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Here is the new PaleoNet User's Guide I promised you. This is a text version (obviously), but there is also a web page version up as this month's PaleoNet Forum. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/paleonet/Forum/vol2no2/MacLeod.Html The Forum version is more elegant because it looks better and contains direct links to addresses, archives, sections in the document, etc. However, both versions contain the same information. As you will see the ListProc software is much more sophisticated, allowing users lots of options. If anyone needs any help or finds that something doesn't appear to work as advertised, please get in touch with me. Also, it appears that some of you are getting duplicate copies of PaleoNet messages. If this is happening to you, drop me a line (to my address, not to the list) and we'll track down the problem over the next few days. We've still got a bit of work to do to get the rest of PaleoNet moved over to Berkeley, but (once again) we're getting there. Norm MacLeod ---------- PaleoNet: A User's Guide Table of Contents General Information Introduction - General information Addresses - Where to send what and why. PaleoNet Listserver PaleoNet List List-owner Subscription - How to sign-up. Unsubscription - How to sign off. Reply Default - Current PaleoNet reply setting. PaleoNet Archives - How to access past PaleoNet messages. Subscriber Options Postpone Message Delivery - Temporary suspension of PaleoNet mailings. Digests - How to get PaleoNet to send mailing periodically. Message Acknowledgments - How to prevent/get copies of your own messages. Recipients List - How to get a list of PaleoNet subscribers. Information About List - How to get information about the PaleoNet list. Statistics - How to get subscriber statistics. Conceal - How to remove your address from the public lists. Current User Option Settings - How to get a summary of your option settings. Online Help - How to get on-line help. Introduction With the PaleoNet listserver's move from The Natural History Museum, London (NHM) to the Berkeley Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) also comes a change in PaleoNet's listserver manager software. The listserver manager is the software that takes care of message routing, subscription/unsubscription requests, message archiving, digest assembly, etc. for listservers like PaleoNet. At the NHM PaleoNet was run with the Majordomo listserver manager whereas it is now run using the ListProcessor system (ListProc vers. 6.0) at the UCMP. Since Majordomo and ListProc's data structures are very different, the migration of PaleoNet from one to the other was a formidable task and one that engendered several unexpected difficulties. However, the advantages of Listproc over Majordomo are substantial from standpoints of both the list manager and list subscribers. This User's Guide summarizes the greatly extended set of list options now available to PaleoNet subscribers. Addresses There are two e-mail addresses used by PaleoNet subscribers to post messages to the PaleoNet list and configure various list options for their address. The address to which messages to the PaleoNet list are sent (= PaleoNet List Address) is: PaleoNet@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu This address should be clearly distinguished from the e-mail address of the PaleoNet listserver management software (PaleoNet Server Address) to which the commands that are the subject of this User's Guide are sent. That address is: Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu All e-mail lists are basically computer programs designed to accept e-mail messages from senders and route those to the list subscribers. In this sense, the distinction between the PaleoNet List Address and the PaleoNet Server Address reflects the difference between the datafile and program control options of any computer program. The ListProc software that manages PaleoNet expects messages that are to be routed to the entire list to come to one address (the List Address). User commands that will control and/or change the manner in which the software sends you PaleoNet messages must, of course, be sent to a different address (the Server Address) to avoid confusion. This manual primarily concerns itself with commands that PaleoNet subscribers can send to the PaleoNet List Address to control the manner in which PaleoNet messages are sent to them and/or get information about the PaleoNet list from the Listproc software. The other e-mail address that PaleoNet subscribers should take note of is that of the PaleoNet list-owner: N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or are having any technical difficulty subscribing, unsubscribing, sending messages to, or getting messages from PaleoNet, please feel free to contact me. Subscription* There is only one command that users can use to subscribe to PaleoNet: subscribe PaleoNet [your name] This command should be typed on a single line of an e-mail message and sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). The command should be followed by a carriage return and there should be no other information (e.g., signature text) included. The command is not case sensitive so you can use upper-case letters, lower case-letters, or any combination thereof in your command. Listproc does require that a name follow the words 'subscribe PaleoNet' on the command line. However, do not type any other text (e.g., your e-mail address) on the command line. Listproc will strip all additional information it needs from the header of your incoming message. *When you subscribe to PaleoNet the ListProc software places your e-mail address on the master PaleoNet list. It then uses this list to route all incoming PaleoNet messages to PaleoNet subscribers. If your e-mail address changes for any reason difficulties can develop unless you change your e-mail address on the PaleoNet list and/or contact the list-owner (see above) prior to the change. It is often the case that when subscriber's e-mail addresses change their local network managers will insert aliases into their local systems that will automatically route mail sent to their old address to the new address. This practice is very convenient, but can lead to frustrating problems later on when the user issues a command to PaleoNet's ListProc Server software under his/her new address and the software responds that the subscriber is not a member of the list because it cannot find the new address on its list. The best policy is to make a record of the e-mail address under which you subscribe to PaleoNet and then report any change to the list-owner so that he can make sure the appropriate changes are made in PaleoNet's subscriber list. Unsubscription* There are two commands subscribers can use to permanently remove themselves from the PaleoNet list: unsubscribe PaleoNet signoff PaleoNet These commands are exact equivalents of one another. Like the subscribe command (see above) they are not case-sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text (e.g., your name, your e-mail address) should be typed on the command line and no other text (e.g., signature text) should be included in the message. *When you unsubscribe from PaleoNet the ListProc software removes your e-mail address from the master PaleoNet list. If your e-mail address changes for any reason difficulties can develop unless you change your e-mail address on the PaleoNet list and/or contact the list-owner (see above) prior to the change. It is often the case that when subscriber's e-mail addresses change their local network managers will insert aliases into their local systems that will automatically route mail sent to their old address to the new address. This practice is very convenient, but can lead to frustrating problems later on when the user tries to unsubscribe from PaleoNet's ListProc Server software under his/her new address and the software responds that the subscriber is not a member of the list because it cannot find the new address on its list. The best policy is to make a record of the e-mail address under which you subscribe to PaleoNet and then report any change to the list-owner so that he can make sure the appropriate changes are made in PaleoNet's subscriber list. Reply Default PaleoNet's reply default is set to send standard replies back to the entire PaleoNet list. If a subscriber wishes to send their reply directly to the person who posted the message they must manually type or copy that person's e-mail address onto the "To:" line of their e-mail program. There is no way for individual users to change this feature of PaleoNet. PaleoNet Archives Archives of previous PaleoNet messages are available at serveral different addresses. Over the next few months we will be consolidating all PaleoNet archives at UCMP. Archives for PaleoNet messages posted between 3 August 1995 and 1 February 1996 can be accessed at: ftp://mailserver.nhm.ac.uk/paleonet/Archives/PaleoNet/ Archives for PaleoNet messages posted from 2 February to present can be accessed at: gopher://ucmp1.Berkeley.EDU:70/1m/MLists/paleonet/Paleonet-Archive This latter set of archives is searchable using keywords. A web page for PaleoNet archive searches is available at... http://ucmp1.berkeley.edu/museum/paleonet.html ...and a wais index gopher search can be conducted through: gopher://ucmp1.berkeley.edu/77/MLists/paleonet/.waisindex/archive Postpone Message Delivery The following command can be used to suspend or postpone PaleoNet message delivery without removing a subscriber's name from the PaleoNet list: set PaleoNet mail postpone This command is useful if a subscriber is going to be away from his/her computer for some length of time and does not which to have PaleoNet messages stack up in their local e-mail queues. If this command is issued it changes the mode setting associated with the subscriber's e-mail address on the master PaleoNet list. This has the effect of preventing any new messages from being mailed to the subscribers address. Once the subscriber returns he/she simply issues the command again, which toggles the mode back to active status. This command is not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Digests Subscribers may elect to receive PaleoNet messages periodically (instead of individually) by submitting the command: set PaleoNet mail digest When this option is invoked PaleoNet messages are accumulated for 96 hours or until 5000 bytes of text is listed (whichever comes first) and then sent out as a single message to the subscriber. If the mail mode is changes from digest to anything else all messages currently stored for the next digest will be sent to the subscriber in digest format. This command is not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Message Acknowledgments Subscribers can elect not to receive a copy of any messages they post to PaleoNet by submitting the command: set PaleoNet mail noack This command is not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Recipients List Subscribers can request that they be mailed a copy of all non-concealed (see below) PaleoNet subscribers by submitting one of the commands: recipients PaleoNet review PaleoNet The commands are equivalent. They are not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Information About List Subscribers can request that they be mailed a descriptive summary of the PaleoNet list by submitting the command: information PaleoNet This command is not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Statistics Subscribers can request that they be mailed a listing of all non-concealed PaleoNet subscribers along with the number of messages each one of them has sent to PaleoNet by submitting the command: statistics PaleoNet Statistics for individual addresses can be obtained by specifying the addresses after the "statistics PaleoNet" command: statistics PaleoNet N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk J.Blow@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu This command is not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Conceal Subscribers can remove their addresses from the current 'recipients' and 'statistics' listings by submitting the command: set PaleoNet conceal yes Concealed users can place themselves in the 'recipients' and 'statistics' lists by submitting the command: set PaleoNet conceal no The current default for all PaleoNet subscribers is 'conceal no.' These command are not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Current User Option Settings Subscribers can instruct Listproc to send them a summary of their address' current option settings by submitting the command: set PaleoNet This command is not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. Online Help Subscribers can instruct Listproc to send them a description of all subscriber options and associated commands by submitting the command: help Alternatively, descriptions and commands relating to a particular topic can be obtained by submitting the command: help [topic] (e.g., help ack, help postpone, help digest) This command is not case sensitive and should be sent to the PaleoNet Server Address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). No other text should be included on the command line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Norman MacLeod Senior Scientific Officer N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet) N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet) Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD Office Phone: 0171-938-9006 Dept. FAX: 0171-938-9277 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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