Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 00:21:19 -0500 (EST) From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> To: WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net Subject: [WSFA] Wecome to WSFAlist Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Welcome to the WSFA email list. This list is for announcements and discussions among past and present WSFA members. Anything which might typically be said during a WSFA meeting or during the social hour(s) afterwards is on topic here. Any message emailed to the list (WSFAlist at keithlynch.net) will immediately appear in the email boxes of all the subscribers. Email lists such as this have a long history on the net, dating back to 1975. The Hugo award winning SF-LOVERS list, for discussion of science fiction, dates back to 1979, and lasted until last year. Please don't Bcc: anything to WSFAlist at keithlynch.net, since then it won't show up in the headers and my procmail script won't know to route it to the list. Case doesn't matter. You can send to wsfalist at keithlynch.net or WSFALIST at KEITHLYNCH.NET, or WsFaLiSt at KeItHlyNcH.NeT, either directly or via Cc:. But not Bcc:. Unlike SF-LOVERS, this will be an unmoderated list, meaning that neither I nor anyone else will censor or alter any messages. Subscription, unsubscription, and archiving is not automated. I have to handle those functions manually. I expect to do that every day or two. Please don't send subscription or unsubscription requests, or reports of problems with the list, to the list. Send them only to me (kfl at keithlynch.net or wsfa at keithlynch.net). The list should accept email from any WSFA member, whether or not they're subscribed, and from nobody else. But it's my hope that nobody will post to the list unless they read it. If you don't want list messages in your mailbox, it's possible to read the list from the archives. This is a very low budget operation. Obviously, a WSFA.ORG email address would have been nicer, but WSFA.ORG only serves static web pages. We are paying nothing for hosting there, and I suspect the non-local folks who bought out the local MAI.NET which originally hosted WSFA.ORG don't realize this, so I'm not about to call their attention to our domain. The address is on KEITHLYNCH.NET, my personal domain, which is hosted by PLETHORA.NET in Minnesota. This domain has the advantage that I "own" every possible email address on it, so I can simply decide that "WSFAlist" will go to the list. But the list itself is actually running on PANIX.NET in New York. Archives will automatically accumulate there, but nobody can see them there, so I will copy them every day or two to both WSFA.ORG and KEITHLYNCH.NET. The archives of the list will be at http://www.WSFA.org/list/ and (in case that site is down) also at http://keithlynch.net/WSFA/list/. It's my intention that the list archive only be seen by WSFA members. Please don't post the location of the archive to any newsgroup or web page, or submit it to any search engine. If it looks like non- members have found it, I'll move it to a new URL, and announce the new URL on the list, at WSFA meetings, and in the hardcopy version (but not the online version) of the WSFA Journal. To prevent spammers from harvesting addresses from the archive even if they do find it, all at-signs in email addresses will be replaced with the word "at". This is also in keeping with SF-LOVERS tradition, as that list did the same from 1979 through 1983 (though not to foil spammers, which didn't exist yet). The archives will eventually be indexed by sender and by thread, but not until message volume warrants. To help prevent spam, viruses, and unreadable and bloated messages from appearing on the list, email in "rich text" or HTML, and email with attachments, will be rejected. The list is only for plain text. This doesn't mean you can't mention a URL. It just means the message itself can't consist of HTML. HTML is for web pages, not for email. If your mailer defaults to sending HTML, please see http://www.expita.com/nomime.html for instructions on how to turn it off. I suggest you turn it off for everyone, since more and more people are deleting all such email unread. Also, all email from (or relayed through) Argentina, Korea, and Taiwan will be rejected, as those places are sources of vast amounts of spam. If you want to send to the list while traveling in one of those places, please talk to me. Also, all email from sites in the MAPS RBL. It will be up to our secretary which messages to print in the WSFA Journal. If you don't want a particular message printed in the WSFA Journal, please say so in the message. By doing it ourselves rather than relying on YahooGroups or one of their competitors, we retain full control and copyright, and we never need answer nosy questions to sign up, or be bombarded with unwanted ads, or risk losing the list if Yahoo decides to get out of the business. I look forward to seeing lively discussions here.