Wendell Townsfolk List Guidelines ================================= 1. Subject lines and Keywords: Topics ================================== This list has the 'Topics' feature enabled. At present these topics have been defined: A) Buy Sale Trade Free Wanted Keywords: For Sale, For Free, For Trade, Wanted, Needed Description: Stuff for sale, free, or trade. B) Jobs Keywords: Job Offer, Job Wanted, Looking for work Description: Jobs offered or wanted C) Event Keywords: Event, Performance, Party Description: Event Announcement D) Town Keywords: Town Description: Town Announcements, events, hearings, meetings, etc. E) Lost and Found Keywords: Lost, Found Description: Anything lost or found, including pets F) The List Keywords: List Description: Messages about the list itself G) Admin Keywords: Admin Description: Administrative Messages H) Advise Sought Keywords: Seeking Advice About, Looking for Information, Advice Sought Description: Advice sought, looking for advice, etc. If any of the keywords listed above occur in either the Subject: heading or in a Keywords: header Mailman (the list management software) will 'pigeonhole' the message with the topic listed. People on the list can choose to receive messages that are flagged as pertaining to one or more specified topics. Otherwise you should use concise and complete subject headings. The subject heading should provide a complete and useful 'one-line' synopsis of what the message is about. It is good to come up with a subject title that gives enough information so that people can skip the message if it is not something that they are interested in (or can relegate it mail folder for later reading). 2. Trimming Messages ================= When replying to a posting, many E-Mail programs will append the previous message(s) to the end of your reply. As additional replies are made, this 'tail' of previous messages grows and grows. There is a limit on how large a message can be before it is held for moderator review. If you are not replying to ALL of the previous messages, it makes sense to delete those parts of the tail that are not relevant to you reply. 3. Hijacking Threads ================= When you are posting a new message, create it as a new message and don't just reply to a random existing message. Most E-Mail program have an Address Book feature. You can use this feature to store the list address and have the mail program fill in the To: field from addresses stored in your address book, instead of finding an old address and replying to it. 4. Large Attachments ================= The Townsfolk List is a text only list. If you have pictures or documents (including posters and fliers) to share, you should upload the pictures or documents to a picture or document sharing web site (there are lots and lots of these and most are free) and include the URL (Uniform Resource Location -- a web address) of your uploaded picture or document in a short text message. 5. Replying to messages ==================== There are two ways to reply to a message. Most mailers have two reply buttons or commands. Typically these are 'Reply' and 'Reply to All'. Selecting 'Reply' will send a *private* reply to the person who posted the message you are replying to. This makes the most sense when replying to something like an item for sale, for example. Selecting 'Reply to All' makes sense if you are contributing to an ongoing discussion, since this reply will go to everyone on the list. 6. Politeness ========== Please be polite and courteous in your postings. I guess this is mostly common sense, but sometimes in the heat of the moment people sometimes 'go off the deep end'. Please think for a few moments before hitting send. 7. Admistitrivia ============= The list address is wendell-townsfolk@deepsoft.com. Sending to this address sends to the entire list. If you have a question about the list or your subscription, etc. you can send a message to wendell-townsfolk-owner@deepsoft.com. This will go to the list owner (Robert Heller) and the list moderator (Wanita Sears). There are a few other E-Mail addresses that might be of use: wendell-townsfolk-join@deepsoft.com wendell-townsfolk-subscribe@deepsoft.com These two addresses join or subscribe to the list. The two addresses do exactly the same thing and are completely interchangeable. wendell-townsfolk-leave@deepsoft.com wendell-townsfolk-unsubscribe@deepsoft.com These two addresses do the reverse of what the previous two addresses do. They take you off the list. Again, the two addresses do exactly the same thing and are completely interchangeable. wendell-townsfolk-request@deepsoft.com This address lets you talk to the Mailman robot about your list settings. The Mailman is rather simple minded and does not really understand English. Sending a message with a subject of 'help' or just the word 'help' on a line by itself in the body of the message will get you a set of instructions of what the Mailman robot can do for you. In addition, there is a web address where you can get information about the list, visit the archives, and modify your list settings. That address is: http://mailman.deepsoft.com/mailman/listinfo/wendell-townsfolk One can subscribe to the list from this page, visit the archives (you'll need to enter your E-Mail address and your password), and do various other things relating to your subscription (this last bit it down at the bottom of the page). Here is a brief list of the things you can change: Membership information: your name and/or your E-Mail address. Unsubscribe from the list. List your other subscriptions at deepsoft.com. Get a password reminder. Change your password. Turn mail delivery on or off (turning it off is good if you are going to be away for a while). Select digest mode (messages collected in a daily digest) or direct send mode (messages are sent one by one). Select mime or plain text digest mode (this is a bit techy). Receive your own posts? yes/no Receive acknowledgment mail when you send mail to the list? yes/no Get [monthly] password reminder email for this list? yes/no Conceal yourself from subscriber list? yes/no (only the list admins can see the subscriber list, so this is somewhat useless). Avoid duplicate copies of messages? yes/no (Reply All will likely include you as a Cc and this avoids sending you an extra copy of the message). And you can select to receive messages relating to a specific set of topics.