Previous Page Next Page Table of Contents 5. Using the COLEMAN-L mailing list   5.1 How do I post to the list? Mail sent to [email protected] is delivered to all the subscribers on the COLEMAN-L and COLEMAN-D lists. 5.2 Where can I read the old COLEMAN-L messages? Use a web browser to open the location: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~lcompton/coleman/index.html And follow the links to the archives. The mailing list owner tries to update the archives towards the beginning of each month. If you don't see last month's archives, pester the list owner. 5.3 How do I send a query? Send mail to [email protected], make sure you have a reasonable subject line (e.g. ``Claudius SMITH, Orange Co'') and provide enough information that someone can be of help. Be sure to include your return email address and your real name. Some mailers don't properly display a return email address, so this is very important. Also including your real name is just a nice thing to do. No one likes chatting with someone known only as ``[email protected]'' or ``[email protected]'' 5.4 When should I reply to the entire mailing list and when should I reply to just the individual? There are no hard and fast rules, but generally speaking, if you think your reply would be of help to someone else on the list, then post it to the entire list. Otherwise, just send it to the original person. If you pose a question and get quite a lot of feedback, you may want to send a message to the list with a summary of the information. 5.5 What can/should I send to the list? Anything that is related to genealogy *and* the COLEMAN surname is fair game. NOTE: Short one-time commercial messages advertising services or products are allowed if they are of particular interest to the group. But please, no email spamming. Don't post large messages. Don't post binary files (ie: MS Word files, zip files, etc) or any type of attachments Don't post flames (please use person-to-person mail for personal attacks :-) Don't post copy-written material unless you own the copyright or the copyright allows for redistribution. 5.6 How do I get the more recent version of the FAQ? There are two ways to get the latest copy. Via the Web Visit the URL: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~lcompton/coleman/index.html This FAQ is also available in other formats.   Simple ASCII text -- http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~lcompton/coleman/COLEMAN-L.txt Via email Send a mail message to [email protected] that has a subject line of archive and in the body of the message are just the words ``get COLEMAN-L.FAQ''. Every mail client is different, but your message should look something like this:   To: [email protected] Subject: archive get COLEMAN-L.FAQ   Remember that case is important. In a few minutes you will get a copy of the FAQ and confirmation of the request. 5.7 How do I search the email archives? All the email messages that have been posted to COLEMAN-L since its transition to rootsweb.com (August 1996) are available for review by email. It is also possible to automatically request a copy of the latest and greatest version of the COLEMAN-L.FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Every mail client is different, but your message should look something like this:   To: [email protected] Subject: archive ls latest/* egrep ^Subject: latest/* egrep http latest/* get latest/1   Okay, so what does that all mean? The ``ls'' command will return a directory listing of all the old messages in the latest/ subdirectory where is where all the old email message are kept. The file names are pretty uninteresting, they are simply numbers that correspond to the the order that they arrived. The first egrep line means ``search all the files in the latest directory for the lines that start with the string Subject:'' You can then request (``get latest/123'') those files that look interesting. The second egrep line searches all the old messages for the string ``http'' so it should list all the files that contain references to web sites. The get command means send you the file 1 in the subdirectory latest/. It happens to be a posting of mine about moving the list to RootsWeb from Maiser.