LL-L "Administrativia" 2004.06.01 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 01.JUN.2004 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From: R. F. Hahn <lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net>
Subject: Administrativia


Dear Lowlanders,

Happy June! I hope you are well and have been enjoying your various
holidays. As we approach the vacation (holiday) season in the Northern
Hemisphere, there are a few things you need to know about your
subscriptions.  You will find the information farther below.  Some of it is
relevant to "older" subscribers as well.

Many thanks again to Mathieu van Woerkom for standing in for me while I was
out recovering from surgery.

New Lowlanders
Before I get to the administrative stuff (yes, please, everyone should read
on), please let me send a very cordial welcome to all those who have joined
us since my administrative message of May 13. At the end of this message you
will find a list of their places of residence. (Please bear in mind that, as
almost always, this includes people that were not born in the cities and
countries from which they joined us.) I would like to let our New Lowlanders
know and remind our not-so-new Lowlanders that you are more than welcome
(but by no means obligated) to send us a message of introduction. If you do,
this is your opportunity to let us know what your interests are,
specifically your Lowlands-related interests. At any rate, it's wonderful
that you joined us. I hope that, like so many of us who have been here for a
while, you will come to consider yourselves members of a family rather than
just subscribers to a list. We consider each List member an individual and a
friend, not a representative of his or her country, ethnicity, language,
religion, etc. This has been working really well for us, because it has
lifted us above the conflicts, partisanships, disparities, prejudices and
hatred that unfortunately prevail throughout the world. This is not to say
that divisive matters are taboo topics. All it means is that we need to
avoid alienating and hurting other List members, given that it is safe to
assume that someone from the officially opposing side is on the List, that
we have members from countries and areas that are hostile or even at war
with each other. Let's take this opportunity to rise above it by regarding
Lowlands-L neutral ground!

TOPICS
You are quite welcome to mention interests that are not directly
Lowlands-related. Since hardly anything in this world of ours is completely
irrelevant and unrelated to other things, we often strike out beyond our
garden fence. However, we always want to keep an eye on our main area and
want to explore in what ways those "external" matters apply to or impact our
Lowlands area and what we can learn from them. Please also bear in mind that
you need not limit yourselves to language matters. Anything about culture,
history, geography, belief systems and especially interethnic, interregional
and international relations is welcome, as long as the Lowlands remain our
main focus. (We have members with specific interests, such as architecture,
music, genealogy or poetry, and their contributions are just as well
received as any.) If you have any questions, please let us know. Don't wait
and get all frustrated! As far as I know, there are no mind readers among
us. If you fear that your questions or comments would be too basic, and that
the "experts" on the List would laugh at you, please rest assured that any
relevant question is perfectly permitted, while derisive behavior is not,
would not slip by me (unless I'm on automatic pilot, in which case I would
shoulder the blame). We have been an exceptionally well-behaved group with a
familial and friendly atmosphere for over nine years now. It is very
important to us that everyone feels welcome and valued, irrespective of
knowledge, education, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual
orientation and any other background facets.  We are all here to learn,
learn together and from each other.

USE OF LANGUAGE
Preferably, you should submit postings in any one of the Lowlands language
varieties (including English). No language variety is considered better or
worse than others on this list. However, you need not limit yourselves to
Lowlands varieties, because *any* language or language variety is
permissible and welcome. Just bear in mind that the more "exotic" your
language choice the fewer members will understand you. If you use a language
that is foreign to you (including English, of course), please do not worry
about making mistakes. Once in a while I dabble in Afrikaans, Dutch,
Frisian, Scots and other languages, knowing full well that my proficiency is
wanting. One of the reasons I do this is to signal an invitation for you to
pluck up the courage to use the languages you are learning. Those of you who
use language varieties that are less commonly encountered and are of
interest to folks on this list may want to consider writing a translation
into one of the more common languages. Learners and researchers will thank
you. If you wonder what languages we are being used, please look for clues
in the subject line ([ ]).

RULES AND GUIDELINES
Everyone is expected to be familiar with our rules and guidelines:
Dutch: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=regels
English: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules
German: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=regeln-de
Limburgish: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=regele
Low Saxon (Low German): http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=regeln
Russian: http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=rules-ru

TEMPORARY ABSENCE
Before you take a trip or for some other reason need to stop LL-L mail
arriving for a given length of time, please write to us
(lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net) to let us know the date you want mail to be
stopped and the date you want mail to be resumed. As some of our members can
attest, this has been working really well, certainly beats the old, crude
method of signing off and on again.
   Once in a while people find themselves unsubscribed without notice. Some
of them immediately suspect the worst: that I have "booted them out" for
some infraction or other. (I know this for sure only about those that
contact me.) Please do not jump to this conclusion unless you have received
prior reprimands and warnings (which has occurred very rarely, not at all
for well over one year). If you find yourself disconnected from Lowlands-L,
the reason is most likely that the automated server has unsubscribed your
address because of repeated "bouncing," i.e., because your mail servers keep
informing the listserver that you cannot be reached or is filled above
quota. Most of the time this is due to temporary disconnection. Sometimes
the reason is that a subscriber's junk mail filter (or "spam" filter) has
not been "told" to exempt Lowlands-L mail, which is why our mailings do not
arrive in your inboxes. So, if Lowlands-L mail stops coming, please first
check your "spam" filters and adjust them if necessary, and only contact me
about the problem if all of the above fails. Should you indeed be
disconnected, please write to me or resubmit an application
(http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php?page=subscription). I'll be more than
happy to bring you swiftly back to the fold.

PROBLEMS WITH POSTING
A few of our subscribers have occasional trouble getting their posting
submissions to arrive via the listserver. Apparently this is caused by a
combination of the "reply-to" message setup of the listserver and individual
subscribers' email program setups. So far we have not been able to identify
the exact cause and thus find out why problems occur apparently randomly.
However, our setup has been tweaked to lessen the frequency rate of such
problems. If you do not see your submissions displayed or have not heard
from me after about two days, please contact me. Alternatively, please
resend the submissions to <lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net> (instead of the usual
<lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>). If you turn out to be among the
minority with this recurring problem, please use lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
from then on. Please do not send the same submissions simultaneously to both
addresses, since sorting out duplicates would be too labor-intensive for me.
     Please do not send attachments with your posting submissions, and do
not use special formatting (e.g., bold, italic, font changes), since all or
most of these will be lost by the list processor.  You can use the following
marrkings: _italic_ and *bold*. Please do not use ALL-CAPITALS mode
throughout your writings, since it is hard to read, is perceived as
"obnoxious" and as "shouting" and is a no-no in email etiquette.
     If you have difficulties reading the postings, bear in mind that we use
Unicode UTF-8 encoding. You should set your encoding mode (under "View" and
"Encoding" or something to this effect) to (Unicode) UTF-8. The so far best
font to use for this is Arial Unicode. It comes with many of the latest
Microsoft software programs.

Lowlands-L is now well into its tenth year. Let's keep it going strong!
Thanks for your support!

Regards,
Reinhard "Ron" F. Hahn
Founder & Administrator, Lowlands-L
lowlands-l at lowlands-l.net
http://www.lowlands-l.net

***

Places of Residence of New Lowlanders since April 13, 2004:

     Australia:
          New South Wales:
               Sydney [1]
     Belgium:
          Flemish Brabant (Vlaams-Brabant):
               Bertem [1]
     Brazil:
          São Paulo:
               São Paulo [1]
     Canada:
          Ontario:
               Hamilton [1]
     Chile:
          Santiago:
               Santiago de Chile [1]
     Greece:
          Attica:
               Athens [1]
     Iran:
          Tehran:
               Tehran [1]
     Spain:
          Rioja:
               Logroño [1]
     United Kingdom:
          England:
               Essex:
                    Harlow [1]
               Stafford:
                    Staffordshire [1]
     United States of America:
          California:
               Los Angeles [1]
          Michigan:
               Wyandotte [1]
          New York:
               Sayville [1]
          Ohio:
               The Plains [1]
          Washington:
               Seattle [1]

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