STARFLEET-L: The Unofficial Mailing List of STARFLEET ----------------------------------------------------- Frequently Asked Questions 5.1 10212.17 DEB The STARFLEET-L mailing list is an unofficial mailing list that allows members of STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association to more easily exchange ideas and information about issues affecting STARFLEET and STARFLEET members. STARFLEET-L does not operate under the authority of STARFLEET or its leadership, but under the authority of the list owner and moderators. The current STARFLEET-L ListFAQ is always available on the STARFLEET web site at http://www.fleetlist.org/FAQ.txt. A. Subscription instructions B. Contact information C. Archives and FAQ D. Purpose E. Mailing list vs. newsgroup F. Announcements and digests G. How to post H. To post or not to post I. Replies, followups, quoting J. Acronyms and emoticons K. When things go wrong L. Multiple e-mail addresses M. Other sources of info N. E-mail directory O. What not to do P. What did we miss? Q. Credits A. Subscription instructions ---------------------------- There are two ways to handle your subscription to STARFLEET-L. The first method is via the web. Most people file this preferable. You can subscribe, unsubscribe, set digest, and all sorts of other things here. Now, for folks who really want or need to use an email interface, here's how you go about it: To subscribe to STARFLEET-L: * Write starfleet-l-request@fleetlist.org a message whose BODY says SUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe from STARFLEET-L: * Write starfleet-l-request@fleetlist.org a message whose BODY says UNSUBSCRIBE B. Contact information ---------------------- The STARFLEET-L list owner is Greg Trotter. The list moderator is Dave Blaser. Your first contact for most issues or questions regarding the list should be Dave. * Greg Trotter * Dave Blaser If you have questions or comments about subscriptions or the operation of the list, please try Dave first, or contact Greg if you feel it's appropriate. C. Archives and FAQ ------------------- Digests of the STARFLEET-L mailing list are available on the list server site at http://www.fleetlist.org/pipermail/starfleet-l. These mailing list archives are maintained on a space-available basis and are not guaranteed, so you are encouraged to keep your own archives if you feel you may wish to refer back to a previous post. The current STARFLEET-L ListFAQ is always available on the Fleetlist web site at http://www.fleetlist.org/FAQ.txt. D. Purpose ---------- The STARFLEET-L mailing list is an unofficial mailing list that allows members of STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association to more easily exchange ideas and information about issues affecting STARFLEET and STARFLEET members. STARFLEET-L does not operate under the authority of STARFLEET or its leadership, but under the authority of the list owner and moderators. Announcements of upcoming chapter or region events are absolutely welcome, as well as discussion about issues facing chapters, regions, or individual members. Messages of thanks or praise are appreciated; messages of complaint are not, though constructive criticism will often be welcomed by individuals or STARFLEET departments when e-mailed directly. The authority of the list owner and moderators on STARFLEET-L is absolute; the list is not a democracy. You are encouraged to adhere to the guidelines set forth in this FAQ and to requests made by the moderators on the list itself. The right to free speech guaranteed within the United States by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifies that the Federal government will not interfere with your right to express yourself. It does not apply to private individuals or organizations, and most assuredly does not apply to STARFLEET-L. You are welcome to express your disagreement with this position on another forum, if you choose, but not on STARFLEET-L. E. Mailing list vs. newsgroup ----------------------------- Sadly, most unmoderated USENET newsgroups these days attract too much spam to be useful. Rather than require a moderator to approve each individual post, as would be necessary for a moderated newsgroup, we prefer to have a mailing list whose subscribers may post freely within the guidelines established for the list, without worrying about excessive traffic from outside the subscriber base. In addition, many STARFLEET members on the Internet have e-mail access, but don't have access to USENET newsgroups at all, or don't have access to the alt.* or rec.* hierarchies where a STARFLEET newsgroup would make sense. There is in fact a USENET newsgroup Unlike some moderated mailing lists, you shouldn't attempt to send messages directly to SFI-ANNOUNCE-L. All messages distributed on SFI-ANNOUNCE-L have already appeared on STARFLEET-L or another open discussion list. If you would like your announcement distributed widely, post it to STARFLEET-L with a notation encouraging people to pass it along, and feel free to drop a note to listowner and moderator Robin Smith if you have any questions. G. How to post -------------- To post a message to STARFLEET-L: * send e-mail to STARFLEET-L@FLEETLIST.ORG That's the short form. Your entire header (including, for example, To, CC, Subject, and Organization lines) must not be longer than 1,024 characters, to comply with a restriction imposed by the mailing list software we're using. This means that a message sent to dozens of recipients including STARFLEET-L, all of whose names and addresses are visible, may not get through to the list. Sending a message to dozens of recipients with their names and addresses visible is rude anyway. Use BCC (blind carbon copy). In general, your Subject line should be brief but descriptive. A subject line such as "Question" or "List post" or "Announcement" or "Important!" accomplishes little. Instead, use a descriptive subject such as "How tall is Ro Laren?" or "Region 7 Conference this November." You should sign each post to STARFLEET-L with, at a minimum, your name and e-mail address. Some list subscribers use e-mail software or services that do not display complete header information, so can't necessarily see the name and e-mail address of the message's originator unless they're provided in a signature at the end of the message. Also, some service providers (AOL is notorious for this) don't include anything useful like your name in the header. Signatures should not be excessive; five or six lines is usually plenty. If you are posting a message that expresses congratulations, condolences, get-well wishes, or requests for prayers or good luck, please make sure you provide the private e-mail address of the individual or group affected, or promise to pass along any replies that are sent to you privately. Such messages are wonderful, but followups to these messages should be in the form of private replies, not list posts. If you're posting a followup message to a STARFLEET-L post, make sure your e-mail software is sending the message where you expect it to go. If your To: or CC: lines contain multiple copies of the STARFLEET-L address, take out all but one. If your reply is addressed to lists other than STARFLEET-L, make sure you're entitled to post to them, and make sure you intend to, before you do. This is a closed list, so you can only post from the e-mail address at which you're subscribed. Posts from any other address will bounce. Styled text or HTML encoded text is not appropriate on STARFLEET-L. Post your message as plain text e-mail. Stylized text will arrive in some subscribers' mailboxes as indecipherable gibberish, and will often make the list digests unwieldy. If you don't know how to turn off styled text in your mail client, please ask us for help. We have FAQs available upon request for a variety of popular mail clients. File attachments are absolutely forbidden on STARFLEET-L. In most cases, many or most subscribers will be unable to use them anyway. It's fine to offer the availability of a file to those who reply privately that they'd like a copy sent individually, but files are not to be sent to the list. This includes "business card" files sent along automatically by some mail clients, notably Netscape's. Turn them off. H. To post or not to post ------------------------- Think before you post to the list. You are about to share your words with hundreds of people. If you're mad when you write your message, hold onto it for a few hours before posting, and then look at it again. You may discover you need to reword it... or just delete it unsent. See the section on "What not to do" before posting, to make sure you are not violating any of the list's rules with your message. I. Replies, followups, quoting ------------------------------ Think before you post a followup message. Does the list need to see your reply, or should it go only to the one person who posted the message to which you're replying? Followup messages of condolences, congratulations, thanks, get-well wishes, and the like should always be sent privately. Don't send "Hear, hear!" messages, "I agree!" messages, "Me too!" messages, or "USS Whatever dims its running lights in sympathy" messages to STARFLEET-L. If you decide to send a private reply, please carefully check to make sure your message is addressed only to that person's private e-mail address, not to the list. You'd think it would be easy to keep an eye on this, but far too often, we see messages erroneously sent back to the list when the sender clearly meant them to be private. If you're going to send a followup post to the list, quote the message to which you're replying, but do so sparingly. It's worth quoting four or five lines of the previous message to provide context for your readers, but remember that your fellow subscribers have seen the previous message, so you don't need to quote much. Don't quote the previous post in its entirety, even if your e-mail software makes it awfully convenient to do just that. Do attribute the quote to the person who wrote it. Check carefully. J. Acronyms and emoticons ------------------------- Frequent communicators on the Internet have developed a set of conventions for shorthand in the form of acronyms expressing a variety of meanings, and "emoticons" (also known as "smileys") to convey emotion. Many acronyms you'll see on STARFLEET-L are common in offline usage, such as RSVP (repondez, s'il vous plait, a French phrase asking for a response, usually used to request an answer to an invitation) or ASAP (as soon as possible). Most are unique to the Internet, such as YMMV (your mileage may vary; you might feel otherwise), LOL (laughing out loud), IMHO (in my humble opinion), FWIW (for what it's worth), AFAIK (as far as I know), and RTFM (read the darn manual, a suggestion that the information you seek is already at your fingertips). Most of the emoticons are readily interpreted if you tilt your head. The symbol :-) is a smiley face tilted to the left. Variants include the noseless smiley :) and its lefty counterpart (: (thanks, Gord) as well as symbols for other emotions, such as :-( or :-\. K. When things go wrong ----------------------- If you believe there is something wrong with the STARFLEET-L mailing list, DO NOT under any circumstances post a message to the list expressing your concern. If there is actually something wrong, your post may exacerbate the problem, and at best will be ineffective at solving it. You should instead attempt to contact one or more of the members of the list's administration, whose direct e-mail addresses are available in the section "Contact information." If there's nothing wrong with the mailing list, but you have a complaint about something that someone has posted, please direct your comments to the list moderators. Most of STARFLEET-L's moderation activity goes on behind the scenes, via private messages among the moderators and those who've done something wrong. It's possible that the moderators have already dealt with the issue you feel is worth a complaint, but it's also possible that we haven't, so your comments, worded politely and in private, are always welcome. Please unsubscribe from STARFLEET-L if you know in advance that your e-mail address is going to become unreachable, either permanently, or for a short period of time. If messages to you bounce repeatedly, you may be unsubscribed from the list without notice. Make sure your mailbox doesn't get too full, you don't turn on "vacation" autoresponders, etc. L. Multiple e-mail addresses ---------------------------- If you might want to post to STARFLEET-L from multiple addresses, please subscribe all of them to the list individually. At the moment, we have no mechanism for allowing you to post from an address that is not subscribed to the list. (You can post from an address that's subscribed to the digest, rather than the regular list, if that's more convenient.) M. Other sources of info ------------------------ Information about most aspects of STARFLEET may be found at the STARFLEET web site. * http://www.sfi.org/ Starfleet forms and documents, sound files, photographs of STARFLEET events and personalities, and various other items of interest are available at the STARFLEET FTP site. * ftp://ftp.sfi.org/ N. E-mail directory ------------------- A directory of STARFLEET members who are online, and the various ways of communicating with them, is maintained by Mike Dugas. * http://www.sfi.org/directory/ * Mike Dugas O. What not to do ----------------- Don't worry, there's a nearly infinite variety of GOOD ways to express yourself on STARFLEET-L. The following "don'ts" are of varying degrees of severity, but refraining from committing any of them will help to keep you on the list moderators' good side. If you have any questions, or aren't sure whether something you're about to post violates the guidelines, by all means ask first. Whoever coined the phrase, "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission," never met the STARFLEET-L list moderators. Note that the following isn't an exhaustive list of rules. Please use your best judgement and try to behave maturely. * No flames or other acts that disrupt the even flow of discussion on the list. We expect you to act like adults when posting here. Feel free to express disagreement with someone's position by arguing your position. Do not feel free to express your disagreement via attacks on the other party as an individual. * No forwarding private mail. Messages sent to you privately are not to be shared with the list without the permission of the author. The same applies for messages from limited-access mailing lists. * No forwarding messages to the list for non-subscribers. Some folks aren't subscribed because they aren't allowed to post to STARFLEET-L. If someone asks you to share their thoughts with the list, ask them to contact a list moderator. We'll post their message for them if we think it's appropriate. * No posting copyrighted material without permission. This includes newspaper articles, articles or other material from web sites, wire service material, etc. If you ask, you may find that the newspaper or writer is happy to have you share the material. Ask. * No excessive quoting. Quote four or five lines of the post you're replying to. If you have more than one point to answer, then of course you may quote the relevant lines for that point also. Do NOT quote the previous post in full, either at the beginning or end of your post. We've already seen it. * No unmarked spoilers. Provide spoiler warnings in subject line, and 20 lines of space before your text, if your post contains info that could be considered a spoiler. See the ListFAQ for details. * No chain letters. A chain letter is a message that urges you to pass it along to others. Simple as that. It doesn't have to be a get-rich-quick scheme to be a prohibited chain letter. Chain e-mail is against the terms of service of most Internet service providers, and is absolutely against the rules here. Chain petitions, virus warnings, snowballs, and other messages that urge you to pass them to all your friends are forbidden. * No virus warnings. If you receive an e-mail message warning you of a dastardly virus or prank that everyone should know about, do yourself (and us) a favor and DON'T forward it to everyone you know. Above all, don't forward it to STARFLEET-L. Odds are very good it's a hoax, an urban legend, or otherwise bogus. If you get something that seems real, and you feel everyone needs to know about it, please pass it on to one of the STARFLEET-L list moderators for consideration. We'll post it if it seems appropriate. * No test messages. If the operation of the list needs to be tested for some reason, one of the listadmins will do so. If you feel there's a problem we don't know about, please let us know via private e-mail. If you need to test the operation of your e-mail, please do so by exchanging e-mail with an individual, or even send an innocuous command to Mailman. Sending a message to with the word "options" in the body will give you some various options, and will tell you whether your E-Mail address is subscribed to the list. * No advertising or sales pitches, whether to promote something that would benefit you, a friend, or an unrelated company. We make exceptions for chapter fundraisers and the like, but please ask for permission before posting such messages. * No "me too" posts. If you'd also like the information someone has requested on the list, send a private note to that person asking him or her to share the results of his or her request. If you agree with what someone has just said, feel free to express your agreement in a private note. Don't bother posting a reply to the list unless you have something to add to the discussion. * No personal paging. If you've misplaced someone's e-mail address, or mail is bouncing, or you'd like to get in touch with a list subscriber, there are better ways to do it than wasting everyone's time simultaneously. * Limit signature blocks to six lines, including all information, decorations, quotations, and blank lines. * Don't post replies to the list when your message is meant for just the original poster. Don't post followup congratulations, good luck wishes, or condolences to the list. send them privately. * No attached files. No styled text. No HTML encoding. Simple, eh? P. What did we miss? -------------------- This document isn't perfect, and as it has evolved before, it will evolve again. Please send comments or suggestions to the List Owner, Greg Trotter, at or to the List Administrator, Dave Blaser, at . Q. Credits ---------- This ListFAQ is maintained by Dave Blaser, the current list moderator. He has an easy time since it was written primarily by Commodore Mark H. Anbinder, a prior list moderator, but like most documents of any length, contains the work of many. Special thanks to Gordon Goldberg who started up the first STARFLEET mailing list back in 1993, and to the "retired" List Mommy, Lisa Berkenbilt, who came to the rescue with the second list. Thanks also to Kurt Roithinger, a past list owner; to list moderator emeritus Allyson Dyar; and to past deputy list moderator Donna Friesen, all of whom have helped this document to evolve and best reflect the needs of the list and its subscribers. Thanks as well to the many list subscribers who've offered suggestions, and even to those whose indiscretions and blunders have brought to light new issues we've had to address. You know who you are. :-)