B. THE MAILING LIST

B.1 LISTSERV -- what is it?

LISTSERV is an automatic mailing list manager program. Each mailing list has a e-mail address which LISTSERV controls. For example the Novell mailing list has as its e-mail address NOVELL@listserv.syr.edu. LISTSERV forwards any mail sent to the list to all the people on the mailing list (in fact not all mail messages are forwarded: LISTSERV tries to catch spurious or faulty messages before they are forwarded). LISTSERV has its own e-mail address as well: the LISTSERV responsible for the Novell list can be found at LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu.

B.2 Commands to LISTSERV

Any commands concerning the list (such as signing on or off the list) must be sent to LISTSERV and not to the list. Sending mail to the mailing list address, as opposed to the LISTSERV address will not only NOT get you subscribed, it will annoy over 1000 people world-wide, and use inordinate amounts of computer time around the world for no reason.

To subscribe to the list, send the following mail to the above address (pick either internet or bitnet as appropriate--if you are not sure, consult the computer support staff at your site):

    	To: LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu
    	Subject: Doesn't matter
    	Text/body of: subscribe NOVELL Your Full Name

If you have problems subscribing to the list, contact novell-request@listserv.syr.edu.

You may find it necessary to sign off the list (if you change e-mail address or job or find that there's too much mail to deal with). To get yourself removed from the list, send the following mail to the LISTSERV:

    	To: LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu
    	Subject: Doesn't matter
    	Text/body of: unsubscribe NOVELL

If you have problems unsubscribing from the list, contact novell-request@listserv.syr.edu.

By default, LISTSERV does not send you a copy of mail you post to the list. If you want to see mail you send to the list, send the following mail to the LISTSERV:

    	To: LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu
    	Subject: Doesn't matter
    	Text/body of: set novell repro

To receiving mail in undigested format, send the following mail to the LISTSERV:

    	To: LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu
    	Subject: Doesn't matter
    	Text/body of: set novell NODIgest

The NOVELL list now defaults to a digestified form, so that you get a day's worth of list traffic in one message. This change was done in 1994 to ease the mainframe's task of managing this list. To change to receiving list mail in a digest format, send the following mail to the LISTSERV:

    	To: LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu
    	Subject: Doesn't matter
    	Text/body of: set novell digest

If you're in need to see all possible commands use:

    	To: LISTSERV@listserv.syr.edu
    	Subject: Doesn't matter
    	Text/body of: INFO REFCARD

[Thx A.B.]

B.3 Posting a message to the list

The address of this list is:

NOVELL@listserv.syr.edu

To post a message, all you need to do is send it as a mail note to the above address.

Please see the etiquette rules (Question B.5) before you post a message.

B.4 List sysops

The sysops of the NOVELL@listserv.syr.edu mailing list include:

    	Larry Bradley     larry.bradley@nrc.ca
    	Scott Campbell    novell-request@listserv.syr.edu
    	Joe Doupnik       jrd@cc.usu.edu
    	Glenn Fund        fund@relay.proteon.com
    	David Harris      david@pmail.gen.nz
    	Dave Molta        djmolta@sunrise.syr.edu
    	David A. Cantrell david_cantrell@novell.com
    	Art Whittman      wittman@engr.wisc.edu

[Thx Joe D.]

B.5 Guidelines to network etiquette

Remember, about a thousand people around the world read this list, and all of us think our time is valuable, as do you. Also, every message posted uses a great deal of computer and transmission time, because it is propagating around the world. Therefore, the polite user of this list will try to follow these guidelines:

* Do not post subscribe/unsubscribe requests to the list. See how to do these tasks above, question B.2.

* Do not post test messages to the list. The first time you have a substantial post, let that be your test. If you keep the file, you won't have to retype it in the event that for some reason it doesn't go through the first time.

* Do not post "Is this list working?" messages to the list. E-mail links between computers may go down for some reason and it is much more likely that a link between you and the Internet has gone down than the list itself has gone down. If you ask, you should ask one of the list's sysops. See question B.4 for a list of the sysops.

* Consult Novell, system, and application documentation before you post a question. Also, if your site has a computer support staff that deals with Novell issues (many universities do), consult with them before posting a question.

* When you post to the list, please include an informative and accurate Subject: line. The traffic on this list is very high; this helps those people who have time only to read posts they may be able to help with, or that apply to their networks. Additionally, in your post, make sure to include all of the information people will need to respond.

* If you post a question, and receive no response, please don't repost it. The people who read this list are very helpful--someone will answer the question if they can. If you don't receive an answer, you need to find professional consultants for your specific problem. Reposting will not get an answer, and will only waste the time and bandwidth mentioned above.

* The purpose of this mailing list is to serve as a resource from which all participants can learn. Therefore, if you think an answer to a question will be of wider interest than the just the asker, please post it to the list (the default reply-to address) and/or the FAQ maintainer, John Lyon faq@jelyon.com.

* Don't flame people. If some information is presented that is incorrect or incomplete, please do post a message offering the correction. But don't make personal attacks on the list members. That has no place on this list.

* Include your email address at the bottom of your postings. This will allow people to correspond directly with you, since most mail systems, by default, normally default your reply to the entire list.

* If you use a signature, please make it no longer than four lines, and don't include "graphics" composed of ASCII characters. Remember, everyone's time is valuable, and some people read this mailing list at a very slow baud rate and/or pay for their connection "by the pound". Long signatures, and frivolous graphics just frustrate them; they may take to deleting your messages unread.

* When you reply to a message, include just enough of the previous message for readers to remember what the issues were. It is not necessary to include the whole message again and is expensive for those mentioned above.

* When you post a message, use proper upper *and* lower case. In the eWorld, all uppercase text is considered SHOUTING and uppercase messages are much harder to read. People may just delete or skip your messages without even giving them a chance.

* Please post to the list *only* in English. If you are posting in any other language, obviously you did not intend to communicate with the entire list, as this is an English language list. Therefore, private email would be more appropriate.

* Do not post lines longer than 77 characters. Some mailers do not handle long lines well. When quoted, these lines grow, compounding the problem. Failing to heed this advice could cause you to receive, from S.M.D., your own copy of the following humorous note:

         Please use your Return or Enter key _before_ you reach 80 chara
      cters.  Otherwise,
      your article becomes very difficult to read.  If it is very diffic
      ult to read,
      then people are less likely to read it.  If less people read it, y
      ou are not
      as likely to get the responses you desire.

* If you reply to a message on the list, consider if you should reply to the entire list or to the sender (a private reply). It's a good idea to reply privately if you ask a question of the sender, or if you are thanking someone or if the sender asks for a private reply. You should consider replying to the list if the reply is of general interest or if you are contributing to an ongoing discussion.

B.6 Other useful mailing lists/newsgroups

Other mailing lists you may want to try are include:

* BANYAN-L@akronvm (internet BANYAN@vm1.cc.uakron.edu), send subscriptions to LISTSERV@akronvm (internet LISTSERV@vm1.cc.uakron.edu). This is for discussion of Banyan networks.

* BIG-LAN@suvm (internet BIG-LAN@suvm.acs.syr.edu), send subscriptions to the LISTSERV@suvm (internet LISTSERV@suvm.acs.syr.edu).

* CICA-L@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu for announcements of Windows uploads to CICA. To subscribe, send mail to LISTSERV@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu with the message SUBSCRIBE CICA-L Firstname Lastname.

* CUTCP-L@nstn.ns.ca for a discussion of Charon and CUTCP Telnet issues. Send subscription requests to LISTSERV@nstn.ns.ca.

* Garbo-Ann@Garbo.uwasa.fi for announcements of Garbo uploads. To subscribe, send mail to Majordomo@Garbo.uwasa.fi with the message SUBSCRIBE GARBO-ANN Firstname Lastname.

* MSDOS-ANN@@SimTel.Coast.NET for announcements of SimTel uploads. To subscribe, send mail to LISTSERV@SimTel.Coast.NET with the message SUBSCRIBE MSDOS-ANN.

* MSMAIL-L@YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU for Microsoft Mail. To subscribe, send mail to LISTSERV@YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU with a text/body message of SUBSCRIBE MSMAIL-L Firstname Lastname

* IntranetWare News Info list. To sub, send email to intranetwarenews@novell.com with a text/body line of subscribe intranetwarenews [your_e-mail_address]

[Thx Robert Sfeir and Steve Sathue]

* NGW@lists.teltrust.com for discussion on Novell's GroupWise. To subscribe, send mail to majordomo@lists.teltrust.com with text/body line of "subscribe NGW ". For help, send email to: ngw-admin@teltrust.com.

[Thx Trevor Harrison for this info]

* NWP@lists.teltrust.com for programming under Netware. Send email to listproc@lists.teltrust.com with any subject line and text/body line of "subscribe NWP YourFirstName YourLastName"

* PMAIL@ua1vm.ua.edu for discussion of Pegasus Mail. The author, David Harris, is active on this list. Send subscription and other administrative requests to LISTSERV@ua1vm.ua.edu.

* WFW-L@umdd.umd.edu for Windows For Workgroups. Send subscription and other administrative requests to LISTSERV@umdd.umd.edu.

* Windows-nt@mailbase.ac.uk. Send the command "JOIN Windows-nt firstname lastname" to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk. I also recommend you issue the command "SEND mailbase user-guide" to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk if you do join up.

Additionally, if you have access to usenet news, you may want to subscribe to the newsgroup comp.os.netware.misc, which is a "mirror" of this mailing list but you may not be able to post messages to this list if you are only subscribed to the newsgroup (you can subscribe to the list, and then set your subscription to NOMAIL, and thus be able to post questions [or answers!] to the list. There are also the following newsgroups:

    	comp.os.netware.announce (moderated announcements)
    	comp.os.netware.security (security issues)
    	comp.os.netware.connectivity (connect. issues incl. LAN Workplace)
    	comp.os.netware.misc (topics not falling into the above categories)

[Thx J.B., Bengt Bolinder and S.M.D. for this info]

For more comprehensive sources of mailing lists on all subjects, on info.umd.edu (128.8.10.29) you can find a list of listserv bitnet lists under /inforM/inforM/CompRes/NetInfo/Listserv/listserv-lists and the complete List of Lists is available as /inforM/inforM/CompRes/NetInfo/Internet/interest-groups.

[Thanks to Chaisiri Wongkham for updating this info]

Also, sending any listserv the command "list global" will get you a large (750k to 1MB) file of all public listserv lists.

For a searchable directory of mailing lists that IS the world's largest, check out:

http://www.liszt.com/

[Thx to Scott Southwick for this info]

For similar searches spanning mailing lists, newsgroups, vendors, and FTP sites, try:

http://www.tile.net/

[Thanks to Mark Holland for this info]

B.7 Archived messages from the mailing list

[As of 01/31/97] The ability to search the NOVELL archive logs is again available. The old VM style search functions are not supported. There is a new user-oriented LISTSERV manual available at:

http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/userindex.html

OR

ftp://ftp.lsoft.com/ftp/documents

[Thx Glenn A. Malling, Novell Listserv Postmaster, gmalling@mailbox.syr.edu for this info]

There is an HTML Archive (begun 5 Sep 1996) of Novell List messages, sorted by date, thread, subject & author, at:

http://www.dfm.dtu.dk/netware/nov-lst/

NOTE: This archive could be better if the subject field was used properly in messages posted to the NOVELL list.

[Thx S.R.]

Also, see Section S for archives on selected topics.

See Section S for archives on selected topics.

Last Updated: April 07, 1998 / JEL