Approved-By:  MDUMONT@KENTVM.BITNET
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.libref-l
Date:         Mon, 5 Oct 1992 09:43:32 EDT
From:         "Kara L. Robinson" <KROBINSO@KENTVM.BITNET>
Subject:      A Friendly note from your Errors moderator

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

   I hope the LibRef-L subscribers will forgive this non-topic oriented
message, though it deals with a problem that some of you may have faced
and that others may face in the future: the mystery of why you may
suddenly stop receiving messages from LibRef-L.

   The following explanation does NOT apply to those rare periods
when no one sends a message to LibRef-L or when there is a problem with
the Kentvm hardware or software that interferes with the delivery of
messages to all subscribers.  What I am referring to is more selective.

   Mailing software (mailers) may have difficulty delivering mail to
specific email addresses for a variety of reasons:
  1. Your computing center may have made some change which results
  in changes to your email address which may not be reflected in
  your LibRef-L subscription.
  2. An intermediary node between KENTVM and your local node may be
  down temporarily.
  3. There may be an undefined hardware or software problem.

   What happens when the mailer is unable to deliver a message?  It is
forwarded to the list's Errors Manager; for LibRef-L that is me (see
signature below for my email address).  My general policy is that if I
get error messages relating to a particular email address for just one
day, I conclude that the problem was merely a temporary glitch and ignore
it.  If I continue to receive error messages for a single address over
a period of two to three days, then I will take some sort of action.
Depending on the problem I will either set the subscription to nomail or
unsubscribe the problem address.  If I set the address to nomail, I will
typically set it back to mail a week or so later.  If the subscription
begins to generate error messages again, I will unsubscribe the address
at that time.  In any case,  LISTSERV sends a message to the address
informing the subscriber what has been done and who is responsible for
that action.  What typically happens at this point is that even the
message from LISTSERV can't be delivered and gets sent to me as another
error message!   The outcome is that you are no longer receiving
messages from LibRef-L and you may not know why.

   What can you do?   One, you can send me an email message and ask if
I have set you to nomail or unsubscribed you.   Two, you could send a
message to LISTSERV@kentvm (or LISTSERV@kentvm.kent.edu) saying set
LibRef-L mail.  If you had previously been set to nomail, that should
cause the mail flow to resume (unless the problem which may have caused
me to set your subscription to nomail has not been corrected).  Three,
if nothing else works, then try resubscribing.

    To summarize, I do not remove people from the list arbitrarily.  Only
those email addresses which have a continuing problem in regular delivery
of mail are removed.  Two, if you do suddenly stop receiving LibRef-L
mail, there are steps you can take to remedy any problem that may exist.

   I hope you never need this information but here it is in case you do.

             Kara k)
         Kara L. Robinson
         Co-Moderator: LibRef-L, DOROTHYL, RRA-L
         Kent State University Libraries
         BITNET: KROBINSO@KENTVM
         INTERNET: KROBINSO@kentvm.kent.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU