===================== ACCMAIL Monthly Reminder =======================
Posted 01 May 2005
This message is intended to inform you what to do before posting to
accmail@listserv.aol.com
the mailing list discussing "Accessing the Internet via Email".
1. Purpose
2. The ACCMAIL FAQ: a guide to offline internet access
3. Usenet
4. WWW-to-email server performance statistics
5. Posting to ACCMAIL: language
6. Posting to ACCMAIL: subject lines
7. Posting to ACCMAIL: off-topic
8. Posting to ACCMAIL: netiquette
9. Receiving ACCMAIL: digest and single postings
10. ACCMAIL topics
11. ACCMAIL archives and search
12. Other mailing lists
13. Epilogue
======================================================================
1. PURPOSE
This list exists as a forum for communicating news, comments and
questions about email-only methods of accessing the Internet.
This is the place to find out about new versions, ask questions about
the current version, make suggestions for additions/deletions, etc.
Note: ACCMAIL is a MODERATED list, which means that all postings will
be sent to a human for review before being posted to the list.
======================================================================
2. THE ACCMAIL FAQ: A GUIDE TO OFFLINE INTERNET ACCESS
In August 2003, after many years dedicated service to the ACCMAIL
community, Mr Gerald Boyd retired as maintainer of the ACCMAIL FAQ.
The most recent version (10.2) was published in April 2002, and
although still very useful, has inevitably become a little out of
date. A new version is being prepared.
To get the latest published version of the ACCMAIL FAQ
Send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
as the message body
or
Send a blank email to
accmail.faq.en `AT` szs.net
(replacing `AT` with @ to form a proper email address).
You can also get the file by anonymous FTP at:
Host: rtfm.mit.edu
get pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
On the WWW
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/internet-services/access-via-email/
Other languages
Esperanto: accmail.faq.eo `AT` szs.net
German: accmail.faq.de `AT` szs.net
Hungarian: accmail.faq.hu `AT` szs.net
Indonesian: accmail.faq.id `AT` szs.net
Russian: accmailfaqrus `AT` tg.org.ua
Spanish: accmail.faq.es `AT` szs.net
======================================================================
3. USENET
To learn about Usenet, Usenet access and newsgroups, Uzi Paz provides
a file that is invaluable
Send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and in the body of the
message enter ONE of the following:
send http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/1131/ua.txt
send http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/1131/ua.zip
======================================================================
4. WWW-TO-EMAIL SERVER PERFORMANCE STATISTICS
On the Web at http://www.netservs.com/mrcool/stats.htm
or email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
get file stats.txt
as the message body
To get the statistics every day, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
======================================================================
5. POSTING TO ACCMAIL: LANGUAGE
The language of the list is international English. Don't worry if you
think your English is not very good -- and don't apologise -- MOST
subscribers use English as a foreign or second language.
======================================================================
6. POSTING TO ACCMAIL: SUBJECT LINES
Mail should have a meaningful subject heading which reflects the
content of the message -- it helps others to find messages of interest
(and is necessary if you receive a lot of messages per day), and it
helps to follow a thread on a particular topic.
Non-meaningful subjects are:
1. empty or blank subjects
2. Subject: I need help
3. Subject: A question
4. Subject: Re: ACCMAIL Digest ....
======================================================================
7. POSTING TO ACCMAIL: OFF-TOPIC
Make sure your post isn't off-topic. In particular, this mailing list
does NOT deal with topics like:
- General use of your computer.
- Where do I get this or that software -- instead ask how to
retrieve it via email.
- Where do I find information on ??? -- instead ask how do I find
information concerning ??? via email.
- Windows 95/98/NT problems -- instead ask where do I find
information regarding a problem (email address, mailing list,
web page. etc.)
======================================================================
8. POSTING TO ACCMAIL: NETIQUETTE
DON'T include the entire contents of a previous posting in your reply.
DO cut mercilessly. Leave just enough to indicate what you're
responding to. NEVER include mail headers except maybe the "From:"
line. If you can't figure out how to delete lines in your mailer
software, paraphrase or type the quoted material in.
DON'T SEND A MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS. CAPITALIZED MESSAGES ARE HARDER TO
READ THAN LOWER CASE OR MIXED CASE.
DO use normal capitalization. Separate your paragraphs with blank
lines. Make your message inviting to your potential readers.
DON'T send messages with HTML coding or MIME extensions.
DO learn how to change your email program so that it sends only plain
text ASCII to the list.
Make things easy for the recipient. Many mailers strip header
information which includes your return address. In order to ensure
that people know who you are, be sure to include a line or two at the
end of your message with contact information. You can create this file
ahead of time and add it to the end of your messages. (Some mailers do
this automatically.) In Internet parlance, this is known as a ".sig"
or "signature" file. Your .sig file takes the place of your business
card. (And you can have more than one to apply in different
circumstances.)
If you include a signature keep it short. Rule of thumb is no longer
than 4 lines. Remember that many people pay for connectivity by the
minute, and the longer your message is, the more they pay.
Remember that people with whom you communicate are located across the
globe. If you send a message to which you want an immediate response,
the person receiving it might be at home asleep when it arrives. Give
them a chance to wake up, come to work, and login before assuming the
mail didn't arrive or that they don't care.
In general, most people who use the Internet don't have time to answer
general questions about the Internet and its workings. Don't send
unsolicited mail asking for information to people whose names you
might have seen on mailing lists.
ACCMail messages may be archived on websites that are vulnerable to
spambots and other email harvesters. The AOL listserv archive is
protected, but we do not know where else the messages might appear.
When posting or replying to the list, we strongly advise you to munge
all email addresses you mention in the text of your message,
especially if they are not yours. For example, instead of typing an
email address as "[EMAIL PROTECTED]", type it like one of the following:
user#domain.com
user()domain.com
user AT domain DOT com
Spambots will not see an email address, but human readers will know
what you mean. Don't munge email addresses in the FROM, TO, CC, BCC
email headers - your message will fail if you do!
======================================================================
9. RECEIVING ACCMAIL: DIGEST AND SINGLE POSTINGS
If you wish to receive the digest version of ACCMAIL (ie: all postings
combined together and sent out at the end of each day), send an email
to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
SET ACCMAIL DIGEST
as the body of the message
If you wish to receive the individual postings to ACCMAIL (ie, each
posting as it is approved in a separate message), send an email
to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
SET ACCMAIL NODIGESTS
or
SET ACCMAIL MAIL
as the body of the message
======================================================================
10. ACCMAIL TOPICS
ACCMAIL uses LISTSERV "topics", which allows people to subscribe to a
subset of postings. We have three topics:
* NEWS: announcements about new servers, new techniques, new FAQs.
* UPDATES: formatted updates of the main FAQ -- authoritative
information that is more-or-less ready for publication.
* PBE: posts about Publishing By Email.
To change your subscription options to receive only NEWS and UPDATES,
send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with
SET ACCMAIL NODIGESTS
SET ACCMAIL TOPICS: UPDATES,NEWS
as the message body.
To change your subscription options to receive only NEWS and PBE,
send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with
SET ACCMAIL NODIGESTS
SET ACCMAIL TOPICS: PBE,NEWS
as the message body.
To change your subscription options to receive all posts, send an
email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
SET ACCMAIL TOPICS: ALL
as the message body.
======================================================================
11. ACCMAIL ARCHIVES AND SEARCH
To access the ACCMAIL archives (stored on a weekly basis), email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with
INDEX ACCMAIL
as the body of the message
This will return a list of the available files which can be retrieved
by sending a command like this in the BODY of your next email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
GET ACCMAIL LOGyymmn
where "yy" is the year, "mm" is the month, and "n" is an alpha
character representing the week number (a for 1, b for 2, etc)
Example: to get the archives for week 5 of August 2004, request
GET ACCMAIL LOG0408E
(year = 04, month = 08, week = E)
To search the archives, use the SEARCH command, eg:
* To search the archives for "www4mail" and "cookies", request
SEARCH www4mail cookies in ACCMAIL
* To search the archives for UPDATE topic posts, request
SEARCH "UPDATES:" in ACCMAIL
The response is a list of numbered messages, followed by one-line
extracts containing the search words. You can get these messages by
requesting the post by number, eg:
GETPOST ACCMAIL 1021
======================================================================
12. OTHER MAILING LISTS
JUNO ACCMAIL
If you are a Juno mail user, then also subscribe to the Juno_accmail
mailing list.
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject SUBSCRIBE
List Archive: http://www.freelists.org/archives/juno_accmail/
SOLOCORREO
If your first language is Spanish, then also subscribe to the
Solocorreo mailing list: "... es destinada a discutir, debatir, etc,
los métodos de acceso a Internet utilizando solamente el e-mail".
Para suscribirte: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Página principal: http://www.eListas.net/lista/solocorreo/
ACCMAILRUS
If your first language is Russian, then also subscribe to the
ACCMAILRUS mailing list.
Home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/accmailrus/
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WEB_EMIL
If your first language is Hungarian, then also subscribe to the
WEB_EMIL mailing list.
Home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/web_emil/
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
======================================================================
13. EPILOGUE
If you have had good luck with a piece of email software or other
software that works well, please inform the list.
If you have considered all these files and comments, your post will be
welcome on ACCMAIL and everybody will try to help you with your
problems.
If not, you're likely to get a short answer referencing one of the
files mentioned here, or sometimes no answer at all!
============================= END ====================================
File last updated 22 September 2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To contribute to the discussion, email to accmail@listserv.aol.com
To unsubscribe, email to the *admin* address [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with UNSUBSCRIBE ACCMAIL as the message body.
To get the latest version of the ACCMAIL FAQ, send a blank email to
accmail.faq.en `AT` szs.net (replacing `AT` with @ to form a proper
email address).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
