the time and effort of checking myself. (I used to send out e-mails to all read-on-web users once a year in order to make sure their e-mail accounts were not abandoned, which a LOT usually were.) Anyway, what this means is, if your e-mail account is bouncing e-mails back to the sender, the ListServ is going to know, regardless of how you have your mail delivery set-up. When this happens, the ListServ will mark you as bouncing, remove your e-mail address from the distribution list, and you will be temporarily marked as inactive. It will then automatically send out reactivation requests that you must reply to in order to get back onto the list.

There are approximately 200 members of the JC ListServ at any given time. About ten different users every week have bouncing e-mail addresses. MOST are yahoo or hotmail addresses that have gone over-quota. All addys that bounce for more than 10 days, or users that don't reply to the reactivation request sent by Yahoo, will be deleted automatically. Note that this is not the equivalent of being banned - it just removes you from the list until you choose to rejoin.

If you are deleted and wish to resubscribe, e-mail me directly and I will put you back on the list. Since the attrition rate for members on this list is extremely high, I will not likely remember your e-mail addy, so do not resubscribe directly through Yahoo Groups. E-mail me FIRST! All subscription requests that go direct through Yahoo are ignored due to the high volume of spammers on the Net.

The easiest way to avoid bouncing posts is to use an e-mail account with a higher ceiling, such as an ISP address. If you do not have or use an ISP addy, then may I suggest you check your e-mail more often on the account that you do have to avoid going over-quota. Again, even if you are set up to read on the web only, Yahoo Groups will still know if your account is active. (I have NO idea how it does this, but it apparently does.) E-mail addresses that bounce for any reason other than going over-quota will be dealt with on an individual basis.

In closing, I want folks to realize that I have no problem with users that prefer to lurk. At any time, about 80% of the active members of this list never post. That's totally cool. Having said that however, I'd like to know that those who are members of this list actually read it, whether the list has 10 members, or 1000. I hope everybody understands.

Thanks bunches gang! :o)

List member Sharifa started "The Visitor" mailing list back on January 1st 1998. Through various BBS boards and fan sites, interest picked up for "The Visitor" after it was canceled by FOX. Sharifa and her ever-growing mailing list went to work. The list sent letters and tried to drum up as much support as possible for continuing the show on another station. (The group's efforts paid off when the Sci-Fi channel began airing re-runs of the series on January 3, 1999.)

By March of 1998, it became apparent that a separate list was necessary to handle the growing number of off-topic posts centered on John Corbett. Back in those days, the list consisted of a bunch of e-mail buddies who would cc everyone else when posting. After membership topped 50 however, this method became impractical.

In August of 1998, list member Sheri signed up for an eGroup's account. All of the then current e-mail addy's were entered into the program and we were off and running. By late January of 2001, eGroups was assimilated by Yahoo Groups, which required us to change all list e-mail and web addresses. All list functions have remained the same however, and all group e-mails that have been posted since August '98 can still be read by members in the archives at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/johncorbett/messages.

Send a blank email to johncorbett-unsubscribe@yahoogroup.com. That's it!

If for some reason the blank email you sent to johncorbett-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com doesn't work, e-mail me personally at D. Martz and ask to be unsubbed before you've waited a week and the steam is tooting out your ears. We're not here to trap anybody onto a list they don't want to be a part of.