>On Sat, 11 Nov 1995 21:54:55 +0000 you said:
>>I have today received over 60 copies of a message telling me about my
>>forum, plus many, many (10, 20, 30) copies of several other messges from
>>varikous servers all over the US. What could be the explanation? Bob Young
>
>Hmm. Let's see at least one *FULL* copy of the message.
There are several. Here is one.
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 12:10:58 -0600
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Subject: SUBSCRIBE SCI-TECH-STUDIES ROBERT MAXWELL YOUNG
X-Comment: Boston University ListProcessor
You have been added to list [log in to unmask]
The system has recorded your address as
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and in order for your messages to get posted, you will have to send them from
this address, unless the list does not require subscription for posting.
If a message is ever rejected, please contact the list's owner:
[log in to unmask]
All requests should be addressed to [log in to unmask]
v.2.0
Feb 95
**** WELCOME TO SCI-TECH-STUDIES ****
from
*Bart Simon ([log in to unmask]), Listowner
*George Gale ([log in to unmask]), Listmanager
First, a few words from Bart:
You are now the proud subscriber to the first electronic mailing
list dedicated to the interests of people involved in the field of
Science and Technology Studies (STS). This list is meant to act as
a kind of interdisciplinary electronic space for people to make
contact with one another, and to exchange up-to-the-minute
information and ideas. The list is unmoderated and unrestricted,
but subscribers are asked to be attentive to both the general theme
of the list, as well as to the interests and concerns of fellow
list-members.
The message which follows is divided into three sections. Part 1
provides a brief introduction to the list and its possibilities.
Part 2 provides subscribers with useful strategies for e-mail
handling and list participation. Part 3 outlines essential
commands you need to know as a list subscriber.
cheers,
Bart Simon ([log in to unmask])
------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE:
DO NOT DELETE THIS DOCUMENT - SAVE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1: An Origin Story
I started sci-tech-studies in 1992 while in my first year of
graduate study in the Science Studies Program at the University of
California, San Diego (UCSD). The original idea was to provide an
electronic forum primarily for STS graduate students to communicate
with one another as a way of building a progressive
interdisciplinary community (to be honest, the original idea was to
help build an anti-disciplinary community, but that's another
story). The list was advertised at the 1992 4S meeting in Boston
and pretty soon we developed a base of enthusiastic subscribers.
As it turned out, the list became less of a forum for discussion
amongst graduate students and more of an information bulletin board
for a large variety of people involved in STS (the majority of
which are faculty at universities in the US and Europe). Members
use the list to post conference announcements, calls for papers,
job advertisements, requests for references and the like. The list
frequently carries announcements of interest to members of several
academic societies (4S, HSS, PSA, SHOT....), and is a semi-official
information outlet for members of the Society for the Social
Studies of Science (4S).
Sci-tech-studies also supports a fair amount of electronic
discussion on a variety of far ranging topics relevant to
interested subscribers. Discussions might be prompted at any time
by people's thoughts on recent events, books, articles or
conferences. Or, a conversation might begin with someone asking an
informational question, or making a comment. To be sure,
discussions are spontaneous and irregular, lasting for weeks or for
days. Discussions may involve only two people or they may involve
several. They might be friendly, collegial or heated, but in any
case there are no explicit rules about the kinds of messages
members are allowed to post.
The question of whether the list has met the original goal of
"community building" remains to be seen (in some ways it has, in
some ways it hasn't). It is important to point out that as an
unmoderated, unrestricted list, sci-tech-studies always has been,
and will remain, an experimental locus for playing with ideas about
what an interdisciplinary intellectual community should be.
It is for this reason that I would ask subscribers to patient,
understanding and open to the sorts of messages which can be
posted. Unmoderated lists tend to be suspended in a state of
'poster's regress' (to borrow from Harry Collins) - there are no
formal criteria for what counts as an acceptable message on this
list. This does not mean there are no informal or implicit
criteria, conventions of netiquette tend to apply, but it would be
hard (dare I say impossible) to specify (or even intuit) any kind
of stable 'form-of-life' for sci-tech-studies, since subscribers
come and go, and anyone with access to the internet may subscribe
and participate.
This said, it is important to point out that sci-tech-studies has
been perfectly sober compared to many other unmoderated lists. The
number of messages going through the list each week is relatively
low, and for the most part, our discussions tend to be 'academic'
in form and tone (as befits a community of mostly academics I
suppose:).
It is also important to point out however, that the majority of our
subscribers are 'lurkers' - people who receive messages but seldom,
if ever, post any (a high lurker/poster ratio is also normal for
most lists). The question remains, what kinds of social and
technological conditions would facilitate the participation of
those who may desire to get involved, but can not or will not for
a variety of reasons?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Part 2: Strategies for Participation
The various hardware and software technologies associated with the
Internet have developed a great deal since this list started in
1992. It is fair to say, however, that there is a considerable lag
in the acquisition of internet skills by its users despite claims
of increasing user-friendliness. There are many more "things" one
can now do on the net, thus there are many more skills to learn.
My advice here is limited to knowledge gleaned from my own net-
experiences, so please contact me if you have any additions or
changes to the advice which follows.
For most people the most pressing problem is the seemingly
exponential rise in the number of e-mail messages entering their
mailboxes every day. What was once a 10 minute/week commitment may
now be 1 hour/day, simply for reading the messages, let alone
responding. Here's some suggestions for easing the pain of mail-
handling.
1. Don't read everything. Scan the subject lines and the sender's
addresses and delete or save messages you don't feel like reading
as you go. Alternatively, you can read the first page of each
message to scan for its content. The trick is to be liberal with
the delete key; it is impossible to read everything all the time.
2. Delete or save messages as you go. Don't leave read or unwanted
messages in your incoming mailbox, they use up valuable disk-space
and only clutter up your box. Saving messages is a good way to
temporarily hold onto the thread of a list discussion that might
prove to be interesting. By saving the messages in a separate file
you can even review the past discussion before you post.
3. Find a friendly mail reader, I suggest ELM or PINE if you are
using a terminal, though ideally you should have a some sort of
popmail software like EUDORA which offers many more possibilities
for handling mail and minimizes on-line time. Contact the computer
services people near you for further advice. I also recommend the
use of mail filters which shunt messages from a specific address
(say sci-tech-studies) to a separate folder. This allows the easy
prioritization of private messages since they can remain in your
inbox.
While the above strategies will provide some relief from e-mail
stress, thus allowing the possibility of one day having the time or
inclination to post a message to a list - it is perhaps the quality
of the messages that arrive that serve as the basis for electronic
angst. In this vein, I offer the following advice for people
posting messages to sci-tech-studies in order to both encourage
more participation as well as increase the readability quotient of
your messages.
1. Use specific subject headings. If your message is being posted
as part of an on-going discussion then make sure the subject line
of your message is consistent with the previous ones. Ideally, all
messages to sci-tech-studies should contain a prefix "STS:" in the
subject line to distinguish a list message from other kinds of
messages.
2. Keep your messages short. It is more than likely that a message
you send which is more than a couple of pages/screenfuls (80 lines)
will not be read by most people. This means that if you have
something crucially important to convey, do it on the first page.
It also means that you should try to convey your ideas in shorter
spurts, rather than longer ramblings. E-mail is a specific and
unique form of communication which can not be easily emulated on
other forms such as academic papers, lectures, letters etc...
3. Because of the constraints of the medium I recommend not only
that your messages be short(er) but that you put a blank space,
marking a 'paragraph' every 10 lines or so. Quite simply, text
which is broken up in this way is easier to read on a computer
screen. You should write knowing that your reader is reading from
a screen and not from paper.
4. Be very careful not to post command messages to the list. Some
of the various command messages are given in Part 3, these commands
(like subscribe and unsubscribe) will have no effect if you send
them to sci-tech-studies. Instead, your message will simply add to
the "noise" people must sort through in their own mailboxes.
Always double check the address in the send line of your message to
make sure its going to the right place. If you are not sure,
contact the listowner or manager by private e-mail for help.
5a. Be attentive to the social dynamics of the list. Your
potential readership is hundreds of people from all over the world
(not including cross-posting). This doesn't mean (as many people
assume) that you should only post messages that could be of
interest to ALL subscribers. The state of 'poster's regress' (see
Part 1) guarantees that no such message can exist.
5b. On the other hand, it is worth considering the potential
effects a message might have on others. Despite arguments about
the 'global village' effects of the internet, I would like to point
out the observation that social/power relations remain unequal -
even on the net; certain voices will silence others.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
And now from George Gale a description of the services provided by the
LISTSERV/LISTPROC software on [log in to unmask]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Part 3: Essential Commands
ListProcessor 6.0
Here is a brief description of the set of requests recognized
by ListProcessor. Everything appearing in [ ] below is
optional; everything appearing in <> is mandatory; all
arguments are case insensitive. The vertical bar ("|") is
used as a logical OR operator between the arguments. Requests
may be abbreviated, but you must specify at least the first
three characters.
Keep in mind that when referring to a <list>, that list may
be of two kinds:local or remote, unless otherwise noted. When
referring to a local list, your request will be immediately
processed; when referring to a remote list (a list
served by another ListProcessor which this system knows
about), your request will be appropriately forwarded. Issue a
'lists' request to get a listing of all local and known
remote lists to this ListProcessor.
Recognized requests are:
help [topic]
------------
Without arguments, this file. Otherwise get specific
information on the selected topic. Topics may also refer to
requests. To learn more about this system issue a 'help
listproc' request. To get a listing of all available
topics, generate an error message by sending a bogus request
like 'help me'.
set <list> [<option> <arg[s]>]
------------------------------
Without the optional arguments, get a list of all current
settings for the specified list. Otherwise change the option
to a new value for that list. Issue a 'help set' request for
more information.
subscribe <list> <your name>
----------------------------
The only way to subscribe to a list.
unsubscribe <list>
signoff <list>
------------------
Two ways of removing yourself from the specified list.
recipients <list>
review <list>
-----------------
Get a listing of all non-concealed people subscribed to the
specified list.
information <list>
------------------
Get information about the specified list.
statistics <list> {[subscriber email address(es)] | [-all]}
-----------------------------------------------------------
Get a listing of non-concealed subscribers along with the
number of messages each one of them has sent to the specified
list. If the optional email addresses are given, then
statistics will be collected for these users only. For
example:
stat foo user1@domain user2@domain
will generate statistics about these two subscribers. "-all"
lists statistics for all users that have posted on the list
(whether currently subscribed or not).
run <list> [<password> <cmd [args]>]
------------------------------------
Run the specified command with the optional arguments and
receive the output from stdout and/or stderr. To get a
listing of all available commands to run, omit the arguments,
i.e. issue a 'run <list>' request. You have to belong to
the specified list, and must have obtained the password from
the list's owner; the owner's address may be found in the
Errors-To: header line of each delivered message. <list> may
be local only.
lists
-----
Get a list of all local mailing lists that are served by this
server, as well as of all known remote lists.
index [archive | path-to-archive] [/password] [-all]
----------------------------------------------------
Get a list of files in the selected archive, or the master
archive if no archive was specified. If an archive is
private, you have to provide its password as well.
get <archive | path-to-archive> <file> [/password] [parts]
----------------------------------------------------------
Get the requested file from the specified archive. Files are
usually split in parts locally, and in such a case you will
receive the file in multiple email messages -- an 'index'
request tells you how many parts the file has been split
into, and their sizes; if you need to obtain certain parts,
specify them as optional arguments. If an archive is private,
you have to provide its password as well.
view <archive | path-to-archive>] [/password] [parts]
-----------------------------------------------------
Same as "get" but in interactive mode justs catenates the
file on the
screen.
search <archive | path-to-archive>] [/password] [-all]
<pattern>
-------------------------------------------------------------
---
Search all files of the specified archive (and all of its
subarchives if -all is specified) for lines that match the
pattern. The pattern can be an egrep(1)-style regular
expression with support for the following additional
operators: '~' (negation), '|' and '&' (logical OR and AND),
'<' '>' (group regular expressions). The pattern may be
enclosed in single or double quotes.
Note: . matches any character including new line.
fax <fax-number> <archive | path-to-archive> <file>
[/password] [parts]
-------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Same as 'get', but it faxes you the files instead to the
specified number.
release
-------
Get information about the current release of this
ListProcessor system.
which
-----
Get a listing of local mailing lists to which you have
subscribed.
=============================================================
==================
The requests below are list owner specific. List owners
should contact the system's manager for extensive usage
information:
reports <list> <password>
-------------------------
Obtain all reports about the specified local list.
edit <list> <password> <file>
-----------------------------
Obtain the specified file for editing.
put <list> <password> <keyword> [args]
--------------------------------------
Manipulate addresses and change system files.
approve <list> <password> <tag>
-------------------------------
Approve the message identified by the tag number for posting
to the specified moderated list.
discard <list> <password> <tag>
-------------------------------
Discard the message identified by the tag number sent to the
specified moderated list.
=============================================================
==================
In addition, help is available on the following topic(s):
live
----
Learn how to connect to this ListProcessor over the Internet
for live processing of your requests.
listproc
--------
Learn more about this system and list management software in
general.
__________________________________________
| Robert Maxwell Young: [log in to unmask]
| 26 Freegrove Rd., London N7 9RQ England
| tel. +44 171 607 8306 fax. +44 171 6094837
| Professor of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalytic Studies,
| Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies,
| University of Sheffield: [log in to unmask]
| Home page and writings: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~psysc/
| _Mental Space_: http://rdz.stjohns.edu/gp/rmy.html
| Process Press, _Free Associations_, _Science as Culture_:
| http://rdz.stjohns.edu/gp/process.html
'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' - Camus
|
