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Using the mailing list
Configuring Your Mail Client
Formatting Your Messages
Trouble shooting
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General Information Online Exchange User Guidelines The role of PPFA®: PPFA's role in this mailing list is providing me with an e-mail address and confirmation of membership status. No comments made in any post to the Online Exchange are reviewed or approved by the PPFA. All comments are those of the author and do not in any way reflect the opinions of the PPFA as a whole or it's officers or staff. Privacy: Do not use addresses posted to this list for commercial purposes by sending unsolicited messages to list members. List members may expect some private E-mail at times from list member's, however, if you receive unsolicited commercial messages that you can attribute to this list, contact the List Administrator. Appropriate language: The purpose of the mailing lists is to exchange technical information and expertise. Please avoid personal attacks, slurs, and excessive profanity in your messages. Violations of this policy as determined by the list owner will result in temporary suspension of posting privileges. Repeated offenses will result in removal from the list altogether. Message topics: Please keep the topics of your messages relevant to the art & framing industry. Please feel free to take up discussions of other subjects by private E-mail. Courtesy: To make these mailing lists useful for the greatest number of people, please treat your fellow list members with courtesy. Please refrain from actions that would detract from the value of the list for other members. Advertising: As the PPFA is both a supplier and retailer association, it would not be unusual for a list member to ask a question that is best answered by a supplier. A moderate amount of commercial message in a reply is acceptable, but detailed discussions should take place by private E-mail. An appropriate way to handle this would be to give a brief general answer to the list followed by "If you would like to discuss this further, contact us at foo@bar.com" This way, all interested parties are made aware of the availability of some product or service without having the entire list subjected to a lengthy commercial message. Messages that are, in the opinion of the list owner, unsolicited commercial messages will result in the temporary suspension of posting privilages. Continued violation of this policy will result in removal from the list. Top Contacting the mailing list administrators If you need assistance with the mailing list, send e-mail to listowner@ppfa.com. The list administrators are there to help members get the most benefit possible from this list This page is an adaptation of a 1989 document for the USENET community. While it is old by current standards, it does have some useful information, and is worth the time to review. Click here to go to the Netiquette Page Top
Using the Mailing List How to subscribe to the mailing list To sign up for the Online Exchange, please complete the form on the signup page. You will receive a confirmation request message that you must reply to within 48 hours, following the instructions in that message. When the list server has received your confirmation reply, you will be sent a list subscription confirmation and a welcome message containing further helpful information. If you need assistance, contact the mailing list administrators. Top How to unsubscribe from a mailing list To remove your e-mail address from the mailing list, log in to the subscriber area at: Top How to post a message to a mailing list You must subscribe to the mailing list before you can post messages. See the subscription information above To send a message to all current list members, send e-mail to hitchhikers@ppfa.com. Top How to switch from individual messages to the Digest version. To change your subscription so that you receive a digest of the day's messages rather than individual messages, log in to the subscriber area at: Top How to switch from the Digest version to individual messages To change your subscription so that you receive individual messages rather than the Digest version of the list, log in to the subscriber area at: Top How to retrieve files and past digests Copies of 2 months of individual past digests and other files are stored in a special directory that can be accessed by the list software. To see what files are available you use the %DIR comand and to retrieve copies of these files you use the %GET command. If your e-mail address changes Your e-mail address may change for many reasons, including:
If your address changes for any reason, you should unsubscribe your old address and resubscribe your new address. If you are unable to unsubscribe your old address, contact the list administrators. They can remove your old address, but you should resubscribe manually. That's the best way to be certain you'll be able to post messages and sign off in the future without assistance. NEW! You now make changes to your mail delivery options, including removing an inactive e-mail address, by logging into the "Virtual Chapter Room" and selecting "Change Your Account" Top Vacations and out-of-office auto-replies If you won't be checking your mail for more than a few days, you should consider switching to a digest subscription or stopping the list messages entirely during that time. Otherwise, if you've subscribed to one or more of our highly active lists, your mailbox could fill up during your absence. Besides being a nuisance when you return, this can cause you to miss important messages. The "mailbox full" errors also could easily cause you to be removed from the lists, as described in the previous section You may be removed from a list. You can easily prevent these problems by switching to a digest subscription before leaving, and switching back to a regular subscription upon returning. If you don't want digests while you're away, set your subscription options to NOMAIL. If you use any form of auto-reply message, particularly the automated out-of-office messages supported by some e-mail systems, you must set your subscription to NOMAIL. Failure to do can cause your address to be suspended. If this happens you will have to send the MAIL command in order to resume receiving messages. No probes will be sent to addresses that are suspended for this reason. Before leaving, To change your subscription so that either receive the Digest version of the list or no messages at all, log in to the subscriber area at: Upon returning, repeat the above steps but this time select either NODIGEST or MAIL, whichever is appropriate. Note: If you use an out of office message, you must set your account to NOMAIL to prevent the out of office message being sent to the list everytime a message is sent. Top
Configuring Your Mail Client Set your mail client to send lines no longer than 70 characters. This is a kindness to folks who have terminal-based mail editors or newsreaders. Some mail and news gateways truncate extra characters, turning your deathless prose into gibberish. Some mail and news editors seem to insert line breaks for you but actually don't, so every paragraph turns into one immense line. Learn what your mail and news editors do by mailing a message to yourself (or posting it to alt.test) and reading the message in a several mail and news readers. Most mail programs will let you read your message in a plain, vanilla form, the way others will see it. Identifying list messages in your inbox If you want to identify the messages from this or any other mailing lists, you can do it in two ways: If your e-mail software permits, just route messages to different inbox folders based on the To: field. It will contain the list posting address, hitchhikers@ppfa.com. Note: If you use Exchange or Outlook Inbox Assistant, be sure to click the Check Names button when setting this up. That way it'll check the address and not the friendly name used by the message author. Top Note to users of Microsoft Exchange, Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows messaging Subscribers to the mailing list who use Microsoft Exchange or other RTF-capable e-mail clients may be accustomed to formatting e-mail messages using colors, italics, different fonts, and other features to emphasize portions of their messages. Not every subscriber uses e-mail software that interprets messages formatted using RTF. To make list postings readable by the entire list membership, please follow these procedures:
If you use Exchange Server, creating server commands by pasting data can cause errors because the server inserts ">" in front of pasted lines. Choose Paste Special from the Edit menu, and Select Text rather than RTF to avoid this problem. Top Note to Microsoft Internet Mail users If your program configuration options use MIME for attached files, your entire message will appear to Exchange users as an attached text file. This makes it difficult to read and reply to your contributions to the list. To prevent this problem, change the file attachment option to UUencode or use the options described below. If you send messages as HTML instead of plain text, many list members will receive the plain text of your message plus an attached file containing the HTML. This is distracting, and any emphasis you intended through character formatting such as bold or colors will be lost, which can change the apparent meaning of your message. Setting the following options can resolve both problems:
Top You must turn off the "Retain Original Text" option when replying to list messages. This option automatically includes message headers in a way that makes your message resemble a transmission error report. As a result, messages with the original text included are not posted to the list. Top Some list members inadvertently send messages that request read or delivery receipts, or both. This has two effects. First, the person who posted the message will receive one or two receipts from many members of the list. Some receipts go to the list server, but many usually go to the person who requested them. If a large number of receipts go to the server, it can affect the level of service we provide to all members of the mailing list. Second, this problem is compounded by list members who use e-mail programs that aren't set up to follow Internet standards. Their receipt messages go to the mailing list where they are distributed back to all members, causing still more nuisance for the list members and overhead for the server. Please... If you see a message on the list with the subject line of "Read: xxx" that came from you, talk with your e-mail system administrator. Ask them why your system is spamming the mailing list. Note that you probably can't control this yourself; the administrator must do something. And... Please take extra care not to send list messages with receipts requested. That's the only way to prevent this nuisance for all members. Top
Formatting Your Messages Messages must be in plain text To insure that all messages sent to the list are readable by all of the list members, all messages must be sent in a plain text format. Messages that are sent in Rich Text Format (RTF) or Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) will be rejected by the list software. This also helps to prevent the distribution of a virus or worm directly through the list. A good message does not contain the entire text of the message to which it's responding; only the relevant parts (usually a single sentence or sentence fragment) should be included. Do not quote an entire message or an entire paragraph unless it's absolutely necessary. In addition, the mailing list software rejects any message that quotes the header lines (To:, From:, and so on) with a character followed by a space. If your e-mail software automatically quotes like this ("> To:" or "| To:"), you must remove the space and change it to ">To:" or "|To:". You can also remove the domain from explicit addresses in the quoted headers (for example, you can change "hitchhikers@ppfa.com" to "PPFA List"). By far the best reply simply refers to the message author and a one-sentence description of the subject; for example, "John Doe asked how to display a vertical scroll." You don't even need the date of the previous message if you're replying on the same day. Most list members keep a copy of messages that interest them, and can easily refer back if necessary. Please know that if you do not trim down the old message the chances are great that your message will be declined by the list software. The software filters look for clues that the old message has been included in the reply and declines those messages. Remember, less is better. Top A good message always uses a meaningful subject line. This helps you and other members of the list, since many members only read selected messages based on the subject. As a result, messages without a subject line or with vague subjects like "Help needed" may get less response. If you have a digest subscription, you should always change the subject line in your replies from the original digest subject, to RE:original message subject so that other list members know the subject of your reply. Top Please don't attach files to messages posted to the mailing list. Why? Because the list will reject your message. Provide a URL where it's available, or send the file by private mail. I can also accomadate you if you need someplace to post a picture for a short period of time. Just write me at listowner@ppfa.com. Top Replying to the author or the entire mailing list Sometimes a list member will post a question that's outside the list's scope because the other members are a source of assistance. Such messages should request that replies be directed to the author, not to the entire list. Always include your e-mail address for those using e-mail systems that might not show it. The best solution is to include mailto:user@domain.com with your address (for example: mailto:johndoe@xyzcorp.com). Many e-mail systems will allow anyone to click that link to start a message to you. Also, members occasionally reply to messages with personal remarks or other comments. Messages like these should be sent to the appropriate individual, not to the entire mailing list. Note that you will have to manually copy the author's address to the To: line of your message if the original message doesn't provide a mailto link. The Reply or Reply to Author functions in most e-mail programs default to replying to the entire mailing list. Always look at the To: line before sending e-mail to ensure your message is properly addressed. Top Distinctive signature blocks are a tradition on the Internet, but in this list we ask members to keep the signature shorter than the message as a courtesy to other members. Ideally, signatures should not exceed a few lines. Large ASCII graphics are particularly distracting and unacceptable. The most important part of the posting should be your message, not your signature. Top DO sign your posts. It is just polite to identify yourself to others on the list. It is also helpful to include your location, i.e. city, state. DON'T SEND A MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS. CAPITALIZED MESSAGES ARE HARDER TO READ THAN LOWERCASE OR MIXED-CASE MESSAGES. DO use normal capitalization. Separate your paragraphs with blank lines. Make your message inviting to your potential readers. DON'T betray confidences. It's all too easy to mistakenly quote a personal message in a message to the entire group. DO read the "To:" and "Cc:" lines in your message before you send it. Are you sure you want the message to go there? DON'T make statements that can be interpreted as official positions of your organization or offers to do business. Saying "Boy, I'd sure like to have one of those new supercomputers," could result in a truck at your loading dock and a bill in the mail even larger than your student loan. DO treat every post as though you were sending a copy to your boss, your minister, and your worst enemy. DON'T rely on the ability of your readers to tell the difference between serious statements and satire or sarcasm. It's hard to write humor. It's even harder to write satire. DO remember that no one can hear your tone of voice. Use emotions (or smileys) like :-) or ;^) and tilt your head counterclockwise to see the smile. You can also use capitalization for emphasis or Usenet conventions for italics and underlined text. DON'T put a huge signature at the bottom of your messages. DO exercise some restraint. Remember that a large number of mail and news editors out there are set up to use proportional fonts, and your lovely ASCII art won't look the way you designed it on those readers. Remember also that there's a Usenet newsgroup out there whose sole function is to make fun of people's signatures. DON'T send a message that says nothing but "Me, too." Ditto for "I don't know." DO recall that you aren't obligated to reply to everything you read. Remember the immortal words of Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889): "Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech."
Trouble shooting If you are unable to post messages or send commands If your e-mail provider or mail system administrator makes changes to their system or you change e-mail programs, the address your messages appear to come from may change. A common example is when user@SOMEPLACE.COM becomes user@MAIL.SOMEPLACE.COM. That will prevent the list server from recognizing you and accepting your messages. In this case, write to the list administrator for assistance. See the section Contacting the mailing list administrators for instructions. The administrator will unsubscribe your old address, and you will have to resubscribe with your new address. Top If you receive mail delivery failure notices If you receive a message saying that a message you just posted to a list could not be delivered, that usually means a problem in some other list member's mail. If you receive a copy of your own message back from the list, you can be sure that your message was sent to the other list members. When you receive such a delivery error message, please forward it to the List Administrator. That way the problem can be corrected so other members don't receive the same error when they post messages. Top You may be removed from the list A variety of problems can cause messages to fail to reach you. Errors encountered can include full mailbox, user unknown, unable to locate your domain, unable to contact your mail server, and many others. Most of these are temporary errors that quickly go away. Others are permanent problems that cannot be corrected. Sending messages that cannot be received by the list member wastes resources. If errors are reported that indicate you are unable to receive messages from the list, or if you cannot receive messages from the list for a week, you will be removed from the list. The system automatically sends "probe" messages to all subscribers who haven't posted a message or changed subscription options within a month to verify that they can still receive mail. If any response is received, it is treated as an error. This includes reports of full mailboxes, out-of-office messages, and so on. In these cases the probes will continue for up to four days. If the errors continue during that time, the subscriber is removed from the list. Finally, if your, or your employer's membership in the PPFA is not renewed, you will be removed from the mailing list. Top |
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© 1999 - 2004 by Merrill E. Grayson, MCPFTM |