no more cryptozoology threads, please

["Mickey P. Rowe" <mrowe@indiana.edu>]

It's apparently been six months:

http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/1999Jan/msg00245.html

since the last time I asked people not to get into discussions of
cryptozoology here, so I guess it's time to say it again.  If you want
to discuss the subject of Thylacines or any other supposedly
non-extinct extinct animal, please take your discussion to the skeptix
list:

http://www.netspace.org/cgi-bin/lwgate/skeptix

It might also be a good idea to discuss ethics and other such totally
non-dinosaur-science topics elsewhere.  Therefore I'm declaring a
moratorium on all threads spun off of the Huia bird cloning message.
If you feel you *must* address something on that thread here do so
within the next 24 hours (i.e., before 1:30 PM EST or 6:30 PM
Greenwich mean time) or face a week-long time out from posting to the
list.

While I'm here I'd like to reinforce a couple of points.  If you want
to know how to unsubscribe, please see:

http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/~mrowe/dinosaur-administrivia.html

That document also has other potentially useful information about the
list, so if you haven't yet seen it you should consider looking at it
whether you're trying to unsubscribe or not.

One thing you'll notice (or should have noticed) there is that we try
to keep this list focussed on science related to dinosaurs.  We give a
fair amount of leeway, particularly with respect to paleontological
questions about other animals (e.g., questions and answers about
_Dunkleosteus_ are perfectly acceptable).  However, if you've drifted
so far off topic that you feel a need to make a joke by writing
"dinosaur" to claim you've stayed on topic, you probably shouldn't be
sending your message to this list.

Finally, I'd like to reinforce the seriousness with which we deal with
issues pertaining to the sale of fossils.  Please do not submit
messages which cite specific information about who is trying to sell
what fossils, and especially don't provide enough information to allow
someone to easily contact a dealer in order to acquire real fossil
material.  You may love or hate this policy to your heart's content,
but in either case we've carved a line in the shale on this issue.
See the above administrivia URL for more specifics if you're not clear
on the rules here.  As always, if you have any comments at all about
the administration of this list, take them up with me or Mary
(MKirkaldy@aol.com).  Do *_NOT_* write to the list about list
administration without clearing it with us first.  Messages about the
list are not messages about dinosaur science...

Thanks for your cooperation,

--
Mickey Rowe     (mrowe@indiana.edu)