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Archives of sanet-mg on the Web



Sanet-mg:

This is the first of several how-to guides to the SAN home page, which 
can be found at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/san/

The archives of sanet-mg are available for general browsing, or you can 
search the archive of all messages ever posted to sanet (since October, 
1991).  To browse the archives, choose sanet-mg from the left side of the 
home page.  Scroll down the next page a bit until you reach the 
archives.  Notice that that messages to sanet are archived in groups (of 
about 500 messages), with the most recent messages at the top.  Select 
the time period you are interested in.

Messages in each *m-box* can be sorted in three ways: 1) sort by date; 2) 
sort by author; 3) sort by *thread*.  1)  Sort by date if  you want to 
read through messages from a set period of time, in the order in which 
they were posted.  2)  Sort by author if you want to a) find a particular 
message whose author you know or remember; b) read all messages posted by 
one author; c) find the e-mail address of someone you have seen post to 
sanet-mg.  NOTE that the alphabetization of the sorted list is by first 
name (mostly).  3) Sort by thread (or topic) if you want to read all the 
messages posted in response to one original message.  

The sort by thread uses the subject line of the original message, and 
collects all responses with the same subject line.  SANetters are 
encouraged to USE THE SUBJECT LINE for all messages posted to sanet-mg.  
This is a general courtesy to the nearly 800 subscribers, and it 
facilitates the sorting of messages by *thread*.  If  you change the 
subject line, your message will probably NOT be grouped with the original 
thread, so do so only IF you are changing the thread of the 
conversation.  Remember that a computer is making these decisions based 
solely on what is included in the subject line of your post.

To search the sanet-mg archives, click on SEARCH from the left side of 
the home page.  At the next page, there is a pull-down window 
displaying the word Everything.  Pulling down that window (click on the 
arrow) will give you several other choices, including search sanet-mg, 
project reports, everything.  Click on sanet-mg to search the archives.  
You will be prompted to enter search term (s).  You can enter one or more 
terms in the box.  As with any search strategy, you will learn that some 
words give you too many *hits*, so you need to modify your search.  

You can enter two or more words separated by a space, or you can enter 
several terms separated by  AND or OR.  If you use AND, you will limit 
the messages retrieved to those that contain *both* (all) of your search 
terms.  If you use OR, the messages you retrieve will contain *either* 
(one or the other) of your search terms.  Thus, using AND will usually 
retrieve fewer messages than using OR.  Confused?  I have always found 
this to be counter-intuitive.

There are still a few bugs in the system, which we strive to correct as 
quickly as possibly.  You will notice some messages pulled up as *hits* 
for your search terms that do not seem to fit.  Such is the nature of the 
beast.

You can also find the syntax for subscribing and unsubscribing from sanet 
by clicking on sanet-mg from the home page.  So, if you want to 
unsubscribe while on vacation, check the SAN/SARE home page first, to 
save the embarassment of sending your unsubscribe message to all 800 of 
us!  You can also tell others how to subscribe by pointing them to SAN on 
the WWW, or by copying the information and sending it to them.

As always, I'm available if you have any questions about using sanet-mg, 
or accessing the SAN home page.  Please do not hesitate to contact me 
with your questions and comments.

Andy Clark, Ph.D.
SAN Coordinator
c/o AFSIC, Room 304
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Ave.
Beltsville, MD  20705-2351
PH:  301-504-6425
FAX: 301-504-6409
san@nal.usda.gov
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/san/