Sandworms of Dune
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Saturday, August 18, 2007

Rules of Behavior

During our current SANDWORMS OF DUNE book-signing tour, we have been receiving complaints from many our fans about the behavior of a few outspoken, rude, and immature participants on the dunenovels BBS. It is greatly disappointing to us that a handful of individuals would resort to childish name calling, mean-spirited insults, and shouting matches with other fans who disagree with them.

In the years since the publication of DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES, readers have sent us thousands of letters, 96% of which are positive. Even though the vast majority of readers enjoy the new novels, a few people posting on the BBS have made the environment so unpleasant that they've driven away many fans who just want to talk about the Dune universe.

As a result, we have found it necessary to impose certain standards of behavior on our bulletin board participants. We want the dunenovels site to be a place for fans to gather and discuss the Dune series, both the original Frank Herbert chronicles and the new novels. It has become clear that standards of decorum need to be maintained on this site in order to provide a pleasant and intellectually engaging atmosphere.

All participants an the dunenovels bulletin board will be required to adhere to the following rules:

• There will be absolutely no personal insults or name calling, whether directed toward any of the authors or any fellow fans on the bulletin board.
   
• There will be no vitriolic posts or "flame wars."
   
• Literary criticism is perfectly acceptable in the spirit of reasoned debate, but chasing down and insulting other fans who have different opinions will not be allowed.

While the majority of our readers enjoy the entire DUNE series, some like only the original Frank Herbert chronicles, while some like only the new novels. We assume you like *something* about DUNE, or you would not be participating in the bulletin board. Those interested only in hurling hateful comments at each other will have to go elsewhere.

For those of you who have left the dunenovels board because of a prior bad experience, we hope you will come back and participate again.

-- Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson