USAGE GUIDELINES FOR RRA-L - written by the
list moderators
revision date: 12/9/96
RRA-L New Subscriber Instructions
Please read and save this memo since it contains important
information about RRA-L.
This is a posting that is sent to all new subscribers of
RRA-L. The text below is a basic description of what of
RRA-L is, how it works and how to participate. If you
have any questions, please contact one of the listowners:
Leslie Haas lhaas@library.utah.edu
Kara L. Robinson krobinso@kentvm.kent.edu
************************************************************
Contents:
1. What is RRA-L
2. How to Send Messages to RRA-L
3. Guidelines for Replying to messages on RRA-L
4. Basic RRA-L Etiquette
5. Subscriber Option Commands
6. Who to contact for information or assistance
************************************************************
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1. What is RRA-L?
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RRA-L is a discussion and idea list in DIGEST FORMAT for readers of
romance fiction.
It is NOT a twelve-step program intended to break you of the romance
habit. The listowners called it Romance Readers Anonymous knowing that
fans of this genre sometimes have trouble admitting their preference for
a good love story. We know, we are that way too.
There is NO fee for belonging to RRA-L, outside of what you may have
to pay for your Internet access.
Tenets of RRA-L:
-Everyone is welcome.
-The participants WILL have fun.
Some suitable subjects for posting are:
-Announcements of forthcoming books and previews.
-Reviews, criticisms, comments, and appreciations of romances
(books, plays, films).
-Great bookshops.
-Awards.
RRA-L is delivered to your email account once daily as a digest
containing each message sent to the list in the previous 24 hours.
RRA-L is ONLY available in this email format due to the large amount
of computer resources it was using at the site which graciosly hosts
the list. The listowners changed it to digest only to prevent the
host site requiring us to either close the list or move it elsewhere.
We ask your cooperation with this policy so that we may continue to
provide RRA-L to you. If your server cannot handle the size of the
digest, and you do not have access to a Usenet Newsgateway, the
listowners may consider granting a dispensation on a case by case
basis - and you must have evidence to support your request.
RRA-L is self-moderating (subscribers post to the list without
moderation, any posting from a non-subscribed address goes to
a moderator for approval first.) It is also gatewayed to
Usenet as bit.listserv.rra-l if you would prefer to read the
list that way.
Everyone who joins ought to consider contacting her (his) favorite
romance author and inviting her (him) to join this list.
Yours for networked heart palpitations, the Owners
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The Technology Involved
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RRA-L is an email based discussion that operates across the
computer networks all over the world. RRA-L uses software called
called LISTSERV to distribute postings to participants as well
as process commands from subscribers.
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU is the address of the LISTSERV.
Messages sent to LISTSERV are read as commands by the program.
If they make no sense, the program rejects them. When
you subscribed to RRA-L, you sent a command to LISTSERV
(not to RRA-L).
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2. How to Send Messages to RRA-L
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RRA-L@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU is the address of the e-conference. This
is the address to which you submit postings.
bit.listserv.rra-l is the Usenet address of RRA-L. If you have
access to Usenet, you may wish to read RRA-L there rather than
subscribing directly.
Send your submission via e-mail note addressed to
RRA-L@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU exactly as you would send an
email note to a person.
If you are reading RRA-L via Usenet, follow the posting instructions
for your site. (if you have any questions, contact your local systems
people.)
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Subject Headings, Quoted Messages and Humor
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PLEASE use descriptive subject headings on EVERY message you
send to RRA-L. This is VERY important in the digest version
as each digest contains a table of contents at the beginning which
lists the topics discussed. Subject headings of _RRA-L digest, date_
are VERY undescriptive.
Do NOT use any sort of automatic reply function when responding to
RRA-L postings. On most systems, using reply will cause the reply
to include the COMPLETE TEXT OF THE DIGEST. If you are not careful,
you will resend that previous digest to all of the RRA-L subscribers.
If you do this more than once (we give everyone one second chance), you
will be automatically deleted from RRA-L.
We STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING:
1) post one message to the digest containing everything you wish to
comment on - and please list each topic in the subject line
2) please do not waste digest space with one line or "me too" messages
3) please keep on topic
4) try to keep your line lengths to approximately 70 characters a line
-- messages with longer lines may look strange and unreadable to others
5) please do not quote ENTIRE messages if you are only referring to
one small section. Many servers have limits on how large an incoming
message may be, and the longer the digest is, the fewer people may
actually get to read it.
6) when replying to RRA-L, do not use the reply option on your
system. Instead, start an email message to rra-l@listserv.kent.edu
7) remember that humor can be difficult to judge without visual clues.
If you wish something to be understood as humorous, please include
either the word "humor" or a visual clue like a smile ;)
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3. Guidelines for Replying to Messages on RRA-L
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- When replying to someone's question, please consider whether the
answer will be of interest to everyone on the list or only of
interest to that individual. If the answer will only be of interest
to the one who asked the question, please send the response directly
to that individual rather than to RRA-L.
- If you want to start a personal correspondence with the writer of
a note from the list...look in the header of the note to find the
"FROM:" field where you will see that person's e-mail address or
check at the end of their note for that individual's address.
Then send your note directly to that person.
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4. Basic RRA-L Etiquette:
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Participants on this list all agree that the topics of
discussion should relate to ROMANCE FICTION (including
film, television, conferences, etc.)
The moderators have the right to decide whether a submission
is appropriate for RRA-L. The moderators will provide feedback
on the appropriateness of a submission.
Comments and suggestions on policy or issues regarding the
operation of RRA-L should be directed to Leslie Haas (lhaas@lms.kent.edu)
Courtesy among subscribers is assumed. The following is a brief
guide to email etiquette.
Points for Effective Computer Mediated Communication
===========================
Extracted from:
Howard Rosenbaum and Gregory B. Newby, "An Emerging Form of Human
Communication: Computer Networking" In ASIS "90: Proceedings of
the 53rd ASIS Annual Meeting 1990, V. 27, Toronto, Ontario
November 4-8, 1990.
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These points apply for personal email, mail to a group of
people, mail sent to a distribution list, or items posted to
Usenet or other bulletin board-type systems.
* Read carefully what you receive, to make sure that you are
not misunderstanding the message.
* Read carefully what you send, to make sure that your message
will not be misunderstood.
* If you're using humor or sarcasm, make sure it is clearly
labeled as such.
* Remember that the absence of cues associated with face to face
communication provide for an environment where it's easy to
misunderstand what is being said.
* Know your audience. Make sure that the person or list of
people you are sending your message to are the appropriate
one(s) to communicate with.
* Be tolerant of newcomers. Do not abuse new users of
computer networks for their ignorance. Be patient as they
first learn to crawl, then walk.
* Avoid cluttering your messages with excessive emphasis (such as
stars, arrows, etc.). It may make the message hard to follow.
* If you are responding to a message, either include PART of the
original message in your message, or make sure you unambiguously
refer to the original's contents. It's very possible that people
will read your reply to the message before they read the original.
* ALWAYS include a descriptive subject line in your message. If you're
responding to another message, your subject line should be the same,
with "RE:"at the beginning. If you're going off track, change the
subject line. For example, if the original subject was: "Email" the
followup subject would be "RE: Email" A spin-off subject would
be: "My view of the world was RE: Email)."
* Keep messages to only one subject. This allows readers
to quickly decide whether they need to read the message in full.
Second subjects may be missed.
----end extracted text.
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5. Subscriber Option Commands
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***NOTE: these commands use the address under which you are
subscribed to RRA-L. If your address changes or if your mailer
identifies your address differently, these commands will not
work. If any of these commands fail, please contact Kara
Robinson (krobinso@kentvm.kent.edu) who
will implement the command for you.***
UNSUBCRIBING:
- to unsubscribe from RRA-L:
send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
The text of the message must read:
unsub RRA-L
NOMAIL:
- to set RRA-L to nomail (which stops mail from being sent to
you without signing you off of RRA-L):
send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
The text of the message must read:
set RRA-L nomail
- to begin receiving the digest again:
send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
The text of the message must read:
set RRA-L digest
ARCHIVES and Other Files:
Generally, the most recent 3 to 6 months of RRA-L transactions are
stored on the LISTSERV fileserver. If you are away for a while
and want to see what happened, then you can retrieve the logs
for the time you were gone.
To find out what logs are on the fileserver:
send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
The text of the message must read:
index RRA-L f=mail
To retrieve a log from the fileserver:
send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
The text of the message must read:
get RRA-L.LOGyymm f=mail
Example: get RRA-L LOG9310a f=mail
To see what other files are on the fileserver:
send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
The text of the message must read:
get rra-l.files f=mail
To retrieve an files (other than logs) from the fileserver:
send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.KENT.EDU
The text of the message must read:
get file.name f=mail
Example: get bookstor.romantic f=mail
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6. Who to ask for assistance or information
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Leslie M. Haas (lhaas@library.utah.edu)
Kara L. Robinson (krobinso@kentvm.kent.edu)
