Micapeak.com Mailing List Frequently Asked Questions revised 2007/01/06 Recent changes are marked with the | character in the left margin. NOTATION: Several places in this document you will see URLs and/or e-mail addresses that contain the string YOURLIST. When you use one of these, you must remove the YOURLIST and replace it with the actual name of your mailing list. For example, if your mailing list were named wetleather, you would change: http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/YOURLIST/members to: http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/wetleather/members This also applies to YOURADDRESS - to be replaced by the e-mail address that you use for your subscription to YOURLIST, e.g. http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/options/YOURLIST/YOURADDRESS might become: http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/options/wetleather/president@whitehouse.gov NOTICE: By subscribing or continuing to subscribe to the YOURLIST mailing list, you agree to be bound by this docment. Your presence here is purely at the whim of the listowner. You may be unsubscribed at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. You have no recourse. You were warned. 1 How about some disclaimers? 2 OK, really now, what is YOURLIST? 3 Who pays for it? 4 How do I subscribe to YOURLIST? 5 Why don't I see my own messages when I post to YOURLIST? 6 What about "digest", "nomail", "ack", "nometoo", "conceal"...? 7 How do I send a message to everybody? 8 How do I unsubscribe? 9 What about changing my e-mail address or password? 10 What can I send to YOURLIST? 11 How can I start another mailing list with a different charter? 12 Are there some posting conventions of which I should be aware? 13 Who can send mail to the YOURLIST mailing list? 14 What happens when I "reply" to something YOURLIST sent me? 15 Is there an archive? How can I get back-issues of the digests? 16 Can I get these files via ftp? 17 Who subscribes to YOURLIST? 18 Are there other related mailing lists? 19 What else can Mailman do for me? 20 Does YOURLIST support the World-Wide Web? 21 What if this FAQ didn't answer my question? 22 How can I improve my e-mail skills? #### 1) How about some disclaimers? Mail from this list is the exclusive responsibility of the originators. Nobody gets to sue anybody or even get angry about anything that happens here. Extensive legal-sounding disclaimers are part of every list's "listinfo" page http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/YOURLIST and are incorporated into this contract by reference. #### 2) OK, really now, what is YOURLIST? The YOURLIST mailing list is for discussion of motorcycles of types made by companies. The people reading and contributing the this mailing list are all smart, nice and easygoing. #### 3) Who pays for it? H. Marc Lewis owns micapeak.com and pays all the associated costs. Information on making donations can be found in the "Who pays for it?" section of each list's listinfo page: http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/YOURLIST #### 4) How do I subscribe to YOURLIST? Visit http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/YOURLIST/ You may subscribe directly via e-mail - but you'll need to then immediately go to the above "listinfo" page anyway to complete and confirm your settings. So we recommend you just use the URL to begin with. To use the e-mail method, send mail to YOURLIST-request@micapeak.com with the body of the mssage consisting one only one line like this: subscribe [password] [digest|nodigest] [address=
] Your password must be given to unsubscribe or change your options, but if you omit the password, one will be generated for you. You may be periodically reminded of your password. The next argument may be either: `nodigest' or `digest' (no quotes!). If you wish to subscribe an address other than the address you sent this request from, you may specify `address=
' (no brackets around the email address, and no quotes!) #### 5) Why don't I see my own messages when I post to YOURLIST? Because your subscription is set to "nomail". See next question. OR maybe because you use gmail. gmail currently (Jan, 2007) has a bug that prevents their users from seeing "metoo" copies of the posts they make to Mailman mailing lists, at least the way we have them configured here at Micapeak. Please see the Google Groups thread about this. #### 6) What about "digest", "nomail", "ack", "nometoo", "conceal"...? You can set any of of these modes for your subscription by visiting your personal YOURLIST configuration page at http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/options/YOURLIST/YOURADDRESS There you can also set the name thap appears next to your address in various places,inlcuding the monthly posting statistics report. #### 7) How do I send a message to everybody? Send anything you want (BUT SEE FAQ #10) to YOURLIST@micapeak.com Your message will be distributed to all subscribers. #### 8) How do I unsubscribe? Visit http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/options/YOURLIST/YOURADDRESS Check the "Yes, I really want to unsubscribe" box and click on the Unsubscribe button. You can also send mail to YOURLIST-UNSUBSCRIBE@micapeak.com from the address that you used to subscribe. #### 9) What about changing my e-mail address or password? Visit http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/options/YOURLIST/ to make changes. Contact the list owner at YOURLIST-owner@micapeak.com if you have any difficulty . #### 10) What can I send to YOURLIST? WORDS: The charter of the list is given above in answer to question 2 above. The Listowner chooses the charter and rules of behavior for each mailing list. ATTACHMENTS, HTML, "Rich Text", V-cards, etc. These are not permitted on YOURLIST. The server will reject any message with a Content-type: other than text and will transform HTML text into plain. Please save us the trouble and system load by sending your mail in plain text in the first place. See http://www.micapeak.com/mailinglists/mime.html Tolerance for HTML and attachments can be configured by each listowner on an individual list basis. #### 11) How can I start another mailing list with a different charter? Micapeak sometimes accepts new mailing lists. See http://www.micapeak.com/mailinglists/policy-newlists.html Yahoo Groups and Google Groups and others also run quite reasonable advertising-supported "free" mailing list services. #### 12) Are there some posting conventions that I should follow? The users of YOURLST should conform to the Internet/NetNews convention of appending new material AFTER the minimum quoted portion of the message to which the new stuff refers. Please be courteous! Trim down the text from the original message so that your reply includes ONLY the minimum quotation necessary to establish context. These are conversational mailing lists, not work/business e-mails where we need to keep an entire history of convesation all in one e-mail message. It is also considered good form to have a "signature" that reasonably identifies you. Your actual name, as an adult might use, not "Star Captain Duke Strokemaster". You should keep in mind that many people are reluctant to respond when a question comes only with an anonymous ID with no name and little address info. #### 13) Who can send mail to the YOURLIST mailing list? YOURLIST@micapeak.com will not accept messages for distribution except from subscribers. It is possible for the individual listowner to change this, but the management of micapeak.com do NOT recommend changing this. Participation of a *purely commercial* nature from subscribers or others is NOT welcome here, EVEN IF it's motorcycle-specific. Individual listowners may make more or less strict rules on this, and enforce them independently of the management of micapeak.com #### 14) What happens when I "reply" to something YOURLIST sent me? It depends on your mailer AND on individual list configuration choices. There are technical considerations that may be more complex than you'd think. With most mail reading applications, the default settings on micapeak.com lists will result in replies going back to the mailing list that distributed the original . The individual listowner YOURLIST-owner@micapeak.com can check and set several choices relating to this by using the list's administrative interface. #### 15) Is there an archive? How can I get back-issues of the digests? Messages for micapeak mailing lists are NOT archived by default. The listowner for an individual list can turn archiving on if desired. #### 16) Can I get these files via ftp? Sorry, not at this time. #### 17) Who subscribes to YOURLIST? Scroll down the listinfo page: http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo/YOURLIST and find the "Visit Subscriber List" button. By default, you must be a subscriber to view the list. #### 18) Are there other related mailing lists? YOURLIST is hosted by micapeak.com which supports a large number of other motorcycle mailing lists. See: http://www.micapeak.com/mailman/listinfo To get more information about micapeak.com and its other services, please point your browser to http://www.micapeak.com/ #### 19) What else can Mailman do for me? Much more information is available via http://www.micapeak.com/mailinglists/listdoc.html #### 20) Does YOURLIST support Feature X? contact the listowner YOURLIST-owner@micapeak.com to ask about or request changes to individual list configuraiton choices. Listowner can put more information about options and choices here. http://www.micapeak.com/lists/YOURLIST/ #### 21) What if this FAQ didn't answer my question? Send mail directly to YOURLIST-owner@micapeak.com If, after reading the documentation and contacting the listowner and still not receiving a satisfactory answer or response, as a last resort you may contact mailman@micapeak.com #### 22) How can I improve my e-mail skills? If you're genuinely interested in improving your e-mail skills, here are a few tips: GENERAL ADVICE What do you want to achieve? Understand your medium: - Remember that e-mail isn't like being there. People can't hear your tone of voice or see your body language - hence the development of the smile :-) and frown :-( conventions. But you also need to think about your writing style and make sure that your message conveys what you want to say clearly and simply, without appearing angry, curt, whining, dictatorial, etc. unless you intend to do so. - Also remember the above when READING messages. Not everybody has your superb writing skills, so give them the benefit of the doubt and don't infer emotion or bad intent from somebody's message without reality. - Be sure you understand to whom your message or reply is directed. Most mailing lists will send replies to ALL subscribers, NOT just to the person who wrote the original note to which you're replying. To quote Lissa: "Mailing lists are like picking your nose at a traffic light. You feel like you're all alone, but everybody can see you". Reach a receptive audience: - If you want your message read and acted on right away, make your point in the plain text body of the message itself, NOT in an attached document. The world is changing in favor of the latter, but it's not there yet, and many of us read mail at home or on the road where it's much more difficult to deal with attached documents. - Use space intelligently. Even though you may have a wonderful windowing system and cute mailer, not everybody does. Your message is most likely to be enjoyable to everyone if each line contains a newline/return after no more than 75 characters, and you do NOT use any spiffy PC text "extra" characters, boldfacing, etc. - Use whitespace and paragraphs effectively. I have a very hard time reading a solid two-page block of text with no paragraphs, ESPECIALLY if it's in e-mail. Your message may get lost because of how you presented it. - Please be courteous and trim down the text from the original message so that your reply includes ONLY the minimum quotation necessary to establish context. These are conversational mailing lists, not work/business e-mails where we need to keep an entire history of convesation all in one e-mail message. Configure your mailer properly: - Do NOT use "QP: or "Quoted Printable" options. This is a sneaky and usually-ineffective way some mailers use to slip in PC text characters. It just makes regular mail look ugly when read with a mailer (like elm) which doesn't understand QP. - Avoid using colors, fonts and other fancy features supported by your mailer. If you want to make an elegant presentation, do it in an attached document. Yes, "everybody" should be up-to-date and use the same new whiz-bang mailer that you do. Are you more interested in getting them to use the "correct" mailer, or in getting your message across? If the latter, don't use all those neat mailer features unless you're SURE that EVERYBODY in your intended audience has them - you'll just annoy those who don't.