* This is the file BIOMCH-L GUIDE with general information about Biomch-L * and answers to 'frequently asked questions'. * * Author: Ton van den Bogert * Department of Biomedical Engineering * The Cleveland Clinic Foundation * 9500 Euclid Avenue * Cleveland, OH 44195, USA * Fax: (216) 444-9198 Phone: (216) 444-5566 * * First version: January 1993 * Last updated: April 1, 1999 * * The most recent version of this file can be obtained from * http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/files/biomch-l.guide * New versions of this guide will be announced on Biomch-L. * * Please report any errors, omissions or other comments to the author. Contents: 1. What is Biomch-L? 2. What is LISTSERV? 3. How do I subscribe to, respectively signoff from Biomch-L? 4. How and what can I post? 5. How to reply to a posting 6. How to post a summary of replies 7. Who are the other subscribers? 8. What should I do when my E-mail address changes? 9. What to do if I am on vacation or sabbatical leave)? 10. How can I look at the archives of Biomch-L? 11. How can I obtain other files stored on the list server? 12 How can I store files on the list server? 13. Where can I get more information about LISTSERV? 14. Who are the 'moderators', and what do they do? 15. How do I find the E-mail address of ...? 16. What is Usenet, and how do I use it? 17. How can I find out about other mailing lists? 18. Some common problems and how to solve them 1. What is Biomch-L? --------------------- Biomch-L is an electronic discussion forum. It allows people who have a common interest in biomechanics and related fields to communicate with each other by electronic mail (E-mail). Subscription to the group is free. The main purpose of Biomch-L is to act as a 'bulletin board'. If you send a message to the address BIOMCH-L@NIC.SURFNET.NL, this message will be distributed by the list server in Nijmegen to all subscribers. See also section 4 of this guide. Secondary functions of Biomch-L are the 'E-mail directory' (see section 5), and the 'file server' (see section 8 and 9). The name Biomch-L stands for 'biomechanics list', which had to be truncated to 8 characters to comply with addressing standards on Bitnet in the 1980's. Biomch-L was started and moderated in 1988 by Herman Woltring, and has grown to more than 3600 subscribers (April 1998). Since Herman Woltring's tragic death in November 1992, Biomch-L is being managed by several co-moderators, the so-called 'list-owners' (section 12). The computer that runs the listserver managing Biomch-L is located in Nijmegen (Netherlands). The software that runs Biomch-L is called LISTSERV. 2. What is LISTSERV? -------------------- LISTSERV (stands for List Server) is a program which is mainly intended to help groups such as Biomch-L. LISTSERV was originally written for IBM/VM mainframes and was installed on all major nodes in the Bitnet network. LISTSERV is not a commercial product and available for many platforms. For more information, see http://www.lsoft.com. The version currently used (April 1998) for Biomch-L is LISTSERV 1.8c. LISTSERV automatically redistributes all mail that is sent to the Biomch-L address, so that all subscribers get a copy. LISTSERV also keeps the master copy of the list of subscribers, and can make modifications to this list when asked to do so. LISTSERV can process administrative requests using a simple command language must be used. LISTSERV commands should be sent to LISTSERV@NIC.SURFNET.NL. *** IMPORTANT!! *** It is a common mistake to send LISTSERV commands to the Biomch-L address. Remember: - Everything sent to Biomch-L@NIC.SURFNET.NL will be distributed to all subscribers. This is the 'bulletin board'. Do NOT send LISTSERV commands to this address. - Everything sent to LISTSERV@NIC.SURFNET.NL will be interpreted as list management commands. LISTSERV will tell you, if you make syntax errors. Fortunately, LISTSERV is smart enough to recognize LISTSERV commands sent to the Biomch-L address and will not redistribute these, *except* when you make a spelling error in a command. So, it is not uncommon to see public postings such as "UNSUBSRIBE" etc., which is quite annoying. In the remainder of this guide, the phrase 'send to LISTSERV' will mean: 'send to LISTSERV@NIC.SURFNET.NL'. 3. How do I subscribe to, respectively signoff from Biomch-L? -------------------------------------------------------------- You can subscribe to Biomch-L by sending a command such as: SUBSCRIBE BIOMCH-L Lisa Simpson (University of Springfield) to LISTSERV. Replace the second part of the command by your own name, and possibly City and State, or affiliation. This information (40 characters maximum) is literally copied into the list of subscribers, and should help identify you to someone who is examining the list. You can always change this information by re-subscribing from the same address. When you subscribe, you do not have to specify your E-mail address; LISTSERV automatically extracts it from the 'From:' line in the header of your E-mail. If you want to be removed from the list, send the command 'signoff biomch-l' or 'unsubscribe biomch-l' to LISTSERV. After subscribing, you will receive all messages posted to the list. You can also choose to receive daily 'digests' with several messages combined. To choose this option, send 'set biomch-l digest' to LISTSERV. Similarly, 'set biomch-l index' will give you a daily index of the messages, not the messages themselves. LISTSERV will also give you instructions on how to retrieve those messages that you want to read. These features can be turned off by the commands 'set biomch-l nodigest' and 'set biomch-l noindex', respectively. Be careful with using the "out of office reply" feature of your E-mail. This does not work well if you are subscribed to large-volume mailing lists such as Biomch-L. The result is that every person who posts a message will be punished by receiving all these automatic replies from Biomch-L subscribers. Use "autoreply" only if you can disable it for Biomch-L postings, by installing a filter that checks for the string BIOMCH-L in the header. In Eudora this is certainly possible. We have taken some measures to protect your privacy. The entire list of subscribers can only be retrieved by other subscribers. It is illegal to use this list for the purpose of creating a mailing list, and this is clearly stated in the header of the list. The web search facility at http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l will only search for strings and list no more than 10 subscribers at a time. 4. How and what can I post? ---------------------------- You can post a message to all subscribers by sending your message to BIOMCH-L@NIC.SURFNET.NL . Do NOT send LISTSERV commands to this address. You do not have to be a subscriber to post something, but postings from non-subscribers will be forwarded to the list editor for approval. This effectively stops Biomch-L from being used to distribute junk mail ("spam"). Postings from new subscribers also require approval. Spammers have been known to subscribe, post their spam, and then unsubscribe, all within minutes. The following material is suitable for posting to Biomch-L: - Conference announcements - Job announcements - Public discussions on topics of general interest - Calls for help - Information of general interest - Cross-postings - Replies to any of the above A cross-posting is material that originated in another group, and contains information that is relevant for the Biomch-L readership. If you find interesting information on another list you subscribe to, or on a Usenet newsgroup, cross-posting will be appreciated. Every posting should include: - A subject line that is short and meaningful - Relevant quotations from the original posting - A signature, at least name and affiliation, at the end - For public questions, some indication that you have searched elsewhere (literature, Biomch-L archives, www) and a summary of results from that search The following should NOT be posted: - Any binary data, file attachments, HTML, or WORD files (*) - Mail intended for one person - Non-biomechanics topics (political, virus warnings, etc.) - Change of address (unless included in a posting with other content) - More than 1000 lines (**) - Commercial advertising (***) All Biomch-L postings should be in English, or at least contain an English translation. Do not quote previous postings in their entirety. Instead, prefix the relevant lines with ">" and intersperse this with your comments. Notes: (*) All postings to Biomch-L should be text-only, in plain ASCII. To make other types of files available, put them on your web site or FTP server and just send a short announcement to Biomch-L. Also, the ISB will be happy to store material of general interest on their web site. See: http://isb.ri.ccf.org/contrib.html . (**) Postings longer than 1000 lines will be automatically rejected by the list server, but you may split up a posting into multiple messages, if needed. If this is a problem, talk to a moderator at biomch-l-request@nic.surfnet.nl. This limit will help enforce the no-attachment policy and keep postings (relatively) short. (***) It is difficult to define exactly what commercial advertising is, but you recognize it when you see it. Advertising a product is definitely not appropriate, but if a product can help solve a problem that is being discussed on Biomch-L, it makes perfect sense to mention that if done in a *short* and *factual* style. Announcements of conferences, courses, and summer schools, even if commercial, are OK for Biomch-L. Companies can announce their presence through Biomch-L. Submit a contribution for the Biomechanics Yellow Pages at http://members.aol.com/biomechYP. New entries and updates will be announced on Biomch-L. 5. How to reply to a posting ----------------------------- If you reply to a posting, it is up to you to decide whether to do it publicly (to Biomch-L) or privately (to the original poster). Private replies are often suitable for a 'call for help', but if the topic is of general interest, we would like to encourage public replies. Some very good public discussions have been started that way. Be aware that your reply to a question may end up in a public summary (see next section). If you do not want your reply to be included in the summary, say so in your reply. You can also ask to be anonymous in the summary. If you use the 'reply' command of your mail software, to write a reply to a posting, the message will go to the original poster and is therefore a private reply. At least, that is how the list was installed. You can actually see that the header of each Biomch-L message contains different lines with From:, Sender:, and Reply-To: . For a public reply, you should enter the Biomch-L address manually, instead of relying on the 'reply' command. Some mail software however, will act differently on these headers, sending it to the entire list instead. Be careful. Usually, the mail system will tell you where the mail is going, and give you chance to change the destination before sending mail. Public discussions by E-mail can become quite agitated, because of the speed of the replies. This can be avoided by not sending a reply immediately. Instead, use an editor to compose your message. Read it again later, maybe on the next day, and then send it. That will prevent errors caused by haste, and also results in a better public discussion. Another thing to be careful about is humor in E-mail. E-mail, while having the speed and informality of direct conversation, does not convey facial expressions or voice intonation, so there is always the risk that a humorous remark is taken seriously. It has become common practice to include a 'smiley' to indicate humor. Like this :-) or ;-) or 8-). Use it to avoid misunderstanding. A public reply should include: - A subject line "Re: ...original subject line..." - Relevant quotations (starting with ">") from the original posting - Your signature, at least name and affiliation, at the end A public reply should NOT include: - The full, unedited text of the original posting - Any binary data, file attachments, HTML, or WORD files - Any text of a personal nature 6. How to post a summary of replies ------------------------------------ If you receive private replies to a posting, it is common practice to make a summary of all replies and post that to Biomch-L. That way, everybody can benefit, without getting a mailbox overload. It is also the easiest way to say thanks to those who replied. A summary of replies should include: - The text of the original posting - A subject line "Summary: ...original subject line..." - A *real* summary/synthesis and your own conclusion from the replies - Relevant quotations from the original replies, including one or two lines with the name and E-mail address of the respondents (unless anonymity was requested). A summary of replies should NOT include: - The full, unedited text of all replies - Any binary data, file attachments, HTML, or WORD files - Any text of a personal nature - Any text not intended for public distribution. Check with the sender of the reply if you are not sure! If you include anonymous replies in a summary, the originator of the reply remains responsible for the content. The person who edits the summary should be prepared to reveal the identity of the originator to the list moderators, if necessary. If both parties involved do not wish to do so, when requested, don't include the anonymous reply in the posting. There are many ways to format and organize a summary. I happen to like this example: http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/archives/log9411/00132.html But feel free to choose your own style as long as you keep in mind the guidelines mentioned above. 7. Who are the other subscribers? ---------------------------------- If you are subscribed, you can send the command 'review biomch-l (countries' to LISTSERV, and you will receive the list. All addresses are so-called 'domain-style' addresses. Some addresses may be obsolete, be especially suspicious of those ending in .BITNET. We try to keep the list clean and updated. At the end of the list, you will find a summary of the number of subscribers in each country, and the total number of subscribers and countries represented. It is *not* allowed to use this list for creating a mailng list for commercial purposes. An easy way to search for a specific subscriber is to use the web search engine at http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l . 8. What should I do when my E-mail address changes? ---------------------------------------------------- You should send a 'signoff biomch-l' to LISTSERV from your old address, and subscribe again from your new address. If this is not possible for some reason, contact one of the list moderators at biomch-l-request@nic.surfnet.nl. See also section 18: Common problems and their solutions. 9. What to do if I am on vacation or sabbatical leave)? -------------------------------------------------------- It depends on how long you will be absent. The easiest thing is to do nothing, and mail from Biomch-L will accumulate in your mailbox. For longer periods, this may cause 'disk quota overflow' or similar problems. Also, you may not want to read a lot of old mail after returning. You can temporarily stop Biomch-L mail by sending the command 'SET BIOMCH-L NOMAIL' to LISTSERV. After returning, you can re-activate the mail by sending the command 'set biomch-l mail' to LISTSERV. If you want to use the 'vacation' or 'autoreply' feature of your mail software, which automatically sends a reply such as "I am on vacation" to all incoming mail, please configure this not to reply to Biomch-L postings. If that is not possible, do a 'SET BIOMCH-L NOMAIL'. Otherwise your auto-reply message will be going to everyone who posts a message, or in the worst case, to every subscriber. Also see comments on "autoreply" in section 3 (How to subscribe). Do *NOT* forward your mail automatically to a new address. This may make it impossible for the list owners to diagnose and repair delivery errors. 10. How can I look at the archives of Biomch-L? ------------------------------------------------ All postings are saved by LISTSERV in the monthly archive files. There are four ways to access this information: (1) Use the search engine at the ISB web site: http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/search.html Or browse through the archives using: http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/archives (2) Obtain a copy of an entire month of messages by sending, for instance, 'GET BIOMCH-L LOG9210' to LISTSERV. This example will result in the archives for October 1992 being sent to you by E-mail. (3) Use the web archive interface at SURFNET: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/biomch-l.html (4) Use the database search facilities of LISTSERV. Example: send the following E-mail message to LISTSERV: (*NOTE* Biomch-L is currently served by a Windows/NT server, and the DATABASE command has not been ported to this platform yet. Use the web search engine instead.) // JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * search for Euler in Biomch-L index /* Which produces the following output: > search for Euler in Biomch-L --> Database BIOMCH-L, 30 hits. > index Item # Date Time Recs Subject ------ ---- ---- ---- ------- 000029 89/08/25 10:44 138 Body segment parameters 000050 89/11/13 17:27 65 Standardization in Kinematics 000102 90/02/14 21:43 75 Joint attitudes: a debate [and 27 more] Subsequently, you can ask LISTSERV to send you the items you are interested in: // JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * search for Euler in Biomch-L print 29 50 102 /* Full documentation about these features can be obtained from LISTSERV with the command GET LISTDB MEMO. Of course, you can also simply read the messages in the LOG files or in http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/archives . 10. How can I obtain files stored on the list server? ----------------------------------------------------- Besides the archives, various other files are stored in the Biomch-L file area, such as material from the ISB, thesis abstracts, public domain software. An index of the files can be obtained by sending GET BIOMCH-L FILELIST to LISTSERV. *IMPORTANT* These files are no longer updated, and most have been transferred to the ISB web site at http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/files . If you wish to retrieve any of this historical material, send a command 'GET filename extension' to LISTSERV. Some files can be retrieved only by subscribers (this is indicated in BIOMCH-L FILELIST). This was done for software, to encourage public discussion about the programs, and for material of which the distribution cannot be completely public for copyright reasons. If you experience difficulties to retrieve files from LISTSERV, contact Ton van den Bogert for help. 12. How can I store files on LISTSERV? --------------------------------------- Shorter items of general interest can simply be posted to Biomch-L and they will be in the archives to read for posterity. Larger files, especially software and data, should be submitted to the ISB web site. Submissions to that site will be announced to Biomch-L by the ISB webmaster. See http://isb.ri.ccf.org/contrib.html for instructions. We no longer store new files on LISTSERV. 13. Where can I get more information about LISTSERV? ----------------------------------------------------- Like most 'E-mail answering programs', LISTSERV responds to the simple request: HELP That should get you started. On the web, full LISTSERV documentation is available at: http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/user/user.html . 14. Who are the 'list owners', or 'moderators', and what do they do? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Although LISTSERV is reasonably intelligent, it cannot handle every problem. For this reason, Biomch-L has several 'list owners'. If LISTSERV does not know what to do, it sends a message to the list owner. If E-mail to a subscriber 'bounces' because of networking or other problems, the error message is also forwarded to the list owner. This is not a trivial job: every posting generates between 20 and 30 error messages, usually. When error messages from one subscriber are persistent, the list owner may try to find out what happened, and contact the responsible postmasters to correct the problem. Or there may be not enough time to do this. See also section 14 of this guide. Sometimes, bounced mail is not sent to the list owner but re-distributed to the list because LISTSERV does not recognize it as an error. This is a very dangerous situation, which can result in a something called a "mail loop": mail bouncing back and forth between LISTSERV and a broken mail server. Annoying, because each time around, the message also is distributed to all other Biomch-L subscribers. When this happens, do NOT post anything to the list, since that will only start more loops. Notify the list owner at biomch-l-request@nic.surfnet.nl, in case the problem has not been noticed yet. The first thing the list owner will do is issue a HOLD BIOMCH-L command, to stop mail from being redistributed. Then, the subscriber(s) causing the problem are found, and their addresses removed from the list, before doing a FREE BIOMCH-L to restart mail distribution. List owners also act as 'moderators' of the bulletin board, when necessary. As mentioned in section 4, postings from subscribers are are not edited or censored. The moderators are more like a 'watchdog', becoming active when the situation requires it. The current list moderators are: Ton van den Bogert Krystyna Gielo-Perczak Michael Young Drew Smith Andreas Boehm 'Active' duty rotates among these people. The current 'active moderator' can be reached by E-mail to biomch-l-request@nic.surfnet.nl . Please use this address if you need help with Biomch-L or LISTSERV. 15. How can I find the E-mail address of ...? --------------------------------------------- If the person you wish to contact is working in biomechanics, there is a good chance that he or she subscribes to Biomch-L. You can then find the E-mail address in the list of subscribers (see section 5). This subscriber list is sorted alphabetically on the node-name, so you have to scan the entire list or use the 'string search' function of your text editor (or the 'grep' command in UNIX) to find a particular name. For finding other people, Internet has several search facilities. Some of these are listed on http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/DP_yellow_pages.html . 16. What is Usenet, and how do I use it? ----------------------------------------- Usenet is a 'news service' available on the Internet. How to connect depends on your computer system. On my AIX (= IBM UNIX) system, I used the program 'rn' (readnews) from the shell prompt. In Netscape, click on Window->Netscape News. Biomch-L postings can be read on news://bit.listserv.biomch-l, without requiring a LISTSERV subscription, but postings may expire after one or two weeks, depending on your news server. A master list of usenet groups can be obtained from ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/config/newsgroups.Z The quality of usenet groups varies considerably, from 100% noise to some fairly good ones. All Usenet groups suffer heavily from junk mail, however. 17. How can I find out about other mailing lists? ------------------------------------------------- A list of all known LISTSERV mailing lists can be obtained by sending the command 'list global' to LISTSERV. To find out more about a particular list, send a 'REVIEW listname' command to the LISTSERV that serves that list. On the web, this information is available at http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html . Information about LISTSERV lists, as well as other lists, can be found on the World Wide Web at http://n2h2/KOVACS/ for proffesional lists and http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Mailing_Lists/ for other lists. 18. Some common problems and how to solve them ---------------------------------------------- If your problem is not in this list, or if these suggestions don't work, contact a list moderator at biomch-l-request@nic.surfnet.nl. "LISTSERV says I am not subscribed to BIOMCH-L, but I am!" It can happen that your 'From:' address changes, while all mail to the old address still reaches you. You won't notice anything, until you get an error message from LISTSERV saying that you are not recognized as a subscriber. If you can't send mail from the same address that you subscribed from, subscribe again and ask a Biomch-L moderator to delete your old subscription. "I am not receiving mail from Biomch-l anymore!" There are several things that may have happened: (1) Your connection to LISTSERV (and Biomch-L) is congested or down. If you suspect that this may be the case, contact your own system administrator or postmaster (*). Read on... (2) If your mail system causes delivery errors for three or more days, LISTSERV or the Biomch-L moderators will remove you from the mailing list. Simply subscribe again to fix the problem. If subscribing does not work, you still have a problem with your mail system. Contact your system administrator for help (*). Asking a list moderator does not help, because you can't receive mail! (3) Your mailbox may be full. Normally your system tells you about this. Delete things until you receive mail again. If you have had a full mailbox for several days, item (2) above applies. "I am receiving two copies of every posting!" This means that you have two working subscriptions. Ask a Biomch-L moderator to delete one of them. He/she can find out for you which one should be deleted. (*) Every computer system has a person who is responsible for E-mail and networking, and you can reach that person by sending mail to POSTMASTER at your local node. On a VAX, this person may have the username SYSTEM. On UNIX, the username ROOT may work if POSTMASTER does not. --------------------- END OF BIOMCH-L GUIDE ---------------------