Resumption of service

[Rich Alderson]

As a result of the large number of long messages to the Indo-European and
Nostratic mailing lists, the mail system which I have been using suffered
a (metaphorical) meltdown.  This affected not only the lists themselves,
but the mail for the company for which I work.  In good conscience, I had
to discontinue sending mail to the lists until I could work out a way for
them not to affect the rest of my universe.

This message is coming to you from the revamped mail system which I have put
in place.  Mail from these lists can no longer affect anything on systems
which are under my care.

Now is as good a time as any to announce an important change in the handling
of messages posted to these lists:  I will no longer approve for posting to
either list a message which is addressed to any recipient other than the list
in question.  This will avoid the problems created by postings which quote,
quite by accident, private messages from one list member to another:  If it
doesn't come from the list, don't quote it in a message to the list.

To facilitate this change in policy, postings to the list will have a header

	Reply-To: <list name>

added to them.  (I am already adding a Sender: header for the archives which
are maintained at linguistlist.org.)  I myself find this objectionable, but
I am finally persuaded that it is the best way to run a mailing list.

I will not apply this new policy to the backlog of messages on the two lists,
as that would make it difficult to maintain continuity.  However, all messages
received after 22 February 1999 must conform to the new policy to be sent out.

Thank you all for your patience and your continued interest.

								Rich Alderson
								List owner and
								moderator
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