Current PaleoNet User's Guide

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Date
Below is a copy of the current PaleoNet User's Guide. Everyone gets a copy
of this upon subscription and a copy is always kept in the PaleoNet Pages
at the following addresses.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/Paleonet/Listservers/PaleoNet.Html (PaleoNet West)
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/paleonet/Listservers/PaleoNet.Html (PaleoNet East)

Still, it doesn't hurt to have more than one copy lying around on your hard
disk for those times when you're suddenly called on to leave in the middle
of the night for a field trip to the Temple of Doom (I just hate it when
that happens).

This user's guide mostly refers to the commands available to PaleoNet
subscribers that help them manage their own PaleoNet subscription. All
listserver software offers such commands, but the commands differ between
the different listserver programs (e.g., Listproc, Majordomo). Therefore,
the commands you use to (for example) unsubscribe from another listserver
won't necessarily work for PaleoNet. The most useful commands are:

unsubscribe paleonet - For people who must remove their e-mail addresses
from the list.

set paleonet mail postpone - For people who want to block the receipt of
PaleoNet messages for a while without removing their address from the list.

set paleonet mail digest - To receive digests (= periodic collections) of
paleonet postings rather than individual messages.

recipients paleonet - To get a copy of the PaleoNet master list (e.g., to
check what e-mail address you subscribed under).

set paleonet - To get a list of your subscription's current settings.

All these commands (and the others listed below) must be sent, via e-mail,
to the PaleoNet listserver address (Listproc@ucmp1.Berkeley.edu). The
listserver software will either accept your command or send you an alert
message (if it becomes confused). As always, if you have any problems with
your subscription or with the software please contact me.


Norm MacLeod

----------

     PaleoNet: A User's Guide

     Table of Contents

     General Information

        o Introduction - General information
        o Addresses - Where to send what and why.
             + PaleoNet Listserver
             + PaleoNet List
             + List-owner
        o Subscription - How to sign-up.
        o Unsubscription - How to sign off.
        o Reply Default - Current PaleoNet reply setting.
        o PaleoNet Archives - How to access past PaleoNet messages.

     Subscriber Options

        o Postpone Message Delivery - Temporary suspension of PaleoNet
          mailings.
        o Digests - How to get PaleoNet to send mailing periodically.
        o Message Acknowledgments - How to prevent/get copies of your own
          messages.
        o Recipients List - How to get a list of PaleoNet subscribers.
        o Information About List - How to get information about the PaleoNet
          list.
        o Statistics - How to get subscriber statistics.
        o Conceal - How to remove your address from the public lists.
        o Current User Option Settings - How to get a summary of your option
          settings.
        o Online Help - How to get on-line help.

     Introduction

     PaleoNet represents an experiment in establishing a higher level of
     personal interaction among paleontologists of diverse specialties and
     experience. This type of interaction was characteristic of paleontology
     during most of its existence, but has declined due, in large part, to
     our own success. Today paleontology is far more diverse than it was 20
     or even 10 years ago; encompassing everything from descriptive
     systematics and biostratigraphy to remote sensing and biogeochemistry.
     In addition, paleontology is also long been subdivided into the
     professional sectors of industry, academics, museums, and government to
     the extent that paleontologists in some sectors have come to feel as
     though they have little in common with their colleagues who have found
     employment elsewhere. The re-establishment of connections between
     paleontologists of all types is PaleoNet's primary goal.

     PaleoNet's operating model falls somewhere between an informal
     electronic journal and a very large social gathering of paleontological
     professionals (including students) convened to discuss current events
     in the field. As a subscriber, you can expect to find wide variety of
     information accessible through PaleoNet at any time. These include
     ongoing informal conversations about papers, ideas, techniques,
     requests for information, announcements, etc., set against a background
     of more formal contributions such as editorials, meeting reviews, book
     reviews, software reviews, and the like. The purpose of these exchanges
     is to put you in touch, and keep you in touch, with what is happening
     in paleontology. The key concept that makes PaleoNet work, however, is
     participation.

     Since PaleoNet is primarily a forum for public communication within the
     paleontological community, all postings to PaleoNet should be made to
     the entire subscriber list and not to individuals. Anyone who receives
     a reply to his or her PaleoNet message through a private e-mail posting
     is encouraged to make the posting public along with their
     response.PaleoNet would also like to make a special request for
     participation by graduate students. I know that during both my M.S. and
     Ph.D. programs I often felt isolated because there were few people on
     my campus who were interested in the research problems with which I was
     grappling or had expertise/experience in the fields my research
     demanded. This is natural, but that realization does little to ease
     your sense frustration. PaleoNet is offered to you, as a practical
     means of finding knowledgeable people with which to discuss your
     research problems. Moreover, PaleoNet offers a means whereby you can
     participate in discussions of direct relevance to your future careers
     side-by-side with interested paleontologists from a wide variety of
     backgrounds and at all stages of their own career development.

     PaleoNet is not affiliated with any professional paleontological
     society but seeks to serve as a clearinghouse for any information of
     relevance to any form of paleontology.


     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 you 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:

     set Paleonet mail ack

     which toggles the mode back to active status.

     These commands 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.



     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.





___________________________________________________________________

Dr. Norman MacLeod
Micropalaeontological Research
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (E-mail)

Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX: 0171-938-9277
E-mail: N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk
___________________________________________________________________