[CQ-Contest] 3830 Posting Review

[Dinkelman, Michael W.]

Hello All contesters

As we enter the heavy part of the contesting season,
it becomes appropriate to remind the users of this list of
some of the requirements for posting to 3830.
(Much of this is the same for CQ-Contest too.)  Failure 
on YOUR part in following these guidelines means LOTS of work
in cleaning up, approving, and resubmitting your mail.
In the end, your mail be delayed and possibly less readable. 

I prefer producing Rumor Summaries to reformatting bounced
messages. Make my job easier by following these simple rules.


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1) Only send PLAIN TEXT messages to the reflector. Even if
you are a subscriber, messages that are NOT plain text
will bounce into my mailbox. Then, I have to strip all the
encoding manually, approve the message, and resend it. This
usually involves rapid cutting and pasting so all your 
careful formatting will be lost and funny characters 
(like "=3D") get left behind. 

a) Learn to configure your mailer. You should find an option
for "PLAIN TEXT" messaging. If so, this should be enabled.
Unfortunately, each mailer is different so I can't tell
where to look. Be aware that many Windows mailers default 
to HTML. That's abad idea. If you doubt the dangers of 
HTML email - go to the Symantec or McAfee Websites and do 
a search on HTML viruses.  If you are using AOL6.0, plain
text is not possible. Instead, get a copy of AOL5.0 and 
use it for mailing to 3830.

2) Do not ATTACH files (like log.sum) to your message. Again,
files are subject to viruses. COPY and PASTE contents of your
files into the BODY of the message using an ASCII editor 
program like Notebook. 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3) Do not use the CC: option in your addressing.
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.
If you want to send your message to more than one person, 
put ALL the names on the TO: line. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4) The sponsors of 3830 list are adamant that it be devoted to 
the reporting of scores and related highlights only. If you want to
start a discussion about some aspect of scores being reported or
congratulate someone - don't just hit the Reply button, but think
about what list (like CQ-Contest) or address it should go to and 
send your message there. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, this last item isn't a 3830 rule but a request from
me personally. When submitting scores to 3830 - use the Web 
Submission page by WA7BNM at

           http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/ 

It will resolve all the above issues AND you don't have to be
a 3830 subscriber to get immediate posting (in other words, I
don't have to approve your post). If you really feel you must
add something special to your post, paste it into the COMMENT
section - it'll take just about anything including your
log summary sheet.

I hope the contest season finds you all well and happy. I am looking
forward to meeting many of you on the air again.

Tnx and 73, 
Dink, N7WA
mwdink at eskimo.com 



 


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