Newsgroup Tutorial
LISTSERV®
mailing list services donated by L-Soft International, Inc.
When you go on vacation or will otherwise be away from your computer for a while you may want to reset your options and temporarily suspend mail delivery.
How to Stop Mail Delivery Temporarily:1. Click on the link at the bottom of every post.
2. Click "Unsubscribe or Change Your Settings".
3. Click "Login with your LISTSERV Password". Note: this is not on a
button! It's an underlined part of the paragraph above the buttons.4. Scroll down to the bottom.
5. In the "Miscellaneous" category, check the box for "Mail delivery
disabled temporarily".6. Click "Update options".
7. Click the "x" in the box in the top right corner of the window to
close the window.8. To start getting mail again, repeat steps 1 - 6 and then uncheck the
box that disables your mail delivery.
Nothing is ever as simple as we want it to be. However, follow along here and we will make signing up for GUAIGROUP as painless as possible.
1. When you go to http://COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM/ARCHIVES/GUAIGROUP.html(boy, that's long,) the first thing you will see is this. (sorry if this is a little blurry, I'll fix it later).
2. Click on Join or leave the list (or change settings). That will take you to...
3. this. Fill in Your E-Mail Address and Your Name. Don't click on anything yet! Scroll down through the rest of the page and choose your preferences.
4. After you choose your preferences scroll down to the bottom of the page and...
5. click on Join GUAIGROUP. This takes you back up to the top of the page and...
6. Tells you that your confirmation is being emailed to you.
7. Click on the blue link, and it takes you to this Command Confirmation screen.
8. That's it! Close your browser and go check your email. You will then receive a Welcome Message with all three of our rules and the posting address, which is GUAIGROUP@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM. It is a good idea to save the welcome message. (top)
1. Why, you ask, do you need one? So that when you want to go back and change your options or see the archives, you can. Go back to http://COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM/ARCHIVES/GUAIGROUP.html and again click on...
2. Join or leave the list (or change settings). This takes you to the sign-up page again, but don't sign up again! Click on...
3. login with your LISTSERV password, which takes you to...
4. the Login Required screen. Don't type in anything. Just click on get a new LISTSERV password first, which takes you to...
5. here. Fill it in (don't forget to write it down somewhere where you can find it later when you need it) and click on Register Password, which will take you...
6. Here which tells you to wait for the email confirming your password, (which is sent out instantaneously.)
7. Click on the link I've outlined in red (or if your email program doesn't let you click through on that url, copy it and paste it into your address bar and hit GO.) That will take you to this screen:
8. And that is all there is to it! You now have a password that only you know. (top)
1. This is easy. Do it once and you're an instant expert. Go to our friend the main GUAIGROUP page again http://COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM/ARCHIVES/GUAIGROUP.htmland see...
2. the links for each week's archive. Click on one of these which gets you to...
3. the Login Required screen. Now you know why you wanted that password. Go look it up and come back....... Welcome back. Now fill in the the boxes and click on Login. You can see that if you need to change your password you can do it here. Some of you may get a verification screen, some not. If you do, just click on the obvious link which will get you...
4. here! Welcome to the Archives! Click around on the links, play with the search functions, have a great time, and send us a message introducing yourself. (top)
HAVE FUN!
Again, go to the GUAIGROUP main page, http://COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM/ARCHIVES/GUAIGROUP.htmland click on Search the archives.
That takes you to the Search the GUAIGROUP Archives page.
A search can be as simple as typing a single word in the Search for box and clicking on Submit at the bottom of the page without filling in any of the other boxes; or it can involve the full power of LISTSERV's database functions. Here are a few examples of simple searches.
- To search for messages about the HG diet , simply type HG diet in the search box. This will show all the messages that contain the words HG and diet close to each other.
- You could also type hypoglycemia diet, but this would not show messages containing HG.
- For better results, you could use (HG diet) or hypoglycemia so that you get all the messages that use the words HG diet and/or hypoglycemia. Note how the parenthesis are used here to define a specific term.
- To search for words that are not necessarily close to each other, use AND. For instance, Mozart and Beethoven would show all the messages that mention both composers, whereas Mozart Beethoven would only find a small fraction of them.
- To make a search case sensitive, enclose it in quotation marks. If you are interested in the works of Norman Mailer, you will probably find that searching for Mailer returns a lot of unexpected messages, whereas "Mailer" gives much better results.
The system can get very sophisticated. For more detailed information click on the Help button on the archives page.
Advanced Searches
In the previous section, we discussed how to make a simple search using the "Search for:" box. While this is sufficient for most searches, the other search options can be used to further restrict the scope of your search and make it easier for you to find what you are looking for.
- The Substring
Search Checkbox
By default, searches will only match full words: searching for planet will not find messages containing the word planetarium (unless those message also contain the word planet.) But if you check the "substring search" box, your search will match any word containing the string you have entered. For instance, a substring search for chem would find both chemistry and alchemy. - The Subject
Search Box
To restrict your search to messages whose subject line contains specific words, simply type them in the box that says "The subject is or contains." - The Author Search
Box
You can also restrict your search to messages posted by a particular person. If you know the e-mail address of the person who wrote the message you are interested in, this can be a very effective way to find what you are looking for, without having to go through dozens of unrelated messages. Note that you do not need to know the exact e-mail address. For instance, if you know that the userid is john and the host name is some machine at XYZ.COM, you can simply enter john xyz.com in the search box. - The "Since"
and "Until" Search Boxes
It is not uncommon for popular mailing lists to have archives spanning 10 or more years of activity. If you know approximately when the information you are looking for was posted to the list, you can use the "Since" and "Until" boxes to restrict your search accordingly. The syntax is very flexible and you can specify a date and/or time in just about any of the commonly used formats.
Search Tips
Here are a few tips which may prove useful if you are not getting anywhere with your search.
-
In most cases, you will save a lot of time by using the "Since" and "Until" boxes to narrow your search to a particular date range, even if it is very approximate.
-
If you know the author of the message and have his e-mail address, use the author search box to restrict your search.
- If you know the author's name, but not his e-mail address, add his name to the "Search for:" box. Hopefully it will be somewhere in the message header or text, and this will help narrowing the search. Make sure to clearly separate the name from the rest of the search. If you were looking for computer stores and know that the message you are looking for was written by Mary Travis, your new search should be for (computer stores) and (Mary Travis). Notice that the use of parenthesis is very specific.
- The fewer boxes
you fill in, the more broad your search will be. The more boxes you
fill in, the more specific your search will be.
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