Hiya,

Russ wrote:
>Amen.  I keep trying to tell people that email's _much_ more
>difficult to handle now than it was ten years ago, and nobody
>believes me.

Well it was mostly geekier people using command line interfaces
ten years ago. *chuckle*  Fewer automatic bells and whistles
and a slightly higher level of cluefulness.

Mary wrote:
>> In the meantime, it's set the sizelimit for the long attachments,
>> and then go poster to poster and explain about the smaller ones and
>> why they're a pain (I copy what it looked like when it showed up at
>> MY address -- take out a key symbol so it doesn't just reformat
>> correctly when it gets back to them!) --

Cool idea.  Yea, we use the sizelimit (500 lines) too.

and Russ continued:
>Problem is, of course, with a 600-member list and a dozen newbies a
>week there's no way to explain all this.  I just hope they notice
>thier own message when it comes back.  If it does.

We have from 800 to 1,000 members at any one point in time
and newbies showing up all the time.

I dealt with that problem by setting up an editor account and
making "review" the default for new subscribers.  I screen 2
or 3 messages from newbies before turning them loose to post
directly to the list.  It cuts down on the clueless unscribes
and allows me to nip the quoting/formating problems in the
bud by telling them what the problem is and asking them
to revise and resubmit (using a set of stock messages that I've
developed over time that point them back to the list guidelines).
See http://okcforum.org/~editor/
The URL for the list guidelines is also in the footer of each
post from the list.

I also changed the mail template to send newbies a small
blurb when they post that tells them
1) that their post is being reviewed and that it will be
released if it's consistant with list guidelines
(see http://www.topchoice.com/~psyche/lists/sex-l.html#post)
or they will be asked to revise and resubmit; and it also
tells them
2) After you have demonstrated that you can keep your posts
consistant with list guidelines the editor will set your
options to where you will be able to send mail directly to
the list.  I also remind them in that message that it's up
to them to keep the list a cool place to be and that if
they can't do that, then they won't be allowed to remain
a member.

Reviewing mail from newbies takes 10-20 minutes a day, but
it's well worth it if you ask me 'cuz it cuts down
considerably on the "noise" levels.

Out for now,
Betty