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Frequently Asked Questions about our lists and our mail server

• I'm having trouble confirming my subscription. How do I do this?
  If you are having trouble, please see our information page on how to confirm your subscription, and how to correct the most common problems we see with confirmations.
• What are digests, and what are their advantages?
  Digests are a compilation of messages pertaining to a particular topic. They are particularly useful to users who prefer receiving one longer e-mail versus many small messages. Our digests are set up for delivery at least once a day, guaranteeing that messages won't be held longer than a few hours.

  When subscribing to a mailing list, we recommend you choose the digest version. About 90% of our users prefer digests. However, if you would rather receive each message individually, you can change your preference at any time by unsubscribing from the digest form of the list and subscribing to the message form of the list. See the instructions for the list for details on how to do this.

• How do I unsubscribe from a mailing list?
  Detailed instructions on how to unsubscribe from a mailing list are available by browsing the information page about that list in our Mailing List Directory.

  You can unsubscribe from a list by sending e-mail to [email protected] with the string

  unsubscribe listname

  in the body (not the subject). If you aren't sure what listname is, use the link above to get the detailed instructions. This only works if your current e-mail address is the one subscribed. If your e-mail address has changed, see the FAQ item on how to fix a changed address.

  If none of this works for you, please Contact the administrators for help in getting your problem solved.

• My e-mail address has changed. How do I fix this?
  If you want to change the address your list subscriptions are sent to, you should unsubscribe the old address, and then subscribe the new address. Detailed instructions on how to unsubscribe and subscribe from a mailing list are available by browsing the information page about that list in our Mailing List Directory.

  You can unsubscribe your old address from the list by sending the command

  unsubscribe

  to the [email protected] e-mail address. If you aren't sure what listname is, use the link above to get the detailed instructions available from the list information pages.

  If you aren't sure what e-mail address is subscribed, or if this doesn't work when you try it, then you should contact the list administrators to help you out. Please make sure you include the old e-mail address that needs to be unsubscribed, and the lists you want changed.

• I am unable to post a message to a mailing list I am subscribed to.
  This is a common problem with users whose e-mail address has changed. When an e-mail address has changed, even slightly, the list server will no longer recognize you even if your mail is being forwarded.

  This happens when your e-mail address has changed so the daemon no longer recognizes you as you. You must be subscribed to the list to post, and if your current e-mail address is not registered with the daemon it won't approve it. Just because the mail is getting to you doesn't mean the list knows who you are.

  This is the reason we encourage users to update their mailing list subscriptions when their addresses change rather than relying on mail forwarding for the mail to get there. That can create all sorts of problems in the future, long after you've forgotten which address you subscribed to a given list with.

  To gain the ability to post, you will have to unsubcribe the old address, or ask the admins to unsubscribe it for you, and then resubscribe to the mailing list with your new e-mail address.

  See the FAQ item on My e-mail address has changed for how to fix this problem.

• I'm going on vacation. How do I stop receiving e-mail from the mailing list until I return?
  Some servers support command referred to as nomail or postpone. This command allows users to suspend their delivery of a particular email list. This server does not support the nomail or postpone commands. Therefore, if you want to turn off mail while you're out of town, you must unsubscribe from the list, and then subscribe again when you return. If you are using a vacation program or "mailbot", make sure it is disabled. If your vacation program automatically responds to list postings, your subscription to the mailing list will be cancelled.
• Vacation programs and other automatic mail programs
  If you use a vacation program or other "mailbot" on your account, make sure it is smart enough to not respond to mailing lists.

  We treat vacation notices like a piece of bounced e-mail. If we start getting vacation "bounces", we'll unsubscribe an account as if the address was getting "user unknown" messages. If we find it sending messages to the lists directly, or to users posting messages to the lists, you'll be removed immediately.

  If you set up a vacation program or other auto-response mailbot, please be careful to try to avoid situations that can start mail loops or cause problems for others who recieve mail from you:

  • Don't just respond to all e-mail you get. If you end up getting e-mail from another mail daemon, you start a loop that can cause your mailbox to fill with literally thousands of responses. To protect yourself against this, set up your responder to only respond to a given address once over a period of time (once a week is preferred). Real users will appreciate not getting constantly reminded that you're not there, and you don't come back from vacation to find out that you and the majordomo mail daemon have been yelling at each other for five days.
  • Only respond to first class mail. If mail is sent out "bulk", it's an indication that it should not be sent any kind of message. Our mail lists include a header of Precedence: bulk on all postings so that vacation programs can realize this is a mail list and not respond. Some systems also use Precedence: list or Precedence: junk headers. If there's a Precedence header of any type, it's generally safer not to respond to it.
  • See if a Sender: header exists in the e-mail. If it does, and if that header has the string "owner-" as part of the return address for the sender, then the message is from a mailing list of some sort, and you shouldn't respond to it.

  Taking a little care with your mailbots can save you a lot of hassle and answering of unhappy e-mail when you return. A badly implemented vacation program can make hundreds of people unhappy with you.

• I'm trying to filter my mail-lists. How do I tell which list a message is from?
  Many mail clients allow you to "filter" your email. Filters permit email users to redirect specified mail into pre-defined locations (i.e. folders), or allow you to sort and prioritize mail automatically.

  How you set up filters varies by client and platform, but you should use the "Sender:" header.

  For example, if you are subscribed to the McCoyPottery-Talk mailing list, on the Sender: line you will see: [email protected]. By checking to see if the Sender: shows it from owner-listname, you can filter messages from a given list.

• How did I get subscribed to the Bounces list?
  E-mail occasionally bounces for a variety of reasons including a computer or network disruption, or a full mailbox. For users whose e-mail bounces continuously, their subscription will be terminated on the belief that the e-mail address is no longer valid. The e-mail address is placed on a special mailing list called Bounces. Once a day, for five days, a message is sent to users on the list notifying them of the situation. Information listing each mailing list a user was subscribed as well as how to re-subscribe is included in the message. After five days, the e-mail address is removed from the mailing list entirely. To receive the mailing list again, users will be required to re-subscribe.
• Why can't I post messages from my juno.com account?
  We have experienced numerous problems with juno.com accounts, and have had limited success in having juno's administrators help us solve these problems. Because of this, we are unable to prevent abusive Juno users from returning to lists after they have been removed. The only way to prevent this is to disable the posting ability for all Juno.com users.

  When we are convinced that Juno will police its problem users, we will enable the postings from Juno.com users again.

• Why doesn't the mail list set Reply-to to the list address?
  We no longer configure the Reply-to to force replies to the mailing list. We have run our lists both ways, and we feel this is the better configuration.

  If you wish to reply to the list, use reply-to-all in your mail client, or add the posting address to the mail message. We feel that unless there is an overriding reason, the choice of whether to reply privately or to the list should be left up to the author of a message. The feedback we've gotten and the user surveys we've taken also show that more of our users want the lists configured this way.

  For more information on the Reply-to issue, we recommend you visit http://www.miranova.com/~steve/reply-to-harmful.html. While we don't agree 100% with those arguments, we do feel they're correct in general.

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