Dear all,
A few issues have arisen from recent list postings, and while in general I
love to watch conversations proceed by entropy to their natural
conclusions, it seems like it might be useful -- as List Manager -- to
intervene briefly in the current traffic, in order to remind everyone of
the purpose and usual etiquette of the list.
First, I'd be grateful if members of the list would *not* circulate email
attachments. Viruses can be transmitted by attachment (as also by embedded
links, and occasionally by malicious scripts), and not all messages
posted to the list are, alas, what they appear to be. If you would like
some guidance on what computer viruses are, and how they spread, amuse
yourself with the Department of Homeland Security:
http://www.us-cert.gov/publications/virus-basics This page will answer
that perennial question with which whole civilizations have struggled,
'What is a Trojan horse'?
Second, please do not conduct personal conversations over the discussion
list. This list has hundreds of members, ranging from undergraduate
students beginning their work on English poetry, to garlanded emeritae/i,
many of whom read and observe, but do not contribute to conversations. The
purposes of the list are various, and I will not catalogue them here, but
in sum they tend toward the kinds of public intellectual and professional
business that students and career academics think of as work. Of course it
is fine to use the list, in limited ways, to share other items of interest
to the community as a whole -- or even to many members of the community --
but I ask you to use your judgment, carefully, when an announcement or
invitation begins to spawn personal communications.
Finally, notwithstanding the many filters and anti-spamodical measures
deployed by the JISC, and no doubt by your own email clients, sometimes
the list will become a medium for the dissemination of detritus by clever
cranks and criminals. I will try to point out these breaches, if they look
at all dangerous, but otherwise I continue to propose that we simply
ignore them.
All the best for a vigorous spring.
Andrew
Andrew Zurcher
Queens' College
Cambridge CB3 9ET
United Kingdom
+44 1223 335 572
hast hast post hast for lyfe
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