Most of all the information on the *Nados pages derive from the Freaks mailing list. Some of it is quite accurate, some isn't. That's life on the net side for you.
You can read the FML on the web through the far-out-nifty web interface at The Web Online.
For "a dummie's guide", read on. For know-it-all-users, skip to part 3.
A mailing list is a system which distributes mail users write to the list, to other users. In simpler words, if i write an email to a mailing list, that mail is copied and sent to all the other people that are members of that list, you, and our mutual friends, for instance. It's a very fast and effective way to "spread the word", which has its advantages, and disadvantages.
Before you write anything to a mailing list, you should know a thing or two of what's known as netiquette. Basically that means that you should only send things worth sending. Don't bug people with things they don't know or they don't want to know. Don't send private mail to a mailing list or use a language everybody won't know. Don't flame anyone because of their taste, beleifs, physical abilities or points of view. Be polite, be brief, be at ease, and use common sense.
Send an email to the following adress:
with no subject and the line
and perhaps
As you might imagine, you won't write your name in the name, but your actual name, ie.
After a some time, you will receive a mail from the list, telling you that you are connected, and that you should send a "first posting" to the list, introducing yourself. Do so. And get hooked!
It should be stressed here, that the mailing list system is a computer program, not a physical person, so any questions you will send to freaks-request@torchsong.com will have to be put in a simple way that the program will understand. The way you should communicate with the list server (for that's what the program is) is described in the mail you will get when you ask for help.
If you have anything you want to ask the real, live and in every way physical human being who's behind the list, send your mail to freaks-owner@torchsong.com. This person is Ken Bibb, who is a really nice person and won't bite you evenif you send him something you might consider a stupid question. Answering such questions became his job when he became the administrator of the FML.
If you get more mail about Fish and Marillion than you can possibly take, you can always sign off. Nobody will get offended or anything, don't worry.
To sign off, again send a mail to freaks-request@torchsong.com with no subject line and the contents
Remember that you must send this email from the same account that you sent the original mail from, otherwise it won't work.
Do not send an unsubscribe-message to the mailing list itself! It will not work, and people will get very annoyed.
It might be a good idea to unsubscribe, if you're away for the summer. Last summer there was an account that bounced all the freaks-mail back to the list, when the user had been away for a month. So we on the list got both daily reminders of what we'd written a month ago, and really pissed off. Learn.
For an (even) more verbose introduction to the matter, take a look at the FAQ, part one, which describes these things.
To join, send a mail to freaks-request@torchsong.com with no subject and the body subscribe freaks your real name.
You can obtain help from the same address with the simple request help.
The list address is freaks@torchsong.com.
To unsubscribe, send a mail to freaks-request@torchsong.com with the request unsubscribe freaks.