Hi everyone --

I apologize for overriding everyone's "no email" setting for this
special announcement, I will NOT be making a habit of doing so in the
future!

I wanted to let everyone know that I have staged a bloodless coup and
seized control of the laser_design group on Yahoo! Groups. If enough
of you are still interested, I will be returning this group to an
active, well-moderated, and well-promoted group.

If you don't know me, I am the owner and moderator of several Yahoo!
groups related to lasertag, chief amongst them my flagship group
LazerTagTeamOps:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LazerTagTeamOps/
As can be seen there, I am also an established active inventor of
lasertag systems, and a participating member in the sport.

There will be a lot of changes happening in this laser_design group if
people want to keep it alive, some of which have already happened:
(1) We will be abandoning the old requirement that people
post/contribute regularly or face expulsion (a little draconian, don't
you agree?).
(2) We will no longer be spamming everyone with a copy of the
"community standards" file every week or two.
(3) New members will be moderated until they have proven themselves
to have some reasonable connection to the sport by posting relevant
on-topic messages.
(4) All back copies of spam messages have been deleted from the
archives. That was 120 messages out of a total of 270 in the
archives! Man this place had been growing some weeds...
(5) All "members" who have spammed the group in the bast have been
removed and banned, and those who had Yahoo ID's have been reported to
Yahoo for termination of their accounts. I don't tolerate spam.
(6) Any attempt to upload porn, viruses, or any other such garbage to
the group will be handled same as the above spammers, but with the
added penalty of the fact that I *will* report the abuser to law
enforcement as well since this group is exposed to underage children.
I am not kidding, I have several friends in law enforcement and I
know who to take this kind of junk to. I have below-zero tolerance
for perverts.

The following is a list of members who have just been banned (and
where appropriate, reported to Yahoo) for past spamming -- they will
never be allowed to rejoin this or any other Yahoo! group which I own
or moderate:

junelle-coyne493@...
junelle-coyne337@...
domenique-mcnally178@...
nuala-alexander990@...
muriel-berggren203@...
dorie-chabot746@...
chani-kopnicky833@...
steelie-mcmath656@...
lily-gannaway498@...
nuala-alexander253@...
erika-haven851@...
junelle-coyne515@...
sherry-heath340@...
barbi-elizabeth157@...
kayarna.lopez6550@...
brenda-warnes339@...
ireshnarada@...
sexyjoy3380 <sexyjoy3380@...>
karenpassion0243 <karenpassion0243@...>
juliafriends5325 <juliafriends5325@...>
bikerguyjjryerygy <bikerguyjjryerygy@...>
bikerguyz0321 <bikerguyz0321@...>
buckphones <buckphones@...>
waholic <waholic@...>
ninabywm0 <ninabywm0@...>
jprohof88 <jprohof88@...>
cegdwdv107 <cegdwdv107@...>
dfgdfg34love <dfgdfg34love@...>
btfezymtpwa <btfezymtpwa@...>
arem_29 <arem_29@...>
smitha_electronic <smitha_electronic@...>

If any of you manage other yahoo groups, I suggest you put all those
names on your banned list as well.

So while our membership has just dropped from 105 to 79 members (some
had already left after spamming), we have hopefully just made quite an
improvement!

-- Brian Farley, aka TagFerret