World Wide Words -- CHANGE TO MAILING SYSTEM/FAQ

Wed Feb 6 09:03:54 UTC 2002

WORLD WIDE WORDS FAQ                                6 February 2002
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See the first section for an important change!

This document is sent roughly every three months to subscribers to
World Wide Words. It contains useful information about subscription
commands and addresses to write to. Please keep it for reference.

Contents
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1. CHANGE TO THE WORLD WIDE WORDS MAILING SYSTEM.
2. Contact addresses.
3. List commands.
4. Back issues of the newsletter.
5. Subscribers' countries of origin.
6. Acknowledgements.

1. CHANGE TO THE WORLD WIDE WORDS MAILING SYSTEM
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Now that World Wide Words has so many subscribers, problems with e-
mail are becoming significant. Every time a newsletter goes out, I
get back large numbers of messages that contain viruses. Also, each
newsletter mailing triggers many automatic out-of-office responses.
Some people send me messages about subscription matters that ought
to go to the mailing list management system. All these take time to
deal with.

In self-protection, I have instituted a new system. This will allow
subscribers to contact me as readily as they do now, while greatly
reducing the amount of unwanted material I have to work through. Be
assured that your comments and questions will be as welcome as they
have always been!

FROM NOW ON, ANY MESSAGE SENT TO THE DEFAULT REPLY ADDRESS IN A
WORLD WIDE WORDS NEWSLETTER WILL BE DISCARDED WITHOUT READING.

The new rule applies to this mailing, too. See the next section for
the addresses to use. You can still hit the 'Reply' button on your
mailing software, but you have to remember to change the 'To:'
address before sending the message!

2. CONTACT ADDRESSES
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If you want to respond to something in a newsletter, ask a question
for the Q&A section, or otherwise contact me, please send it to one
of the following addresses:

* Comments on newsletter mailings are always welcome. They should
  be sent to editor at worldwidewords.org.

* Questions intended to be answered in the Q&A section should be
  addressed to qa at worldwidewords.org.

* Problems with subscriptions that cannot be handled by the list
  server should go to maillist at worldwidewords.org.

Please do not send attachments with messages.

3. LIST COMMANDS
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To leave the list, change subscription address, or subscribe, visit
http://www.worldwidewords.org/wordlist.htm.

Alternatively, you can manage your subscription by sending e-mail
to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org. Instructions must be put in
the body of the message (the subject line will be ignored).

* To leave the list, send:
     SIGNOFF WORLDWIDEWORDS

* To subscribe, send:
     SUBSCRIBE WORLDWIDEWORDS Your-first-name Your-last-name

* To obtain a list of commands, send:
     INFO WORLDWIDEWORDS

* To suspend receipt of newsletters, send:
     SET WORLDWIDEWORDS NOMAIL

* When you are want to receive newsletters again, send:
     SET WORLDWIDEWORDS MAIL

* To change your subscription address, send:
     CHANGE WORLDWIDEWORDS newaddr

  from your current address, replacing 'newaddr' with your new
  e-mail address.

  (If you no longer have the old account, you will not be able to
  use the CHANGE command. In that case, SUBSCRIBE from the new
  address as above. Then e-mail <maillist at worldwidewords.org> and
  ask for the old address to be deleted.)

4. BACK ISSUES OF THE NEWSLETTER
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Back issues of the newsletter are available from 7 March 1997.
The best way of getting them is to visit

  http://www.worldwidewords.org/backissues.htm

where they are archived in monthly sets. Each monthly archive is
created about a week into the following month.

Issues from the beginning of 1999 are also available from the list
archive at

  http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/worldwidewords.html

This archive is a better source for very recent issues. It is also
searchable.

5. SUBSCRIBERS' COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN
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World Wide Words has 14,000+ subscribers in about 114 countries. It
is often difficult to know where subscribers come from, as the only
way to tell is through the country codes at the end of their e-mail
addresses. This neat system has to some extent broken down through
the large numbers of people with .com and .net addresses, which
have become de facto international codes.

These are the countries I know about. If anybody comes from another
country, and would like to tell me about it so I can boast about
even wider circulation, please do!

Algeria, American Samoa, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina,
Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil,
Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Cocos (Keeling)
Island, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Faroe
Islands, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar,
Greece, Greenland, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica,
Japan, Jordan, Kazachstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon,
Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar,
Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia,
Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua,
Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea,
Peru, Philippines, Poland, French Polynesia, Portugal,
Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,
Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Slovenia, South Africa, South
Korea, Soviet Union, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland,
Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey,
Turks & Caicos Islands, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates,
United Kingdom, USA, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela,
Vietnam, Virgin Islands (US), Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zambia,
Zimbabwe.

Comments on this list to editor at worldwidewords.org, please.

6. Acknowledgements
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World Wide Words is more than grateful to the LINGUIST LIST, which
hosts the mailing list on its LISTSERV system free of charge. And
each week the newsletter is read in draft by volunteer copy editor
Julane Marx (what errors exist, of course, are my responsibility; I
have this habit of changing things after she has seen the text!).