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Using the mailing list GEN-DE

The newsgroup soc.genealogy.german is mirrored to a mailing list GEN-DE hosted at rootsweb.com
Before Aug15,1997 the mailing list was hosted at uni-karlsruhe.de for European users and at Apple's eworld.com for non-European users.

Four different modes

GEN-DE comes in four different modes
Mail mode gen-de-L
Subscribers receive all postings as single messages. This means about 70-150 individual messages per day. If you subscribe in mail mode you should take appropriate measures not to mix up your usual (personal) eMail with messages from gen-de-L.
Mime-Digest mode gen-de-D
Messages are gathered until the overall size exceeds about 32kB. At that time the machine sends out so called Digests, consisting of all messages gathered since the previous digest. Currently there are about 4 digests per day. Each digest has the messages appended as attachments. Your mailing software should be able to handle these.
Non-Mime-Digest mode gen-de-NMD
For those wo can't handle or don't like the Mime-Digest described above. Messages are just appended to each other resulting in a long list. This is similar to the default mode we had on uni-karlsruhe/eworld before Aug15,1997.
Index mode gen-de-i
For those with limited disk space. Indexes are sent out once a day. They contain just the messages' subject, author, length and a reference number. Use the reference number to retrieve a posting of interest at a later time. Note that the subject lines are often set up rather poorly ("help","ancestors").

How to subscribe

Choose the mode you want to subscribe to. For most people the Mime-Digest seems to be the mode of choice.

Then set up the subscription message.Depending on the mode you chose there are four different addresses to send your subscription request to:

Leave the subject line blank. Put the word subscribe in the message body. Use lowercase letters, no punctuation, just the single word subscribe. If possible leave out any signature. All the machine needs to know should be in the message headers your mailing software sends with each message. You just need to choose the correct address and write the word subscribe in the message body.

How to unsubscribe

By now you should know which mode you are in (Hint: The From: line will tell you if you aren't sure). To unsubscribe just send the word unsubscribe to one of the addresses given above. The word is unsubscribe, not signoff, leave, nothing more or things like that. Remember that you are talking to a machine.

It doesn't work?

The machine claims that you aren't on the list but sends tons of eMail on and on? First check out if you sent your unsubscribe to the correct address. You can't unsubscribe from Mail Mode if you are in Digest Mode. This is the most common error.
Then check out if you sent your unsubscribe from the same address as you once subscribed from. If the addresses don't match the machine won't take you off the list. Otherwise everybody could unsubscribe everybody else just to play tricks.
Sometimes Internet providers change their customers addresses. The old address is still valid to receive messages, but every outgoing mail has the new address. Compuserve.com and t-online.de for example changed from numbers to real names. If you subscribed with a "number address" and can't switch back you are unable to unsubscribe. In this case you should send a message to the listowner at gen-de-L-request@rootsweb.com and ask for help.

How to change modes

If you want to switch from, say Mime-Digest to Non-Mime-Digest you would first subscribe to the new mode, see if it works and then unsubscribe from the old mode. Just follow the instructions for subscription / unsubscription.

Where to send the postings

No matter what mode you are in, postings, i.e. questions to all readers or public comments, should go to gen-de-L@rootsweb.com. If you publicly reply to a message try to keep the subject as it was. If you take the digest subject ("GEN-DE-D Digest V97 #xxx") chances are high that your response gets missed. Index mode users probably won't retrieve it and newsgroup users will probably skip it. The original poster probably won't read it. If you put up a question yourself try to use a good subject for the same reasons.

No more messages

If you used to get messages from the list, but don't receive them anymore you probably had eMail problems the past days (mailbox full, problems at your service provider). If the machine fails to deliver 5 digests / messages it removes your entry from the list. Don't take it personally just subscribe again.

The archive

You may choose between DejaNews or Rootsweb's Archive. The latter seems to be more complete.

Technical problems

Should be reported to gen-de-L-request@rootsweb.com Don't send them to gen-de-L@rootsweb.com. Most people there won't be able to help you anyway and chances are high that the listowner will miss your call for assistance.

Letzte Änderung/Last update: 28-Feb-2000 (KPW)

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