Okay, so what exactly is the Venice Yahoo! Group mailing list?  Basically, it's a way for hundreds of Venice fans all over the world to talk to each other on a bulletin board that comes to you through your e-mail.

Here's how it works:  Once you subscribe, you'll be able to send mail to a centralized e-mail address.  For the sake of the explanation, we'll say you're on the English language list, so you'll send a new letter to venice@yahoogroups.com.  Every piece of mail that goes to that address will be automatically forwarded to every single person on the list.  Then any one of the hundreds of members can hit reply to that message and write a response, and that response will automatically be sent to venice@yahoogroups.com, and hence will also be sent to every single member.  And so on.  And that's how group discussions happen, in full view of the entire membership.

So what gets discussed on the list?  All things Venice, of course.  Favorite songs, favorite covers, stories about first Venice experiences, news, rumors, etc.  Wherever the band plays in the world, there's likely to be list members there, so we get fan reviews of almost all shows.  Band announcements are often made on the list, and appear there several hours before I get a chance to post it on the News Page.  Plus, several band members and members of the band's entourage are on the list, so if you have a question that only an insider can answer, ask it publically and don't be surprised when you get your response straight from the horse's mouth, as it were.  But there is no rule that says the conversations must be band-related.  This is a community of friendly people with a common interest that bonds them, and from that point, the topics can lead anywhere.  It is, however, customary for non-Venice-related posts to be labeled "OT," for "Off Topic."

Currently, there are two Community Mailing Lists.  An English language list run by Karin Cumbley, and a Dutch language list run by Marius Suiker.  Here's how you can join:

Still have questions?  E-mail me at matt@venicecentral.com.