Contribute if you're on discussion lists. Discussion lists are not for the authors. They are for the fans. You're a fan if you write, if you read, or if you do nothing but watch the show. Your opinions have as much value as anyone else's. And their opinions are as valid as yours, so don't get offended when everyone doesn't agree with you.

Allow for differences of opinion. As you can tell if you've read anything else I've written on this site, the things I dislike about fanfic are too numerous to catalog. But I've made a sincere effort to allow for people who like stuff that's not what I like. Not always a successful effort, but a sincere one. Why don't we allow everyone the same freedom?

Put out the fire.

I don't really care if you like Pendrell fiction or not. If you don't like it, don't read it. If there are fifty Pendrell stories a day posted to the list and it pisses you off, leave the list if your delete key doesn't work. In spite of what I've said elsewhere, if someone else sees Skinner as a closeted flamer and I don't agree, I feel free to offer my point of view in public discussions, but I also try to remember that my interpretation of the characters isn't any more valid than theirs. In fact, from their perspective, I'm the one who has it wrong. We haven't had an on-screen exploration of the closets in Skinner's condo. For all I know, there is a pale peach tutu in one of them.

Posting. Don't ever respond publicly to a message on a list that has pissed you off, until you've taken some time to calm down first. This person is not doing it to deliberately ruin your life. I hate to tell you this, but you'd be amazed to know just how unimportant you are to them. They don't sit around thinking of ways to piss you off, they don't think about you at all. Again, feel free to offer a dissenting opinion, but make sure you're disagreeing with what they've said, not attacking them personally. There's a world of difference between the two.

Feuding and fighting publicly have done more to leech all of the fun out of fandom, and to drive good writers away from specific fandoms, than you'd believe. Sometimes I long for the good old days, when discussions were carried on though the mail, and at infrequent conventions where fans met face-to-face. At least then, everyone took time to think before they flamed, and at the cons, it was really hard to forget that you were arguing with another human being. Remember that behind every e-mail address lurks a flesh-and-blood person. They may be an idiot, but you're not everyone's cup of tea, either.