As we enter the heavy part of the contesting season,
it becomes appropriate to remind the users of this list of
some of the rules for sending messages. Failure on YOUR
part in following these rules means LOTS of work for me
in cleaning up, approving, and resubmitting your mail -
plus your mail will be delayed. (Especially during CQWW
and SS season when thousands of e-mails are passing
through this system.)
I much prefer dumping spam (you would be amazed at how much
tries to get in) to reformatting your bounced messages
and finding e-mail addresses. Make my job easier by
following these simple rules.
Tnx and 73, Michael (dink) Dinkelman, N7WA
List Administrator
mwdink@eskimo.com
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1) Only send plain text messages to the reflector. Even if
you are a subscriber, the message will bounce into my mailbox.
Then, I have to strip all the encoding manually, approve the
message, and resend it. This usually involves cutting and/or
pasting and I do so quite quickly so all your careful
formatting will be lost and funny characters (like "=3D") get
left behind.
a) Inside your mailer, you should find an option for
"PLAIN TEXT" messaging. If so, this should be enabled.
Each mailer is different so I can't always tell
if or where such options exist. (Outlook 2000
users, look under "Format".) However, be aware
that many newer Windows mailers default to HTML
encoding so if you can use colors, fancy fonts,
or embed objects like pictures or sounds, chances
are you are NOT using plain text.
b) Do not ATTACH files to your message. Paste the
contents of your files into the body of the message
using an ASCII editor program like Notebook.
c) If you are unsure of your formatting, I would be happy
to help you check it out. Just ask.
2) Do not use the CC: option in your mailings to the reflector.
Again, even if you are a subscriber, the message will bounce
into my mailbox. Then, I have to strip the CC out and manually
approve and resubmit your message. Your message will be delayed.
a) If you want to send your message to more than one
person, put ALL the names on the TO: line. (Yes, they
will fit!) It's just as easy as CC:ing.
3) All requests to subscribe and unsubscribe to this list
should go to 3830-request@contesting.com.
a) the message should contain ONE word in the body
of the message - either "subscribe" or "unsubscribe"
b) IF unsubscribing, the message must be sent FROM
the address you originally subscribed from. Many
of you have forwarding mailboxes so that make this
a challenge so I recommend subscribing and unsubscribing
from your actual ISP.
c) HTML/MIME encoding will screw up the subscription
request - use plain text messaging.
d) If all else fails, I will probably end up having to
handle your request manually. It may take a day or
two so be patient.
4) Don't bother with "Test" messages. They will be filtered out,
I'm the only one who will ever see it, and they really
irritate me. Fortunately, this is becoming a rare occurance.
If you need to verify your subscription, send me a message.
By the way, during slow periods, I am pretty lenient about
"Undeliverable mail" - mail that can't reach YOU because
your mailbox is full or you didn't pay your bill on time
<g>. (Sometimes, servers just get confused.) However,
this tends to snowball in heavy traffic and I can get
pretty ruthless about unsubscribing unresponsive
addresses. If your 3830 mail disappears unexpectedly - send
me a personal message and I can check your status fairly quickly.
5) And finally - the sponsors of this list are adamant that it
be devoted to the reporting of scores and related highlights.
To some, this seems restrictive but I agreed to the rules
when I signed on - as did you. (There are other venues in
the @contesting.com community for general discussion.) As
such, I'll kill any thread not related to the main theme
of this list and generally not tell the originator.
(Admittedly - some messages do scam on by or balance on
the edge of my subjective judgement.) So if you want to
start discussion about some aspect of scores being
reported - don't just hit the Reply button,
but think about what list it should go to and send your
message there.
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/3830
Submissions: 3830@contesting.com
Administrative requests: 3830-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-3830@contesting.com
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