ExCS Mailing List

Intended Audience

Members of ExCS, ex-members of CUCC, and current members of CUCC (but note it's not meant to be a general CUCC list). Subscription isn't currently restricted, but I reserve the right to throw people off, especially those with no clear connection to ExCS or CUCC.

I'd love to receive more mail, how can I join the mailing list?

There are 2 versions of the list: discussion and notices.

Notices means you'll only get announcments sent to the excs-notices list address at survex.com. This list is much quieter, but you'll miss out on lots of fascinating chit-chat. Discussion means you get a copy of everything anyone sends. Notices are also sent to the discussion list so you only need join one of the 2 lists.

You can also choose to receive a digest version of either list this means that instead of getting lots of individual messages, you'll get at most one message per day which contains several messages within it (actually, there's a size threshold in the list software, so if the list is very busy you may occasionally get 2 or more digests per day). You can take a digest of the notices list, but there's not a great deal of point - it's very uncommon for this list to get two messages in the same day.

You can choose a text or MIME version of the digest. If you have clever mail software, the MIME version may present it to you as a collection of messages in some nice way. If not, you may prefer the text version (which is the default).

The simplest way to join the list is by using these links:

If you don't have web access, you can join and leave the list just by sending e-mail (for example, you might want to tell a friend with e-mail but no web access how to join). For instructions, send a message with help in the subject to listname-request@survex.com (replacing listname with excs, or excs-notices as appropriate).

Help, my mailbox is too full! How do I stop this flood of mail?

If you're interested in staying in touch, but just feel you're getting too many messages, you might want to consider switching to the digest or perhaps the notices list. To switch to the notices list, unsubscribe from the excs list and resubscribe to the notices list as described above. To change to the digest, visit the admin link above and click on the "digest" checkbox.

Or if you'd prefer to unsubscribe entirely, again use the methods described above.

I've not heard anything from the list, have I been unsubscribed?

You might have been. If the list server gets bounced mail from more than a week or so, it'll remove you. Mail can bounce for many reasons, but common ones are lack of disk space in your home directory or on your mail server, and prolonged service outages. If you have a dial-up account, mail is sometimes bounced if you don't connect for a long time.

Or it could just be quiet at the moment.

Do not mail the list to ask -- it's a waste of everyone's time, and of bandwidth. The best approach is to try to subscribe as described above. This will tell you if you're already on or resubscribe you if you aren't.

I'm moving to a new job/university...

Then unsubscribe from the old address as described above. Then subscribe from the new address (assuming you have a new address of course).

You'll also want to change your details on the on-line address list. It's best to unsubscribe before leaving - it saves the list from having to send lots of messages which will never get read.

Any cool ExCS-related web pages?

Chas Butcher's ExCS address list now resides on this server and updates and additions can be submitted using a web form. You'll need to give a login name and password to access the address list - you can find the details in a previous paper ExCS newsletter. As a hint for those with fading faculties, neither contains capital letters and the password is 7 characters long.

The Web site is password-protected for a reason, so please treat the password, and the contents of the site, with respect. We don't like junk mail!

For more ExCS stuff, take a look at the ExCS home page.

Last updated: 2000-12-12 13:55