LISTPROC FAQ for the users of the cog mailing list

This FAQ was last revised on 2-Jul-07

NOTICE: By subscribing or continuing to subscribe to the COG mailing list, you agree to be bound by these rules. Your presence here is exclusively at the whim of the listowners. You may be unsubscribed at any time, for any reason or no reason at all. You have no recourse. You were warned.

Table of Contents:

0.0 Disclaimers

Background

1.0 OK, what is the COG mailing list?
1.1 How do I subscribe to the mailing list?
1.2 What about "digest" and "mailing modes"?
1.3 How do I send a message to everybody?
1.4 How do I unsubscribe?
1.5 What happens when I "reply" to something COG sent me?
1.6 Are there some posting conventions which I should follow?
1.7 How should I behave myself in e-mail to COG?
1.8 I have this really cool picture, can I post it to the list?
1.9 Can I get 'back issues' of the digest?
1.10 I received a reply from Listproc that said there were no recognizable commands in the message. Why?
1.11 What if this FAQ didn't answer my question?

0.0 Disclaimers/Purpose Top

Mail from this list is the exclusive responsibility of the originators. It is operated by the "List-Owners" Tom Maloney, Dale Horstman and, Don Breazile, for their amusement. They make all the rules, and may break any and all rules when it suits them. If you don't like it, you may leave. Or the listowner may terminate your subscription without any necessity for justification or even explanation.

To the greatest possible extent permitted by law, the listowners disavow, disclaim and renounce any and all warranty, obligation, liability, or responsibility for any action, failure to act, debt, guilt, sin, or other consequence which may arise from any usage, failure to use, or indirect consequences to subscribers, their employers or employees, agents, heirs or assigns, common carriers, or any other entity which may in any way become involved with or impacted by this mailing list.

You, the subscriber, by subscribing or continuing your subscription, agree that the value of the e-mail discussion you receive from this mailing list is fair and just consideration and compensation for the obligations and limitations imposed on you by this document.

The listowners don't promise you that anything at all will happen. The listowners warn you that anything at all MAY happen, and it's all your personal responsibility, not theirs or anyone else's. By subscribing or continuing your subscription, you agree to hold the listowners and each and all individual subscribers, their heirs and assigns, employers and employees, agents and all other persons and legal entities harmless from any claim or legal action which may arise from any usage of this mailing list, to the greatest extent permitted by law.

This mailing list is run without consent, permission, or knowledge of the corporations and/or other legal entities which own the computers and Internet connections over which the mailing list operates. These corporations and/or other persons and legal entities share no responsibility or liability.

1.0 OK, what is the COG mailing list? Top

This list is for discussion and chat among owners and fans of Kawasaki Concours motorcycles. It is NOT exclusively for members of the Concours Owners Group, though it is associated with that organization. The topics on the list are predominantly about COG, the Concours the GTR1000 and the new Concours-14, and to a lesser extent motorcycling in general. "Off topic" messages are frowned upon.

1.1 How do I subscribe to the COG mailing list? Top

It's all run by server software. Send mail to LISTPROC [at] micapeak.com, no 'Subject:' line is necessary, and a message body consisting of:

SUBSCRIBE COG Your Name Here

Please replace "Your Name Here" with your NAME - what people call you. NOT your e-mail address - what computers call you. Your e-mail address is picked out of the headers of your mail. This means that you should send all administrative mail from the same place where you initially subscribed, and will get all list-mail at that same address.

If the software doesn't understand your request, an automated reply may be mailed to you, usually within a few minutes.

1.2 What about "digest" and "mailing modes"? Top

"digest" is one of several "mailing modes" of the list. Your subscription is always set to EXACTLY ONE of these modes, which control how and when you get mail from the list:

ACK - Undigestified list mail (THIS IS THE DEFAULT) You get back a copy of your own mail to the list.

NOACK - Undigestified list mail You do NOT get back a copy of your own mail to the list.

DIGEST - Digestified list mail You do NOT get back a copy of your own mail to the list. Instead of receiving one e-mail message for every message anybody sends to COG, you generally get one "digest" e-mail message per day, with all the e-mail traffic since the last digest batched up into one wrapper.

POSTPONE - Your record stays on file, but you get NO mail from the list. NOTE: it also doesn't "save up" the mail while you're gone; you are simply ignored until you re-set your mode. However, you can get back issues of the digest, see #1.9

You can set yourself to any one of these modes by sending mail to LISTPROC [at] micapeak.com, no 'Subject:' line is necessary, and a message body consisting of:

SET COG MAIL [mode]

E.g.: to get back to "normal" mode after setting your mode to postpone or digest:

SET COG MAIL ACK

1.3 How do I send a message to everybody? Top

Send your plain text message to cog [at] micapeak.com and your message will be distributed to all subscribers. You may also be interested in 1.8 and 1.10

1.4 How do I unsubscribe? Top

Send mail to LISTPROC [at] micapeak.com, no 'Subject:' line is necessary, and a message body consisting of:

UNSUBSCRIBE COG

(No name is required - it's keyed on your address from the mail header)

1.5 What happens when I "reply" to something COG sent me? Top

Depends on your mailer. In general, using most mailers' "REPLY" command will send your response to the entire mailing list - NOT just to the originator of the message to which you're replying.

1.6 Are there some posting conventions which I should follow? Top

The users of this mailing list prefer to conform to Internet/NetNews convention of appending new material AFTER the minimum quoted portion of the message to which the new stuff refers. Please be courteous! Trim down the text from the original message so that your reply includes ONLY the minimum quotation necessary to establish context.

Habitual users of some PC mailers typically seem to have a particular problem with this, often inserting 2 lines of reply at the top of 100 lines of quoted material. This is very irritating to readers of your message, who end up scanning all that quoted volume looking for new material and not finding any.

It is also considered good form on the Internet to have a "signature" that reasonably identifies you. "CB Handle" style screen names like AOL uses are NOT an example of this. A particularly bad instance is when a new user blurts out a request for information with no signature and only a screen name; no information on their location at all. This makes it very difficult to respond to the info request without inflicting the response on all the subscribers of the mailing list.

You should remember also that many people are reluctant to respond when a post comes only with an anonymous ID with no name and little address information.

1.7 How must I behave myself in e-mail to COG? Top

It is boring-escalating-to-irritating to read a bunch of META-discussion on whether it's OK to discuss certain things here or not. So don't. If you don't like the topic, see the disclaimer. Or:

• Keep your opinion to yourself and use the DELETE function of your mail reader agent as appropriate to control your blood pressure.
• Share your opinion with the person who originated the mail to which you object - via private mail, rather than with the whole list.
• Share your opinion with the listowners, privately. They may or may not sympathize, privately, and that may or may not be reflected in their public list policy.

The overriding list policy is quite simple: People have to be civil (and preferably *polite*, a higher standard) to each other and at least give the appearance of getting along together as adults. That's really all there is.

A few consequences seem obvious:

1. If a discussion starts which stimulates a significant amount of obnoxious, overly aggressive or other uncivil discourse, then this discussion must end.
2. It doesn't matter whose "fault" it is.
3. Adults must recognize that being "right" isn't always the most important thing, and that some people won't ever admit that you're "right" on a given topic no matter how obvious it is to you.
4. The polite, civil, adult thing to do about such a topic is to avoid it in PUBLIC discourse. This way, your screams and the fountains of blood won't disturb the people who are trying to hold a calm conversation about topics in which they can find common ground.
5. An even more evolved and mature course of action MIGHT be to avoid discussing the disagreeable topic with your "opponents" altogether. This is sometimes called "agree to disagree". You may find that there are OTHER things you can discuss with these people, and THAT discussion may be productive and even enjoyable.

No!
The listserver will accept many *non* text postings, however it causes numerous problems for the readers of the list, many of whom use a different mail reader than you do.

The preferred method is to post a note informing the subscribers of your document, then sending it to the interested parties, NOT the entire list.

On a related subject, and just as important, many mail programs insert HTML or RTF formating into a message. This formatting plays havoc with many mailers different than your own. Please be courtious and turn this option off for mailings to the COG list.

If you use MS Outlook Express or Eudora as a mail client, there is a web page to help you configure your mailer

Posts to the list containing graphics or non plain text material may be cause for an administrative unsubscrition from the list, and subsequent ban.

1.9 Can I get 'back issues' of the digest? Top

If you are a subscriber on the list, most definitely. Go to micapeak.com to find out how

The message you sent to Listproc was in HTML format. Listproc scans the first few lines of your message and see's no recognizable commands, rather code for HTML.

Newer versions of AOL and Compuserve software use HTML as the default, and only, format for mail. Solutions may include using a different mail program (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.), or sending messages to the list with a web based interface. Check the documentation for your software or contact your ISP's customer support.

1.11 What if this FAQ didn't answer my question? Top

You can read more about the list software, as well as administer your account, on micapeak.com

Have fun, and safe riding!