to promise the joined

There's nothing to join, but come on in, the more the merrier. Watch out for the psychos.

BTW I see you're posting from Google Groups. This is actually a USENET group and not one of Google's proprietary ones. USENET is much older than Google, and not tied to a single vendor.

You can also use a proper mailer, e.g. Thunderbird, to access this group if your ISP provides USENET access or you use a separate news provider. (I use Supernews/Giganews, which I recommend. Five bucks a year or thereabouts.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs