World Wide Words -- 26 Dec 98

[Michael B Quinion]

WORLD WIDE WORDS      SPECIAL ISSUE      Saturday 26 December 1998
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A special mailing from Michael Quinion      Thornbury, Bristol, UK

Contents
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1. About this newsletter.
2. New World Wide Words Web address.
3. New World Wide Words contact address.
4. New mailing list server.
5. Subscription instructions.
6. Back issues of the newsletter.


1. About this newsletter
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The information in this newsletter is intended mainly for members
of the World Wide Words list who were already on the list when the
new system came into use on 23 December 1998. If you joined after
that date, you will have had much of this information sent you
already; apologies for the duplication if you're one of them, but
I can't separate the two groups. The next normal newsletter is due
on 9 January 1999.


2. New World Wide Words Web address
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As from now, all the Web pages that used to be at our old site of
<http://www.clever.net/quinion/words> are instead located at

    <http://www.quinion.com/words/>.

This change is permanent. The old address will continue to work
for a while but should not be relied upon. Please change your
bookmarks and any other references to World Wide Words so that
they point to the new address.

If you have been using <http://www.quinion.demon.co.uk/words/>,
our UK mirror site, please use the new address instead. The Demon
site will probably continue for a while, but all the available
effort is going into the new domain. Please do not give the Demon
address to anyone.

The site is being tidied up and reorganised, so that if you have
bookmarks set to any location other than the root Words page, you
may in the future get one of those dreaded '404: Page not found'
errors. Just go back to the home page and work down through the
indexes. No page is more than two levels down from the root, so
navigation is relatively straightforward.


3. New World Wide Words contact addresses
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You can contact Michael Quinion at <words at quinion.com>. The e-mail
address of <words at quinion.demon.co.uk> is still valid, but the new
address is preferable, as mail will still reach him if he happens
to change his personal e-mail address. If you are submitting a
question for the Q&A column, please use <qa at quinion.com>.


4. New mailing list server
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The owners of the LINGUIST list have very helpfully agreed to host
the World Wide Words list. Michael Quinion would like to thank
LINGUIST, and particularly Anthony Aristar, whose reward has been
lots of boring questions from a novice list owner ...

If you joined World Wide Words before 23 December, you have been
automatically subscribed to the new list. You need take no action
to continue your subscription. You need e-mail the list server
only if you want to change your address or leave the list.

The World Wide Words list is announce-only, that is, subscribers
cannot post messages directly to the list. However, feedback and
comments on newsletters are more than welcome, as ever. Such
messages should be sent to <words at quinion.com>, not to the list
server system.


5. Subscription instructions
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All subscription requests must be e-mailed to the list server at:

    <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org>.

Unlike the old one, this system is completely automatic, so all
messages must be sent in the standard forms. Anything else will
just be returned as an error.

Commands have to be in the body (the text) of messages. Subject
lines are ignored. It is a good idea not to include any other text
in command messages, not even your signature.

To leave the list, send a message with the following text from the
e-mail address which is listed as the recipient of mailings:

    SIGNOFF WORLDWIDEWORDS

To subscribe to the list, send a message with the following text
from the e-mail address which is to receive mailings:

    SUBSCRIBE WORLDWIDEWORDS First_name Last_name

That is, if Joe Soap wanted to subscribe, he would send the e-mail
message:

    SUBSCRIBE WORLDWIDEWORDS Joe Soap

To change the address to which newsletters are to be sent, send a
SIGNOFF message from your old address, followed by a SUBSCRIBE
message from the new one. You will be asked to confirm the new
address before it takes effect.

To obtain information on other commands, send the text:

    INFO WORLDWIDEWORDS

In case of difficulty, e-mail Michael Quinion at

    <worldwidewords-request at listserv.linguistlist.org> or
    <words at quinion.com>.


6. Back issues of the newsletter
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Back issues of the newsletter are available from 7 March 1997. The
newsletters are usually sent weekly, but there are some holiday
gaps. The best way of getting them is to visit

    <http://www.quinion.com/words/backissues.htm>.

Issues from now on will also be available from the list archive at
<http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/worldwidewords.html>