Holiday Administrivia...

Steve Avery (stevea@sedal.usyd.edu.AU)
Mon, 23 Dec 1996 13:53:25 +1100

Hi Folks,
Since it is the holiday season, it appears many ISPs are taking their
sites on holidays, resulting in quite a bit of bounced mail. Similarly,
it appears that more than the usual number of accounts are expiring at
this time of the year.
To try and alleviate the burden of bounced email messages, I am
changing subscription details from bouncing accounts more quickly than
normal. If I get email from a site saying that someone's account is no
longer valid, and I am unable to verify that that is the case (ie. if
finger doesn't work), I will unsubscribe that person. If a link in the
chain gets bent and mail simply bounces due to net outages, the I will
set that account to POSTPONE.
If you find that your account is no longer working over the holidays,
firstly assume that you have been postponed. To change back to normal
subscription, send a message to listproc@cse.unsw.edu.au (note the
address) with the body

set alt-photo-process mail ack

to normal interactive messages, or

set alt-photo-process mail digest

if you prefer digest mode. If you get a message from listproc saying
that you're not subscribed, then send a message of the form

sub alt-photo-process Joe Bloggs

to listproc@cse.unsw.edu.au (note the address), but change "Joe Bloggs"
to your name (unless your name is Joe Bloggs of course).
If you need to unsubscribe because you're suffering dementia induced by
dichromates, or some other less drastic reason, send the message

unsub alt-photo-process

to listproc@cse.unsw.edu.au (note the address). If you're lucky enough
to be leaving your postcode/zipcode for holidays and want to prevent
your mailbox exploding, send the message

set alt-photo-process mail postpone

to listproc@cse.unsw.edu.au (note the address). To reverse the
procedure, follow the guidelines above.
If anyone has difficulties with the list, feel free to send me some
personal email and I'll try and help. Give me a day or two to respond
before panicking.

The list will mostly be on autopilot between tonight my time (23rd
night), until the 2nd. After the 2nd I will only be checking the list
regularly on a weekly basis (and infrequently in between). This means I
need some cooperation from the list members (you) to help make the list
viable.

Firstly, please play nice. Don't flame each other, and don't abuse the
list with advertising (unless it is within the previously detailed
guidelines, or you have my okay).
Second, please remember not to make message overly long (unless you
believe it is truly necessary). This is particularly important when
quoting a previous message.
Third, try to remember to make private responses via private email, and
don't post single line messages unless they contain important
information.
Finally, if you believe the list is deteriorating, and that someone
needs to be spoken to, please send me some personal email as to who or
what has aggrevated you, and I'll try and act on it. My prefered email
address is stevea@cse.unsw.edu.au (note it is steveA, not steve).

With a bit of work (from me) and restraint (from you), I'm sure we can
keep the list working as well as it currently does.

Hope everyone has a particularly happy holiday season, and, for those
of you that follow the same calendar as I do, have a very happy New
Year.

cheers
-steve