Originally posted to the Lex/Lana list on Jan. 27, 2003

Hello fellow Lex/Lana fiends! <g>

I wanted to let you know about a new Live Journal community that Crude and I have created for all you LJers out there. It's called, perhaps not unexpectedly, "The Talon," and is located at http://www.livejournal.com/users/thetalon/.

The purpose of the community is to connect with each other and other like-minded individuals in a really easy, casual way. There are lots of times when we've felt the desire to share some tidbit or make some observations that wouldn't really be appropriate for the list nor on the site itself. The LJ community is what the message boards would be, if they were more user friendly (but the ads drive us -- and I'm sure you -- crazy). Eventually, we hope to shut down the boards entirely and use LJ as our sole place of discussion.

As you current LJers know, LJ is a forum that pretty much encourages all kinds of discussion. So while Lex/Lana love might bring us together, the extent of our discussions will likely not be limited to it. <g>

We've set up the community so that ANYONE may reply to any post in the community (unless the person who started the post has protected his/her entry), regardless of whether or not they have a Live Journal account or are part of the community; those who do not will post as "Anonymous," but can sign their name at the end of their post. So, if you're unsure what this is all about, you can totally lurk there and check it out before you decide whether it's something you'd like to be a part of. Please note that only members of the community may start new posts to the community.

More info below for those new to or currently part of Live Journal.

NEW LIVE JOURNAL USERS: Here is Live Journal's FAQ for how to get an account at Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/create.bml

LJ is a community-run Web site, and they've grown to the point where they have to be "selective" about journal users -- the criteria isn't all that stringent, but they're there. Right now, there are two ways you can join LJ:

1) Get a paid account (running from $5 for 2 months to $25 for 12 months). If you're not sure about how often you'll use LJ, we recommend getting the 2-month subscription for $5; after 2 months, if you don't want to use their paid services anymore, you don't have to, but you'll still have your LJ account and be a free user forevermore. Needless to say, if you change your mind again and want to go back to their paid service, you can do so at any point.

Crude and I both have their paid service for other accounts of ours, but we're not wealthy enough to have it for every single one, unfortunately. But we highly recommend the paid service; the level of customization possible is wonderful -- and we love having all those user pictures. We've tailored The Talon to resemble the Web site as much as possible, and maybe one day we'll cave and get a paid subscription for it.

2) Get a free account. As the LJ FAQ explains, this is done by getting a code from a current LJ user. If you have friends/family who can provide you with a code, we recommend going that route.

If you're completely new to LJ, we have a limited number of codes that we can give out to you guys; our only request is that once you have established your journal, to give us one in return, so that we can help someone else out. (Once you have your Live Journal for a week, you will be able to generate one code. If you'd like to keep a code to share with a friend or whoever, we recommend that you use that code to create another journal -- either for your friend or for whoever. After a week, that journal will also be able to generate one code.) This will exist on an honor system, as we have no desire/time to go about chasing people for their codes if they don't want to give them; however, if you do get a code from us we strongly ask that you give one in return so we can share the code with someone else in our little community.

To help make sure that the requests we are receiving are from legitimate Lex/Lana fans who plan to participate in the community, we will only accept requests from subscribers of the Lex/Lana list. Not a totally fool-proof method, but hopefully the extra step will help deter those who might wish to abuse the system.

If we receive a lot of requests, we may have to start turning people away (or start a waiting list), but hopefully with this system we won't have to do that.

CURRENT LIVE JOURNAL USERS:

To join the community, go to http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=thetalon and click on the link to join. It's that easy.

If you'd like, you can add The Talon to your friends list, so that any post to the community will show up conveniently when you visit your friends page. If you'd like to have your journal added to The Talon's friends list, just let us know and we'll add you. To protect your privacy, this will not be done automatically.

Once you join, when you update your journal you will have the option of posting to your regular journal or to the community -- make sure that you make the right selection! (It defaults to your regular journal username.) One thing is that you are not allowed to edit or delete your posts to the community; if you'd like to remove an entry of yours, you need to let us know and we can remove it for you (we cannot edit your posts, however). This is the way LJ has set up the communities -- if you know differently, please share w/ us! <g>

If you're currently a paid user (or are someone who has codes to spare) and you'd like to donate one of your codes, we will gratefully accept them to share with other Talonists.

Last thing: My username is giselle_mossant and Crude is v_crude (tres appropos, no? <g>).

Whew. I think that's it. If I've left anything out, you can visit the LJ post I've made w/ most of this info and flog me.

-- G.

Additionally, please review The Talon Live Journal Community Etiquette before posting. Thanks, and enjoy!