DCI mailing list protocol

Helpful Hints — the Summary

• Please let Official sources answer rules questions.
  (Probably the most common faux-pas among those new to this list.)
• Maintain focus:
  • General judging questions and discussion belong on the DCI Judge list.
  • Questions about Magic rules belong on the Magic rules list.
  • Questions about Dreamblade rules belong on the Dreamblade rules list.
  • Questions about scorekeeping or issues with DCI Reporter - yep, there's a forum for that (just not a mailing list).
• Don't talk about DQs or Investigations in public.
• Follow procedures for handling a DQ.
• Charges of misconduct (by judges, players, organizers, employees) - not on any of these lists, please.
• Check the list archives before you ask your question.
• If you think you see a mistake, please contact the poster — privately.
• Until a new set is released, we don't discuss the new stuff.
• Many questions are answered quickly, most within 24 hours.
• Repeating a question won't help us answer the really tough ones - patience, please.
• If you set an autoreply of some kind, make sure it doesn't go to the mailing list.
• Be careful not to respond to the mailing list when you mean to respond to one person.
• Please use plain text, not HTML - some e-mail clients are less forgiving than others.
• Attachments and viruses cause problems - please, avoid either.
• Think before you post.

List Protocol — in more detail

Mailing list purposes

• The purpose of the rules lists is to provide accurate answers to rules questions, for reference by judges everywhere. As such, all rules questions will be answered by the list NetRep (currently Gavin Duggan for MTGRULES-L, Scott Marshall for DCIJUDGE-L, and Jeff Vondruska for DBMRULES-L), though visiting NetReps (Lee Sharpe, Jeff Jordan, for example) will also answer on occasion. Official answers and information may also be provided by various members of the DCI when it's appropriate; these are recognizable as they come from @wizards.com (John Carter as the most common example).

  If what's listed in the above paragraph doesn't apply to you - don't answer rules questions. At all. (That includes posting the rules that you think apply to or answer the question.) Even if you're correct, we still have to provide the [O]fficial answer, which creates more traffic and larger Digests.

• The discussion of philosophy, policy and procedure is best carried out on DCIJUDGE-L. As much as possible the people and places are irrelevant to the discussion of philosophy and procedure and should be omitted.
• Anyone can participate in open discussions, where people ask for opinions on issues (more common on DCIJUDGE-L than the Rules lists). If you have something useful to say, please do - your opinion is valuable, and helps us foster a sense of global community.
• MTGRULES-L is for questions about the rules and card interactions; most Magic rules questions are OK to post, but exploring unlikely corner cases is better done in other forums, such as:
  • Wizards.com community forums - both Magic and Dreamblade have Rules Q&A forums
  • the MTG-L mailing list
  • the USENET newsgroup (rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules)
  • the EFNet IRC channels #mtgjudge or #dreamblade
  If you're unsure which list is appropriate for your question, consider these examples:
  • how split cards interact with an effect that looks for CMC - MTGRULES-L is good
  • how 3 copies of Opalescence interact with Humility and other enchantments when Replenish is played - that's one of those "corner cases" mentioned above...
  • how to handle Top 8 booster draft - DCIJUDGE-L
  • what infraction applies to a Dreamblade player's mistake - yep, DCIJUDGE-L again
  • how Chaos Puppeteer interacts with Brighthammer Avenger - DBMRULES-L
  • reporting an issue or asking a how-to question about DCI Reporter - Wizards' message boards (see below)
  If you're still unsure, consider contacting judges that have mentored you in the past.
  

  Mailing list ettiquette

• All DQs are investigations.
• Until DQ investigations are completed the details of a particular DQ will not be discussed.
• To expedite investigations judges need to file DQ reports: DCI Judge Center — Investigations
• More information, or "off-line reporting", via the previous DQ procedures doc: (PDF format)
  All DQs will be entered into DCI Reporter.
  (Note that, per the new Penalty Guide, at Regular events, only Unsporting Conduct DQs require DQ reports via the Judge Center. At Competivite or Professional REL events, all DQs will be reported.)
• If you have 3rd party information on a DQ, file a DQ-Report as above.
• Do not post charges of misconduct by player, judges, organizers, or employees to any list.
• If you have a concern about the conduct of a judge contact John Carter at Wizards of the Coast; if you have a concern about an organizer contact your territory manager, local office, or if you don't know how - then Carter.
• Challenging the decision of another judge without a first-hand account is improper and potentially leads to flaming. Without the full story, no one should be passing judgement on a situation. If you heard of an odd ruling you'd like to confirm or correct, please stick to the particulars — no need for names, places, dates.
• Please don't post questions related to rules not released yet (relevant near prereleases). They will be ignored unless the answer is both obvious and applicable to existing cards. The Prerelease rules primer is usually published the week before the prerelease, and the detailed FAQ shortly after the prerelease is done. Please hold your questions until then.
• If you think someone has posted a wrong answer, send us a private email and we'll sort it out. Odds are someone else has also noticed it, and it does us no good having several "You were wrong!" mails posted.
• Flames are a big no-no. If you don't have something positive to say — don't. You're welcome to disagree with what has been said by others, and to share your opinion in a respectful, dignified, constructive manner. Just posting "that's wrong!" doesn't help and isn't acceptable.
• The lists consist of English-language posts. Not everyone has English as their first language; please post anyway, and we'll all do our best to understand each other.

Proper post content/subject/titles

• Post in plain text only! Not all of us can read HTML, etc.
• Please include your name, location and your judge level at the bottom of your posts. (Obviously, every judge can have something worthwhile to say, regardless of level.) Listing your info just helps build a sense of community.
• Using email addresses or signature lines with a nickname, pseudonym or other "handle" comes across as unprofessional when you post to the list. Judges use names to contact each other through the judge center, and know who they're talking with at or after events. Whenever possible, list your real name in both your email client's Sender Name (From:) field, and in your signature (with your location and level as above, if you'd like).
• Keep subjects meaningful. All posts are archived (links below), and the ability to look things up later is useful.
• Please include a very short description in the subject when posting, and try to keep the subject whenever you reply. If you're digest mode, the original subject will be listed as "Subject: xxx" right above the post in question. Most mail software will let you edit the suggested subject.
• Especially if you are in Digest Mode (receiving one collection of mails each day), PLEASE
  • Edit the subject to match what you're replying to. If you're posting a new question, please use a new subject, DO NOT use the digest subject in replies. We will always follow up using the same subject, to keep threads intact, so having good subjects in the first place helps a lot.
  • Edit your post to only include the relevant parts when you reply to a post. Anything in a post to the list will be included in the next digest, if everyone includes the previous digest in their replies, the list grows exponentially.
  • Realize that people may have answered something before you want to answer. Many of us get all the mails posted to the list right after they're posted, and sometimes the answer you want to give may already have been given. If you want to follow the list action in "real time", either set your list option to NODIG (No Digest, see below), or follow the list on the web at
    • DCI Judge mailing list
    • Magic rules mailing list
    • Dreamblade rules mailing list
    • DCI Reporter mailing list (no longer active, archives still available)

  Controlling your mailing list subscription

• The mailing lists are often used to send out announcements, such as sponsorship applications. If you "reply" to this message, your sponsorship application will go to the entire DCI mailing list.. a waste of their time. Be careful to check the "To" address before hitting send on an email reply from the list.
• Some of you have set "Reply-To" on your posts, such that when we reply to a list post it goes to you only; please, disable that for these lists.
• Some mail clients or company mail servers will allow you to set an "autoreply" or "away message" which is sent back to anyone who mails you. If you enable this, set your autoreply to not post to the judge list address, or set your list options to NOMAIL.
• The following commands can be sent in an e-mail to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM to modify your list options; these examples are for the Judge List, but you can substitute MTGRULES-L or DBMRULES-L, etc., for DCIJUDGE-L:
  • SIGNOFF DCIJUDGE-L ... will unsubscribe you.
  • SET DCIJUDGE-L MAIL/NOMAIL ... will start or stop whether the lists sends mail to you, without taking you off of the list.
  • SET DCIJUDGE-L DIG/NODIG ... to set whether you get digests or not.
  • CHANGE DCIJUDGE-L newaddr ... will change a subscribers address from the one that sent the e-mail, to 'newaddr'.
  • INFO REFCARD ... will get a list of some useful commands
  ...or you can visit one of those mailing list links above and click "Join or leave the list (or change settings)" for these and other options.
• Don't attach files. Attachments come out as garbage in the digest.
• If you include a URL or e-mail address in a post, enclose it in angle brackets like this:
  • URL: <http://www.wizards.com/judge>
  • E-mail: <BigFoo@EMailService.com>
  This is especially helpful for long URLs that might not otherwise translate correctly when clicked on.
• Don't let viruses spread themselves to the list.

  About DCI Reporter questions

• As mentioned above, there was a list just for DCI Reporter - DCIREPORTER-L - but that was shut down a while ago; the archives (linked above) are still available
• More recently, Tournament Organizer and DCIR "chat" has migrated to these Wizards message boards

Parting Shots

• No, really... THINK about what you post, before you hit send. Is it coherent? Relevant? Novel? Spelled properly? Sent to the right address?
• Keep in mind that while only judges can post to the list, some list archives are publicly available, and even the "private" lists include thousands of people all over the world. Make us all look good when you post; you never know who might be reading.