The recent deluge of "Merry Christmas" spam has necessitated this.
Any spam messages related to the coming of the New Year (or the new
millenium, or the end of 1999... please don't try to get around this ban in
a clever way, as that will make us Unhappy) will earn the poster a tempban.
Anyone posting test messages to the list after midnight to see if Y2K has
taken it down will also be dealt with severely.
This will probably be going into the FAQ, as a ban on holiday greetings
spam. The list is simply too large and has too many members for such
messages to be allowed.
-Alan Harnum, FFML Moderation Team (We don't have Christmas in Canada
anyway, because of the baby seals)