If You Aren't Getting Mail from the
List
Assuming you were subscribed before and were getting mail there are several
possiblities including:
A Few Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Your Mail
The listserv could be down or there could be other delivery problems
- most outages are short, so if this is the case you will likely start getting
messages again soon. Actually, it could also be that your ISP is having a
problem delivering the mail (Ask yourself if you're getting other email!), or
there could be problems anywhere in between. Our advice is don't panic, but
give it a day or two to sort itself out. Meanwhile as long as you are still
subscribed, you can keep up with the list using the Archives. You will probably even still be able to
post.
You might have set your subscription nomail if you were away from
your email. If so you can set mail by sending the message:
set List mail
To the listserv at listserv@listserv.acor.org . As with all listserv
commands, the command should be in the body of the message, not the subject
line and should be on a line by itself. Any other text such as signature lines
should be removed.
In rare cases your subscription may have been deleted. If the
listserv has been unable to deliver messages to you for a considerable length
of time, your subscription will be automatically deleted. This is most likely
to happen if you have been away from your e-mail for some time and your mailbox
filled up. If this is the case you will have to resubscribe.
How to Test Your Subscription
Send the message:
query List
To the listserv at listserv@listserv.acor.org . As with all listserv
commands, the command should be in the body of the message, not the subject
line and should be on a line by itself. Any other text such as signature lines
should be removed.
You should recieve a response within a few minutes which will help you sort
out the problem:
If you don't get a response then either the listserv is down or there
is some problem delivering the mail. As above - try waiting it out for a few
days and if you still can't get a response from the listserv please contact the listowners. If you are using msn as your
Internet Service Provider (ISP) that may explain it. We don't know why, but a
few of our msn subscribers are simply unable to get mail from the list. It may
be that it is being filtered as spam, but we can't be sure, and neither msn nor
ACOR has been able to explain it. Similarly, our AOL subscribers have
experienced intermittant outages. If this is happening to you, we suggest
switching ISPs, or getting a free email account from a service like Yahoo or Hotmail.
If You Do Get A Response then if you are still subscribed to the
list, the response will show your subscription options. See that mail is set
(rather than nomail). If you are not subscribed to the list the response will
tell you that too. You may need to resubscribe.
How not to test!
Please do not sent a message to the list asking whether the list is up! This
simply spams 600+ people and increases list volume! If you have tried querying
the listserv as just described and not gotten a response, or otherwise need
help, please contact the listowners rather than
sending to the list!
If You Can't Post To the List
There are several common causes!
- You are not subscribed to the list - you must be a member of the
list to post. If you are subscribed, you will be getting messages from the
list! If you haven't subscribed yet, see our instructions on subscribing to the list. If you think you are
subscribed, but aren't getting messages from the list, see our section on what to do if you aren't getting mail from the list.
- You are trying to post from an address you aren't subscribed from.
Even if you are subscribed, your posts must originate from the exact
address you are subscribed from. There are several causes of this and they can
cause problems with almost anything you try from the list so please see our
section on the "exact address problem"
- Of course, you have to send your message to the correct e-mail
address for it to be posted! That address is List@listserv.acor.org
You Can't Sign-Off of the List
First try our basic instructions on how to sign
off from List. If you've tried to sign off following these
instructions carefully, and still haven't suceeded, it's possible that you are
trying to sign-off from an address which is different (even slightly) from the
address you subscribed under. Please read our section on the exact address problem, for suggestions on how to deal
with this.
You Can't Subscribe to the List
First please try our instructions for how to
subscribe to List following the directions carefully. If this doesn't
work, it could be that you haven't replied to the confirmation message which
the listserver sends when you send subscription request. If you haven't gotten
the confirmation message to reply to, it's possible that the listserver is
temporarily out of service. When this happens it isn't for very long, so if you
havn't gotten a confirmation message within a day or two, try subscribing
again. If you still haven't gotten a confirmation, please contact the listowners for help.
It's also possible you are subscribed and don't realize it. When you sign
on, you should recieve the welcome message, and start getting messages from the
list. If you've gotten the welcome message, you are subscribed. If there are no
messages from the list even though you've gotten the welcome message, there may
be a temporary problem with mail delivery or a listserver crash. We recommend
waiting a day or two to see if it resolves before contacting the listowners for help
The Exact Address Problem
In order to confirm your subscription, post to the list, issue commands to
the listserv to change your subscription, or sign-off, your message must come
from the exact address you subscribed under, or are trying to subscribe
from. This is the only way the listserver can know which subscriber you are! In
many cases, the problem is obvious, but there are also some subtle causes.
- If you try to use a completely different e-mail account - say you
subscribed from home but are trying to post from work - it obviously won't work
- but you could open a new subscription from work.
- If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) changes your e-mail address,
even slightly, the listserver will reject your requests. In some cases,
your ISP may be changing its name. For instance, when US West was acquired by
QWest, uswest.net email addresses became qwest.net email addresses. Some ISPs
do not provide a stable return address. As an example, we have in the past seen
mail from people who subscribed from msn.com whose return address was sometimes
from msn.com, but sometimes from classic.msn.com, or email.msn.com. If you have
this kind of problem, you may not even be able to sign-off the list! But you
may still be getting message from the list because your ISP is probably
forwarding the messages to you@msn.com to you@classic.msn.com (for example).
You can test if you are subscribed from your current return address as we
describe above. If you are unable to interact with the listserv because of an
unstable return address, we suggest contacting your ISPs technical support to
see if they can guarantee a stable address. If they can't, or if the address
they guarantee is different from the one you subscribed from, you may need to
contact the listowners for help signing off your
old address. Then you need to get a stable e-mail address. If your current ISP
can't provide that, you need to change ISPs or get a free web account
- If you haven't confirmed your subscription then you are not really
subscribed and won't be able to do anything other than reply to the
confirmation letter. You will be able to tell this if you've never gotten mail
from the list. If it's been more than 48 hours since you tried to subscribe,
you may have to start again. See our information on how
to subscribe
If You are Changing E-Mail
Addresses...
...all you need to do is Unsubscribe from your
current address, and then Subscribe from your new
address!
If your company or Internet Provider is changing your e-email address (what
a pain!), they typically have a transition period where e-mail sent to the old
address will be forwarded to the new address. Once you change over to the new
address, you will keep getting email from the list, but you won't be able to
post because your return address is different from the address you subscribed
from. In this case, wait for the transition period to start, then configure
your e-email program to use the old return address (if you've already changed
it to the new address), then unsubscribe. Then configure it to the new return
address. Then subscribe again.
Using the DIGEST and NOMAIL modes
If you want to suspend list mail temporarily you can set your subscription
no mail, and then set it back to mail when you are ready to get messages again.
You can still access the archives when you are no mail, so you could keep up
with the list using the web even if you were away from your mail. For detailed
instructions on how to set nomail or resume mail, click here.
With digest mode, you get only one message from the list each day - this
"digest" contains all of the list's mail for the day. So the total volume of
information isn't reduced but the number of messages is. For detailed
instructions on how to set digest mode or go back to individual messages, click here.
If You Still Can't Figure It Out...
... please contact the listowners we'll do
our best to help sort it out! (Please do not post to the list as it would add
to our already too high volume)
