List Manager Comment Re: Ward Good's List Question

Donavan Hall (dhall@ROUGE.PHYS.LSU.EDU)
Sun, 6 Apr 1997 14:16:14 -0500

The default setting for list members is for the messages you send NOT to be
sent back to the sender. Every subscriber is sent a list of commands which
you can send to listserv@listserv.lsu.edu to modify your membership
preferences. I encourage you to keep a copy of these commands where you
can refer to them.

For the benefit of those who might have misplaced this list below is a copy
of that information.

To send a message to all the people currently subscribed to the list,
just send mail to PERCY-L@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU. This is called "sending mail
to the list", because you send mail to a single address and LISTSERV
makes copies for all the people who have subscribed. This address
(PERCY-L@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU) is also called the "list address". You must
never try to send any command to that address, as it would be distributed
to all the people who have subscribed. All commands must be sent to the
"LISTSERV address", LISTSERV@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU. It is very important to
understand the difference between the two, but fortunately it is not
complicated. The LISTSERV address is like a FAX number, and the list
address is like a normal phone line. If you make your FAX call someone's
regular phone number by mistake, it will be an unpleasant experience for
him but you will probably be excused the first time. If you do it
regularly, however, he will probably get upset and send you a nasty
complaint. It is the same with mailing lists, with the difference that
you are calling hundreds or thousands of people at the same time, so a
lot more people get annoyed if you use the wrong number.

You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF PERCY-L" command
to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU. You can also tell LISTSERV how you want it
to confirm the receipt of messages you send to the list. If you do not
trust the system, send a "SET PERCY-L REPRO" command and LISTSERV will
send you a copy of your own messages, so that you can see that the
message was distributed and did not get damaged on the way. After a while
you may find that this is getting annoying, especially if your mail
program does not tell you that the message is from you when it informs
you that new mail has arrived from PERCY-L. If you send a "SET PERCY-L
ACK NOREPRO" command, LISTSERV will mail you a short acknowledgement
instead, which will look different in your mailbox directory. With most
mail programs you will know immediately that this is an acknowledgement
you can read later. Finally, you can turn off acknowledgements completely
with "SET PERCY-L NOACK NOREPRO".

Note: All messages sent to the percy-l list are archived at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/wpercy/ So please check there to see if your post
has made it out to the rest of the list.

To answer Ward's last question: no, this list is not moderated. All posts
receive general distribution.

Donavan Hall
Percy-L List Manager

Original message:
>When I hit reply on my, admitedly clunkly, email software I
>send a message somewhere but I never see it. This is unlike
>lists I am familiar with. Do you censor it or do I just not get
>a copy or am I doing it wrong? I'd like to participate a bit
>more although I am no scholar and haven't even read all of
>Percy but am getting there.
>
>
>--
>Ward