Dear members,
When the list had to migrate from MAILBASE to JISCmail, it was George who,
without any help from my side, had to carry all the technical and
administrative workload of this process. As we still need to adjust the
info files and help files associated with the list, I have now tried to
make at least a small contribution by revising the 'welcome' message that
each new member is to receive automatically after having joined the list.
Hoping that our current members, too, will find these instructions helpful,
I append a copy to this present mail. Please feel invited to send me
corrections and suggestions (please send them off the list to
[log in to unmask]).
Yours,
Otfried
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WELCOME to the italian-studies discussion list!
PLEASE SAVE THIS INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE, AS WELL AS THE OTHER MESSAGES YOU WILL
RECEIVE FROM JISCMAIL UPON SUBSCRIBING TO THIS LIST. The information contained
in these messages will be of use to you in the future, even if they may appear
to be complicated or irrelevant at this time.
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CONTENTS of this message:
1 What is italian-studies?
2 Important addresses
a) the list address
b) the listowner address
c) the JISCmail address
d) the list homepage
2 How to post a message to the list
a) address
b) subject line
c) text of message
d) file attachments
3 How to send commands to JISCmail
a) address
b) form of your message
c) joining the list
d) leaving the list
e) suspending and resuming mail
f) digests
4 How to consult the list archives
a) e-mail
b) World Wide Web
5 IMPORTANT! Your first message to italian-studies
6 How to get more information about JISCmail
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1 WHAT IS italian-studies?
Italian-studies is an on-line list that provides a forum for scholarly
discussion of Italian language, literature, history and culture. The list is
hosted and sponsored by the Department of Italian, School of Modern Languages,
University of Leicester, and co-sponsored by the Society for Italian Studies.
When a subscriber (that is, a member of the list) sends a message to the list,
the message is automatically sent to all the other members.
Typically, a contributor will raise a question arising from his or her
research, to which other subscribers will reply. Often, these replies can
differ, laying the groundwork for instructive debate and stimulating further
participation from yet other subscribers.
In addition to such discussions, information about bibliographical matters and
new publications will be posted by the list owners.
Postings to the list may be in any language, but English and Italian are
preferred.
This list is unmoderated, meaning that members can post directly to the list
without having first to get permission or approval from the list owners. This
does not mean that anyone can post to the list, because posting to the list
is restricted to members only.
Members are expected to be courteous and considerate in their messages to the
list.
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2 IMPORTANT ADDRESSES
a) the list address:
[log in to unmask]
A message sent by a member to this 'list address' will be distributed
automatically to every member of the list and will also be published in the
list archives on the World Wide Web. The 'list address' is where you send your
questions regarding matters Italian, or your replies to questions posted by
other members to the list.
b) the listowner address:
[log in to unmask]
A message sent to the 'listowner address' will reach only the listowners who
manage the list. Use this address when you need help with your subscription or
with technical issues regarding the list. You may also use this address if
you have complaints about mail sent by others to the list, or if you want to
distribute a message that regards a commercial undertaking and therefore needs
special approval before being sent to the list.
c) the JISCmail address:
[log in to unmask]
A message sent to the JISCmail address will not be delivered to a human being,
but will be processed by the JISCmail listserv software. This is where you
send purely technical commands for joining or leaving the list, for changing
the settings of your subscription or for requesting files from the list
archives. When sending commands to the JISCmail address, make sure that you
follow the instructions given below in section 3 ('How to send commands to
JISCmail')
d) the list homepage:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies.html
To reach the list homepage on the World Wide Web, point your browser to the
above URL. There you can browse and search the list archives, read info files
related to the list or use a Web based interface for changing your membership
settings or for sending mail to the list. Please note that you can do all
these things also by e-mail, but for some features like browsing the archives
you may find it more comfortable to use the list homepage on the World Wibe
Web.
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2 HOW TO POST A MESSAGE TO THE LIST
a) address
If you wish to post a message to the list to have it distributed automatically
to every member, the correct address is the list address:
[log in to unmask]
b) subject line
The subject line should be succinct and descriptive. For example, a query
regarding the marriage of Dante should have as its subject line 'Dante's
marriage', not (for example) 'Dante', 'help' or 'query'.
If over the course of a discussion the main subject in question should evolve
significantly, please alter the subject line accordingly.
c) text of message
The text or body of message is where you submit your query, response, opinion
or other information to the list.
It is recommended to send the text of your message as plain text without
special formatting and without special characters, to make sure that it can be
decoded correctly by the many different e-mail systems used by the several
hundred members of this list.
If your message refers to a previous message, make clear in succinct form to
which message you refer; indeed, it would be helpful if you could specify
which part of the message to which you refer. PLEASE DO NOT CITE THE FULL
TEXT OF A PREVIOUS MESSAGE, but cite only the relevant portions upon which
you comment.
Restrain from sending messages which do not contribute to the actual discussion
but only serve to exhibit your personal consent (e.g., 'I agree!' or 'Right
on!').
We hope many experts in different areas of Italian studies will be among us,
and that simple questions posted to the list will be answered with generosity.
However, it is recommended to consult other available resources first before
sending a query to the whole list.
Please sign your message with your name and with an e-mail address where you
can be reached off the list.
If you wish to post a message which may relate to a commercial undertaking,
please contact first the list owners at [log in to unmask]
and seek their approval.
d) file attachments
For practical computing reasons and security reasons it is not allowed, NOT
UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, to send attached files to the list.
If you want to share with other members a file (e.g., a picture file, an
executable program file or a formatted or zipped document) that you think is
of interest to the list, please DO NOT SEND THE FILE ITSELF TO THE LIST, but
send an ordinary message instead, informing the members about the contents of
your file and how it can be obtained from you off the list.
Some e-mail programs are configured to attach a separate electronic 'calling
card' (vcf-card) to every outgoing mail. If this is the case with your e-mail
program, please disable this feature before sending mail to the list.
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3 HOW TO SEND COMMANDS TO JISCmail
a) address
The correct address for sending commands to JISCmail is:
[log in to unmask]
You send commands to this address if you want to leave or join the list,
change the settings of your subscription, or request files from the list
archives.
b) form of your message
If sending a command to JISCmail, please leave the subject line empty, put the
command in correct form on the first line of the message, and make sure that
your message does not contain any additional comments or personal signature.
If your e-mail software by default adds a personal signature to your e-mail,
either disable this feature before sending mail to the JISCmail address, or,
on the line directly following your command, type two minus signs (i.e. "--"
without the quotation marks) to indicate to the processing software that
everything following after these two minus signs is to be ignored.
c) joining the list
To join the list, send the command (replacing 'firstname' and 'lastname' with
your real name):
join italian-studies firstname lastname
to: [log in to unmask]
Please note the hyphen in 'italian-studies'. Please do not use special
characters (e.g., umlaut or accented letters) in the spelling of your name.
The e-mail account from which you send this command is the one where you
will receive all the mail distributed by the list. It is also the account
which you will have to use for sending contributions to the list or for
changing the settings of your subscription or leaving the list. If you want
to use more than one accounts for the list, you have to subscribe from each
account separately.
d) leaving the list
To leave the list, send the command:
leave italian-studies
to: [log in to unmask]
e) suspending and resuming mail
If you wish to stop receiving mail from the list for a certain period while
still maintaining your membership (including your right to post to the list),
send the command:
set italian-studies nomail
to: [log in to unmask]
Once you wish to receive the list's messages again, send the command:
set italian-studies mail
to: [log in to unmask]
f) digests
Normally you will receive messages from the list one at a time, as and when
they are posted to the list. You can change this by switching to digest mode,
which means that you will receive only one single (and possibly large) mail
each day, containing all the messages posted on that day.
To change your settings to digest mode, send:
set italian-studies digest
to: [log in to unmask]
To stop receiving digests and change back to default mode, send:
set italian-studies nodigest
to: [log in to unmask]
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4 HOW TO CONSULT THE LIST ARCHIVES
One may consult previous messages either by e-mail or using the World Wide Web.
a) e-mail
Messages sent to the list are collected together in monthly archive files,
which you can retrieve using e-mail.
The name of the archive file depends on the on the year and month, for example
ITALIAN-STUDIES.LOG0011 contains all the messages sent to the list in november
2000. The archive files will include message header information, and if a list
is busy they can be large.
To retrieve a monthly archive file by e-mail, fill in the year (yy) and month
(mm) and send
get ITALIAN-STUDIES.LOGyymm
to: [log in to unmask]
To find out what files are available, send
index italian-studies
to: [log in to unmask]
You can also search the archive files for one or more keywords. For example, if
you want to retrieve all messages containing the words "Dante" and "marriage",
send
search DANTE MARRIAGE in italian-studies
to: [log in to unmask]
This will get you a file containing any message containing the words "Dante"
and "marriage", regardless of upper-case or lower-case spelling.
b) World Wide Web
If you have access to the WWW, point your browser to the italian-studies
homepage at:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies.html
There, you can choose a month of messages you wish to examine, and then browse
the relevant messages. The order in which the messages of a given month are
listed (by date, by author, by subject) can be changed by selecting one of the
options or icons displayed in the menu bar at the head of the Web page.
You can also search the Web archive for messages containing certain keywords
or posted by certain senders. To use this Web-based search form, point your
browser to:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=italian-studies
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5 IMPORTANT! Your first message to italian-studies
It will be of great interest for your colleagues to know that you have joined
the list. We would therefore ask you to post a brief message to the list,
introducing yourself and specifying your academic interests in the area of
Italian studies. Please send this message to:
[log in to unmask]
and, in the subject line, type the words (replacing 'firstname' and
'lastname' with your real name):
NEW MEMBER firstname lastname
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6 HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT JISCmail
For more complete information on how to use JISCmail, check out the JISCmail
documentation and user guides on the World Wide Web by directing your browser
to:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/docs/
To request personal help with the JISCmail system, please send your request to:
[log in to unmask]
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From time to time, this introductory file will be amended and reposted to the
list. At that time, please reread (and print) the message, save it, and
delete/discard the previous version of it.
We hope that you will find this list of interest and benefit to you. Please
tell your colleagues about the list, and encourage them to join.
Also, please do not hesitate to tell your listowners of any problems or
comments you may have. You may contact them by e-mail at:
[log in to unmask]
or by using their current personal address:
George Ferzoco E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Director, Italian Studies Tel.: ++ 44 (0)116 252 2654
University of Leicester ++ 44 (0)116 252 2680
School of Modern Languages Fax: ++ 44 (0)116 252 2657
University Road ++ 44 (0)116 252 3633
LEICESTER LE1 7RH
UNITED Kingdom
Homepage: http://www.le.ac.uk/ml/gpf2/gpf2.html
Otfried Lieberknecht
D-12163 Berlin
Schoeneberger Str. 11
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: ++ 49 (0)811 882540
++ 49 (0)89 76775703
++ 49 (0)30 8516675
Homepage: http://www.lieberknecht.de
WITH BEST WISHES,
George Ferzoco and Otfried Lieberknecht
Listowners, italian-studies
[log in to unmask]
Version 1.0, 1996.12.05
Version 2.0, 2000.12.16
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