RBmail is 10 years old

By Dave Wallace - 110 Portside Lane

By the time you read this River Bend's e-mail list (RBmail) will probably reach 500 members as it continually grows. Not bad for a municipal list that was started back in '97 so residents of River Bend could send mail for everyone to see. Since then, e-mail lists have been started in Trent Woods, Fairfield Harbour and Taberna and growing as fast as River Bend's list. I never understood why Greenbrier didn't have an e-mail list until I discovered that their Homeowners Association discouraged anyone from starting one. Sad, as it's become quite an asset to a community.

Some questions and answers about RBmail:

How does RBmail work?

RBmail consists of a text list of e-mail addresses in Always-Online's Webmail with Dave Wallace and Al Kish designated as administrators. The list is optioned so any member may send mail to all members by addressing their message to rbmail@always-online.com. If you change your address without notifying davew@XXXalways-online.com (remove XXX) you won't be able to send or receive RBmail and I'll receive an error message that it can't be delivered. I then delete you if I can't reach you by phone (one call). Always-Online has graciously hosted the list for years at no charge. They also allowed me to add a list for my cycling club, music club and computer club that now total close to 1000 members. This keeps me busy with all the addresses churning.

What does the Town of River Bend have to do with the RBmail?

Nothing. All town officials are on the list and use it for announcements and answering questions from townspeople but they don't have any say in how the list is run. Town officials prefer it that way so residents will feel freer to use it.

What are the rules for a member to use the RBmail list?

None, except be nice to your neighbor, which shouldn't be too hard because River Bend is a very friendly town. The problem with rules is that someone has to be the policeman and nobody wants the job. So how is it working? Not bad when you consider that very few folks ask to be taken off the list because of content. Most folks simply block mail from those they don't want. Those that do ask to be removed usually work and don't have time for mail or don't like computers or have moved away. By the way, if you want to sell something fast, RBmail is the place to go.

What about my Constitutional rights to say what I want on RBmail?

Sorry, but you don't have any rights because it's a private list. If you decide that being nice to your neighbors is not your forte and your comments cause trouble, especially to the administrator, you can be removed. It gets pretty rowdy before an election and somebody always asks me to take somebody off the list but so far I've removed nobody. Bickering over a topic usually lasts only 3 days and then everybody clams up so hang in.

What can I do about mail I don't want?

Nobody likes all the mail sent to RBmail. I'm not interested in BIG attachments and in buying stuff because we have too much already so I send such messages to the bit bucket. How do you do that? Since most folks use MS Outlook Express an easy way is to click on Message/Block Sender but the problem with that is you must still download the message for it to transfer to the Deleted Items folder. A better way is to click on Tools/Message Rules/Mail and (1) enter a condition such as the sender's address and (2) select the action - scroll down and select Delete from Server. This way you don't waste time downloading mail you don't want. I use MailWasher available from www.mailwasher.net where I can see all the senders and subjects at the Server before downloading and delete the mail I don't want. One can also set up a blacklist of addresses in Mailwasher but PLEASE don't check "send a bounce message" because it comes to me - rbmailowner@always-online.com. Some folks use Webmail to preview mail at their server but it's slower than MailWasher. By the way, Carolina Connection's Webmail blocker software always sends a bounce message so don't use it on RBmail addresses. I get enough error messages without useless ones.