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administrivia: notes on using this list
Digest.Net mailing list "Meta FAQ"
These general notes on using Digest.Net mailing lists are posted on
the 1st and 15th of each month. This file may be found on the web
at /general-notes.txt
[last revised 10/12/1999, rpw]
Table of Contents
1. Why don't my postings go through?
2. Why can't I unsubscribe?
3. How do I post to the list?
4. Where are the archives?
The Meta-FAQ
1. Why don't my postings go through?
there are several things that may interfere with postings
making it to the list.
a) are you a member?
some read the ftp archives rather than receiving the list
in email. in order to post to the list, you need to contact
me (rwelty@domain.elided) and get me to add your name
to the list of "permitted senders".
b) has your email address changed?
some of you have had changes in your email address. your old
address still works, and is still on the list, but your From:
line shows a new address. this can happen for various reasons;
you may have changed jobs or ISPs, and left a forward in place,
or your IT staff may have fiddled with the email system.
you will need to unsubscribe your old email address and subscribe
the new one. this may require my involvement, if you can't figure
out a way to get your old address off the list using the conventional
majordomo commands. you can use the majordomo "which" command to
probe for old addresses. send a message to majordomo@domain.elided
with one or more which commands in the body, one per line. to
check for potential addresses for Fred Flinstone, formerly of
bedrock.org, the following commands can be sent:
which flintstone
which bedrock
note that the matches above might return any of the following
addresses, if they appear in the list (in other words, you can
use vagueness and incompleteness in your recollection as a tool):
Fred.Flinstone@domain.elided
fflinstone@domain.elided
flintstonef@domain.elided
c) do you have more than one email address?
if so, only the subscribed addresses can post, unless you contact
me (see 1.a) above for relevant information)
d) are you using (intentionally or accidentially) special "features"
of your mail client?
formats such as html, rtf, and the like, are blocked as they
don't work well in digest format and annoy many readers of the
digest. most kinds of attachments are blocked for similar
reasons -- binaries, word documents, and excel spreadsheets are
simply not good things to send to the digest. virtual business
cards (a Netscape "feature") are blocked as well. you need to turn
off any special features of this type to get your mail through the
digest.
e) are your posts too large?
there is a 10,000 character limit on posting sizes; this is done
for various reasons. you can always split up large postings to
get mail through.
f) are you including majordomo commands at the start of your message?
administrivia control is turned on; this is a trap for things
like "unsubscribe" at the start of a message. try to avoid obvious
majordomo commands in the subject and the first 10 lines, or
misspell them in obvious ways (e.g. unzubscribe, 1ndex, h3lp,
g3t, etc.)
g) are you triggering spam traps?
some things are red flags; for example, the following phrases
in subject lines are automatically blocked:
Important Message From
growth stocks
free calling card
direct e-mail secrets
Merchant Account
Mass Marketing
make money fast
Pediatric advice
Email ? Million People
what "they" don't want
are you being investigated
the actual list is quite a bit longer; i think you get the idea.
h) are you using "funky" character sets?
unfortunately, there are "issues" if i permit any character set
other than old fashioned 7 level ASCII; therefore, you need to
avoid national character sets that include various accents, umlauts,
national currency characters such as the British pound symbol, etc.
i) are you unintentionally including complete digests in your reply?
You need to check and make sure you cut down replys to the minimal
size; digests are between 20,000 and 25,000 characters in length,
and if you include a complete digest in your reply, it clearly won't
make the 10,000 character limit. By the way, this feature is
intentional.
j) Are you using a "bad" ISP or mail relay?
Krusty Motorsports (aka digest.net) subscribes to the "MAPS
Realtime Blackhole List" and the "MAPS Relay Spam Stopper".
These lists block email from known sources of spam (either ISPs
with bad attitudes or policies, or badly managed mail environments.)
Interested parties should visit http://www.mail-abuse.org/ for full
details.
2. Why can't I unsubscribe?
a) are you using the right address?
send to majordomo@domain.elided, and the command format is
unsubscribe list-name my-email-address
b) has your email address changed?
majordomo has no way of knowing that Fred.Flinstone@domain.elided was
once fflintstone@domain.elided. you can check this with the which
command (see 1.b) above for details)
3. How do I post to the list?
You may use either one of two addresses: for example, the bmw-digest
may be reached using either bmw@domain.elided or bmw-digest@domain.elided
If you are using the correct addresses and your posts don't show
up, check out the stuff in 1. above.
4. Where are the archives?
see ftp://ftp.digest.net/ for digest archives. the web archives have
proven problematic, and are awaiting time for a systematic attack
on the problems they've been having.
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End of bmw-digest V9 #1255
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