E-mail List - Part 1
RIVER BENDER - September, 2009
What lists are we talking about and how many members? (as of 8/10/09)
River Bend (RBmail - 522), New Bern Computer Users Group (NBCUG - 327), New Bern Century Cyclists (NBCC - 111) and Pickin & Grinin Group (Pickin - 77)
Who hosts the lists and who manages them?
Always-Online, under new management (http://www.always-online.com/), has hosted the lists at no charge for over 12 years. I started RBmail in 1997 with about 20 River Bend addresses extracted from the NBCUG list. In 2007, I turned RBmail with 500 addresses over to Councilman Charlie Sharpe to run but I still manage NBCUG, NBCC and Pickin lists which are accessed at the same location as RBmail. This allows us to act as backup for each other. We are fortunate that the new management at Always-online apparently decided not to charge for the service because they considered doing so when they took over the business.
What's required in managing the lists?
The biggest task in managing the lists is keeping them up to date by adding, changing and deleting member addresses and clearing error messages. Errors occur daily when mail cannot be delivered. If a member changes his e-mail address without telling us, mail to him bounces and an error message appears at Always-Online stating that his address is unknown. We check a master list for the member's phone number and if they cannot be reached, they are deleted. This takes time so we usually just clear out errors for a few days, hoping the member will realize he's not receiving list mail and notify us. Another type of error is mail overload, which occurs when a member's mail box is full or his PC is not working. We also ignore these errors for awhile, hoping the member will return from vacation or repair his PC and download his mail. Every now and then we are deluged with errors involving non delivery to the same ISP, which tells us that the ISP's mail server is down or his spam control went berserk and is blocking list mail. This is annoying and seems to happen more to Yahoo and AOL addresses. We keep clearing the errors and after several days they usually stop coming. Sometimes the errors are false and members receive mail.
How do I send mail to the list?
Most members hardly ever send mail to a list but when they do they sometimes send it to the wrong address which causes an error. Here are the correct addresses: RBmail - rbmail@always-online.com, NBCUG - nbcug@always-online.com, NBCC - nbcc@always-online.com, Pickin - pickin@always-online.com. You can't send mail to a list unless you are a member. To be added to RBmail contact csharpe@XXXsuddenlink.net (remove XXX) and provide your name, address and phone number. To be added to NBCUG, NBCC or Pickin lists contact davewallace@XXXsuddenlink.net (remove XXX), except nobody is added to NBCUG unless they attend at least one bi-monthly meeting. A common error members make is to look at the header of a message sent to the list and see that it shows for example for RBmail: Sender: rbmail-owner@mail.always-online.com so they send their message to that address. It arrives to us as list owners and we have to spend time notifying you of the correct address which, for the example given, is rbmail@always-online.com.
Stay tuned for Part 2 next month and we'll discuss sending large files, how to cut down on unwanted list mail and more.