Some Questions and Answers
What is a listserv?
A listserv is a special
kind of E-mail mailing list. Members can send letters to the
list which will be automatically sent
to all other members. Users can choose to receive
each letter separately or to receive only a daily collection of
current letters. (It's called a "digest" but it is a collection
of the full letters.)
Those who feel they are
getting too much E-mail can choose not to receive any letters,
but can read the entire list on the web site at their
convenience.
Members can
join at any time and can remove themselves from the list easily.
What is the
purpose? Why would we want a listserv?
Many of us have
established relationships while attending Star and would like to
share some of our life experiences, during the year and between
conferences, and later when we no longer can come back for one
reason or another. Whether or not we can continue to attend All
Star One conferences, this is a way of being informed about some
changes on Star, of liaisons among former shoalers, of the
passing of some whom we met at Star.
Much of the
interesting and important news about happenings on Star Island
has been shared on this listserv.
Write down the
"username" and "password", which you will
select when you join!
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You will need
these if you ever want to change your E-mail address
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You will need
these if you want to change the delivery option.
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You will need
these to go to the archive of messages ("Web
Site")
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You will need
these to get a list of other members of the list.
Are there
disadvantages to joining the listserv?
There
certainly can be. Some are described below, along with strong
advice to help keep them at a minimum.
You will
increase your E-mail
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The
nature of our group is that it is unlikely that members of
the list will be sending us too many letters.
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Individuals can choose to receive only the daily collections
of letters, rather than every single letter.
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One can
choose to receive no E-mail, and read the list online
only when it is convenient
-
One can
always quit.
Some persons
say they have experienced increase in SPAM, unsolicited E-mail
and advertising after joining a listserv. Others of us who
monitor this closely do not share that experience.
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This
list is not open to the public. If there were any abusers,
they could easily be removed.
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The
names and E-mail addresses are confidential. Anyone on the
list can see them, but outsiders cannot.
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WHEN YOU
JOIN, there are a couple of suggestions:
You do not need to give all the information that Yahoo!
requests.
Do not tell them that you like golf, or boating, or
photography--
that is an invitation to SPAM.
You will quickly find out what information they
require: give nothing more.
There is
advertising on the web site and intermingled with our E-mail
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This is
annoying.
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To the chagrin of
Yahoo! many of us find we no longer see the advertising
after a short while!
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While we
continue to look for an alternative hosting service, this is the best we
can do.
The
etiquette of the listserv -- important DOs and DON'Ts
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When you
click "REPLY" you are sending an E-mail to
EVERYONE on the list.
If
you want to reply only to the sender select her
address from the header of the E-mail you received and send
your reply letter "off list"
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If you mean to
write to one particular individual, even if she or he is the
sender of a letter to which you are responding, write to her
or him and PLEASE DO NOT CLICK "REPLY"
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When you
click "REPLY" everything you see in your letter is
being returned to EVERYONE on the list.
Remember that all of us ALSO got the same letters and don't
need to read them again. By all means use the
"Reply" button, but erase all the extra stuff that
we have already seen. IT IS GOOD to include a few sentences
that may help the rest of us know what you are referring to
in your answer.
-
"Sign
your letter" that is, include your name at the bottom.
It is
often difficult to figure out who sent the message to the
listserv, since Yahoo! puts so much writing in the header.
What if I have
trouble joining
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