You have a group of people
with whom you share common interests and you like to discuss them through
e-mail or you have a group of people that you need to send out regular
announcements but managing your e-mail list can be a nightmare. As people
change Internet service providers, they change e-mail addresses faster
than you can keep up. E-Groups may be an easier way for you to keep up
to date. By using e-groups, you can send a message to a single address
that will then resend the message to everyone in the e-group list. Members
of the list can change their e-mail address themselves and can unsubscribe
from the list if they lose interest in the topic.
Two New Internet Services
for Alamo PC Members
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| In addition to the special e-groups that Alamo PC Organization uses
for its officers and SIG leaders, two special e-groups have been setup
for our members. The first is an announce only list, that can be used once
or twice a month to send out special announcements concerning the monthly
meeting or other important issues that require us to contact our members
very quickly. To get on this list you must send an e-mail to SUBSCRIBE
. No one will be automatically added to this list and only a few officers
of the organization will be able to send messages to the group.
The second will allow members to send message to everyone in the group.
This group will allow members to discuss Alamo PC issues with other members
and the officers as well as providing feedback on the organization. You
can subscribe to this group by sending a blank -message to SUBSCRIBE
. You will be able to reply to and send messages to everyone in the group.
No file attachments will be allowed to help prevent the spread of viruses.
If you join please keep the messages related to Alamo PC and not to spread
jokes, rumors and other material. |
A number of e-group servers are available on the Internet free
of charge (except for a small ad placed on the e-mail) or for
a small monthly charge with no advertising. As more people had access to
e-mail, the Alamo PC officers and Board of Directors began using e-mail
to communicate between regular meetings but soon ran into problems.
The list of officers were maintained in everyone’s personal e-mail boxes
and inevitably people would send out e-mails to their list but would leave
someone out or would not have a current e-mail address for some members.
This led to rather spotty communications so a few years ago we began using
an e-group provider and now we have a lot fewer problems.
Here is how an e-group is setup: One of the core members signs up on
the e-group provider and sets up a new group. Once they have the group
set up, they can sign up other members to the list or send invitations
for people to join the list. People can normally send an e-mail to a group
that will sign them up to the list as well. Once you have signed up for
a list, you will begin receiving e-mails from the list and may be able
reply to them if the owner of the group has allowed people to respond to
the list. The owner may also add some members to the moderators list to
help manage the list.
Many e-group servers provide a number of additional functions besides
managing the e-mail lists and redistributing e-mails to the members of
the list. Many will allow members to share a group calendar, files, bookmarks,
and conduct polls or voting online. Lists can be setup so that anyone
may join or the list owner must approve before joining or the list owner
must explicitly add them to the list. A list may be advertised in the global
list so anyone can do a search to join or be private where someone would
have to tell you about the list. Membership lists can be open to viewing
by members or completely hidden. Options can be set to allow anyone to
post, members only or moderators only. Some lists are setup so that they
are announcements only lists. This type of list is good to allow officers
of an organization to send announcements to its members but no one can
reply to the list or replies go only to the list owner.
Etiquette on the list group becomes very important. Besides following
normal e-mail etiquette here a few additional good tips:
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If you are a list owner or moderator, only add people to a list with their
permission.
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When you reply to a message, only reply to the group if the reply really
needs to go to the list. If it is a comment back to the originator, copy
their e-mail address to a new message and send them the reply.
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When you reply to a message, put your response on the top of the message
so people do not have to scroll forever to see your response.
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When you reply to a message, leave only enough of the original message
to let people know what you are replying to. Delete the rest of the message.
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Send attachments only if they are necessary and send them in a common format
if possible. (Word, WordPerfect, Excel, Lotus 123, etc.)
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If sending a picture file, use compressed format type such as JPG or GIF.
Avoid using BMP or other formats that result in large files.
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Do not send frivolous or unrelated messages to the group. (i.e. Don’t send
jokes to a group unless it is a joke or comedy list.)
Confidentiality and security of the e-group list becomes important
as well. Most large reliable providers will not sell or release the lists
of their users to advertising companies so stay with a reliable source.
You can also help avoid e-mail spamming by using an alternate e-mail address
from your primary address. I have been using a special e-mail address for
my e-groups on Yahoo and have not been receiving any spam mail with that
address.
A number of e-group providers are available on the Internet. Some of
the ones that I have seen or used include
Check out these sites to see if one meets your group’s needs.
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