Mailing lists: a few do's and don'ts:

Above all else, make sure before you send email for whom that email is intended. If you can post to the entire list (you can't with my class lists), never send a message to the entire list if you want to send it to the list owner. Also, it's wise to send short, congratulatory messages to the individual you want to congratulate

1. Remember that any message you send to the list will be shared with everyone on that list. Never send an email message that you wouldn't mind seeing on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow.

2. Avoid sending political and religious messages, regardless of how passionately you feel about them: "Vote for...," "March against...," "Outlaw...," "Legalize..."

3. Be wary of virus hoaxes. These usually arrive as email, saying something like, "AOL has just discovered a new virus that will eat up your hard drive, cover your first-born child with warts, and cause all the tires on your car to go flat. Send this message to everyone you know." In a case like this, the message is the virus, clogging the Internet and irritating a lot of people, who show their indignation by calling you a moron, clogging the Internet even more. Before you warn the rest of the world about a virus, check a virus hoax page (one of the best is maintained by Norton/Symantec, at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html).

4. If you suspect that you have found a real virus, like Melissa or Win95.CIH ("Chernobyl") or the Happy99 Worm Program, let me know about it. I'll check it out and post a warning to the class. To protect yourself from viruses, install an anti-virus program, like Norton AntiVirus or MacAfee VirusScan; prices are reasonable, considering the inconvenience a virus or worm can cause, and both programs allow you a series of free updates. I prefer Norton because it installs the updates automatically; on the other hand, MacAfee had the first protection against Happy99.

5. If you would like to send and receive list email from more than one email address, you need to sign on separately for each address.

6. If you drop the class, you need to unsubscribe yourself.

7. One way to check to see if you are receiving the messages I send to the class is to go to the list's archive, available from the course webpage (either http://www.egroups.com/group/s122/ or http://www.egroups.com/group/s126/) to see if any messages have been posted. Or you can ask me.

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Questions? bmckinne@silcon.com