What happened to PMINews?

[Bruce Francis]

On Thu, 08 Jun 2000 17:07:15 +0100 (BST), Simon Bowring wrote:

>>"List for discussion of Southsoft's newsreader PMINEWS" <PMINEWS@YorkU.CA>
>How does one subscribe? 

They're running ListServ, so send a "subscribe pminews" message to:
        listserv@YorkU.ca

=================== contents of saved message ======================
Thu, 8 Jan 1998 21:54:58

You have been  added to the PMINEWS mailing list  (List for discussion of
Southsoft's newsreader PMINEWS) by "N. MacKenzie" <Nollaig@YORKU.CA>.

Please save this message for future  reference, especially if this is the
first time you subscribe to an  electronic mailing list. If you ever need
to  leave the  list,  you  will find  the  necessary instructions  below.
Perhaps  more importantly,  saving a  copy of  this message  (and of  all
future subscription notices  from other mailing lists) in  a special mail
folder will give you instant access to the list of mailing lists that you
are subscribed  to. This may  prove very useful the  next time you  go on
vacation and  need to leave  the lists temporarily so  as not to  fill up
your  mailbox while  you  are away!  You should  also  save the  "welcome
messages" from the  list owners that you will  occasionally receive after
subscribing to a new list.

To send  a message to  all the people  currently subscribed to  the list,
just send mail  to PMINEWS@YORKU.CA. This is called "sending  mail to the
list",  because you  send mail  to a  single address  and LISTSERV  makes
copies   for  all   the  people   who  have   subscribed.  This   address
(PMINEWS@YORKU.CA) is also called the  "list address". You must never try
to send any  command to that address,  as it would be  distributed to all
the  people  who have  subscribed.  All  commands  must  be sent  to  the
"LISTSERV address", LISTSERV@YORKU.CA. It is very important to understand
the difference  between the two,  but fortunately it is  not complicated.
The LISTSERV address is like a FAX number that connects you to a machine,
whereas the list address is like a  normal voice line connecting you to a
person. If you make a mistake and  dial the FAX number when you wanted to
talk to someone on the phone, you  will quickly realize that you used the
wrong number and call again. No harm will have been done. If on the other
hand you accidentally make your FAX call someone's voice line, the person
receiving the  call will be  inconvenienced, especially if your  FAX then
re-dials  every 5  minutes. The  fact  that most  people will  eventually
connect the FAX machine to the voice  line to allow the FAX to go through
and make the  calls stop does not  mean that you should  continue to send
FAXes to  the voice number.  People would just get  mad at you.  It works
pretty much the same way with mailing lists, with the difference that you
are  calling hundreds  or  thousands  of people  at  the  same time,  and
consequently  you  can  expect a  lot  of  people  to  get upset  if  you
consistently send commands to the list address.

You may leave the list at any time by sending a "SIGNOFF PMINEWS" command
to  LISTSERV@YORKU.CA. You  can also  tell LISTSERV  how you  want it  to
confirm the receipt of messages you send to the list. If you do not trust
the system, send a "SET PMINEWS REPRO" command and LISTSERV will send you
a copy  of your own messages,  so that you  can see that the  message was
distributed and  did not get  damaged on the way.  After a while  you may
find that this is getting annoying,  especially if your mail program does
not tell you  that the message is  from you when it informs  you that new
mail has  arrived from PMINEWS. If  you send a "SET  PMINEWS ACK NOREPRO"
command, LISTSERV  will mail you  a short acknowledgement  instead, which
will look  different in your  mailbox directory. With most  mail programs
you will  know immediately that this  is an acknowledgement you  can read
later. Finally,  you can turn  off acknowledgements completely  with "SET
PMINEWS NOACK NOREPRO".

Contributions sent to this list are automatically archived. You can get a
list of the available archive files by sending an "INDEX PMINEWS" command
to LISTSERV@YORKU.CA. You can then order  these files with a "GET PMINEWS
LOGxxxx" command, or using LISTSERV's database search facilities. Send an
"INFO DATABASE" command for more information on the latter.

This  list is  available  in digest  form.  If you  wish  to receive  the
digested  version  of the  postings,  just  issue  a SET  PMINEWS  DIGEST
command.

More  information on  LISTSERV  commands  can be  found  in the  LISTSERV
reference  card, which  you can  retrieve  by sending  an "INFO  REFCARD"
command to LISTSERV@YORKU.CA.
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