By now, most members understand that they can send an e-mail message to all other subscribed members of one of our e-mail lists simply by sending a message to the list's e-mail address. The system we operate is one of the largest of its kind for a professional organization. Our lists employ no manual pre-screening of messages, as would be done in the more common “moderated” e-mail lists.
We have two lists for the general membership, and most e-mail–enabled members subscribe to both of them. Because of this overlap, an identical message should never be posted to both lists.
The somewhat more formal list, the “members' list,” is set up for serious discussions of subjects of interest to the membership. Each member may post two messages per week to that list. List messages are limited to about 10,000 characters each.
The second list, the “open line list,” is more free-form. There is no limit on the number of posting on the open line list, but individual messages are limited in length to about 15,000 characters (about four or five typed pages.) Messages related to organizational elections are not allowed on the members' list but are allowed without limit on the open line list.
The reason we maintain two lists is so that members who wish to stay in touch with the organization but who want to avoid large volumes of e-mail can subscribe only to the members' list. At the same time, we provide a completely uninhibited “free speech” facility via the open line list.
Allowing unlimited e-mailing by our members, who vary widely in computer skills, is not without some potential hazards, and we have taken some protective measures to keep the system running smoothly.
Only plain text messages may be sent through our lists. Because we have had at least one incident in which a computer virus was distributed to subscribers via an e-mail attachment, we have put in place automatic filtering that prevents any messages from going out on the lists that contain attachments of any kind. In addition, we have also banned any messages encoded using HTML, the language used to add “decoration” or formatting to Web pages. HTML code can potentially lead to security problems for members' computers.
Members with certain internet service providers (ISPs), such as America Online, may have trouble posting messages to APsaA's list if the ISP routinely transmits messages in HTML code. If you are having this difficulty, contact your ISP for advice on posting messages to a list that won't accept HTML code.
“TechNotes” by Paul Mosher runs in each issue of TAP, with the aim of educating us about aspects of technology and communications relevant to our work.