If this is the first time you've volunteered with OpenOffice then you
may be new to mailing lists. This is very old technology, but it
works everywhere.
A mailing list is a way for each of us to send an email to everyone
else interested in OpenOffice Marketing. There are over 100 people
subscribed to this mailing list. Some of them (like me) are active.
Some are just listening ("lurkers" we call them).
You communicate with the mailing list by sending emails. Whenever you
send an email to the marketing@openoffice.apache.org the server
forwards that email to all 100+ subscribers to the list. You then,
as a subscriber, receive a copy of every note that every other list
subscriber sends. But the email will look like it comes from the
individual. Depending on your email client, you might need to look
closely to see that it came from the list.
The other way you work with the mailing list is to send commands to
the server. This is done via special addresses. You've already used
one to subscribe to the list:
marketing-susbcr...@openoffice.apache.org. Another one is the
unsubscribe command: marketing-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org.
Subscribing and unsubscribing is "self-service". I can't easily do
this for you.
So how do we keep our sanity on a list, and deal with the traffic?
A suggestion: Learn how to use "filters" or "rules" in your email
client. I, for example, use GMail and have defined a rule that
automatically takes all emails from this list and puts them into a
special folder, bypassing the inbox view altogether. This allows me
to read the emails on my schedule, when I want.
Another approach is to subscribe to this list from a 2nd email
address. Some of us use one email account for our normal business and
another one only for our OpenOffice volunteer work. I do this as
well. That way my business inbox stays clear.
I can guarantee that without some approach to managing the incoming
emails from this list, you will go crazy.
Regards,
-Rob
