Organization: Central Michigan University
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 10:53:55 EDT
From:         Elliott Parker <3ZLUFUR@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Subject:      Monthly posting

     Hello, SEASIA-L subscriber . . .

     This monthly update will appear on SEASIA-L to remind you
how to get the greatest benefit from your subscription.

     Topics are:
1.  Purpose of the list
2.  Statistics
3.  List addresses
4.  Usenet access
5.  If you're having difficulties
6.  To unsubscribe
7.  Posting messages to the list
8.  Listserv commands
9.  List etiquette

1.  Purpose of the list
     SEASIA-L is designed to facilitate communication between
researchers, scholars, students, teachers, and other people
interested in Southeast Asian studies with an emphasis on current
events.  For this list, Southeast Asia is loosely defined as
Burma/Myanmar across to Hong Kong and down through Australia and
New Zealand.
     Examples of subjects that would be of interest to list
subscribers might be:
     News of the area
     Commentary
     Activist news and views
     Telecommunications in Southeast Asia
     Announcements of meetings, conferences, and activities
     Reports of meetings
     Job announcements
     Notices of works in progress
     Conference papers
     Notes and queries
     Book and film reviews, particularly of those materials
          originating in Southeast Asia
     Newsletters of special interest groups
     Resources for teachers and scholars
     Bibliographies, discographies, and filmographies

     SEASIA-L is made possible through the support of the Center
for Asian Studies at Michigan State University.
     Another list, SEANET-L@NUSVM, is the professional
counterpart of SEASIA-L.  People with a professional interest
should also subscribe to SEANET-L.  At the risk of over
simplifying, SEANET-L addresses the concerns of a periodical such
as the Journal of Asian Studies, while SEASIA-L is more akin to
the Far Eastern Economic Review or Asiaweek magazine.

2.  Statistics
     Number of subscribers (includes gateways)   495
     Countries represented                        20
     Average messsages per day                     9

     Less than 10 percent (48) subscribers posted any material in
the last 30 days.

3.  List address
     The address of SEASIA-L is SEASIA-L@MSU     (Bitnet)
                             or SEASIA-L@MSU.EDU (Internet)

4.  SEASIA-L is also gatewayed to Usenet where it is called
bit.listserv.seasia-l.  Reading it via Usenet may be preferable
when you do not want to have messages delivered to your mailbox.
Not every site, however, has access to Usenet.

5.  If you run into difficulties:
     1.  Consult a local network whiz.
     2.  Contact Elliott Parker@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU

     A local contact is usually preferable because each site has
a unique combination of hardware and software.

6.  To unsubscribe
     To unsubscribe and leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SEASIA-L to LISTSERV@MSU.EDU.  Note the command must go
to the listserv, not SEASIA-L.  This command must also come from
the address from which you originally subscribed, so the listserv
can find the exact match.

7.  Posting messages to the list
     By all means post to the List,  keeping in mind the focus of
the list.  Postings are stongly encouraged.  Given the disparate
and geographically distributed body of subscribers, the List can
be a unique resource to news of the area.  Information from other
sources, either online or hardcopy is valuable.
     If you do repost something from another source, it is only
ethical and helpful to give credit to the original poster along
with the full citation.  If you forward something from SEASIA-L,
make sure you give credit to the original poster and/or source.
     SEASIA-L depends on subscribers' postings.  This is not a
wire service that automatically sends material to you.  If nobody
posts, there will be nothing to read.
     If you know someone who has access to news or information,
encourage them to subscribe to SEASIA-L and post news.  Or, if
you see subscribers on this List or the Usenet newsgroups you
know, encourage them to post.
     Much written work today is already is some kind of word
processing format and it is usually simple to convert it to plain
ASCII for distribution over the networks.
          The list is not moderated, but you must be subscribed
to the List before listserv will let you post.
     You can often assist other subscribers by asking questions
related to Southeast Asia.  No question is "too simple."  If you
have a question, someone else probably also wants the answer.
     Keep your messages short to conserve bandwidth and save the
resources of those subscribers who must pay to receive messages.
Some gateways also limit the size of mail they accept. If your
message is longer than about 20K, you might consider posting a
short abstract and invite interested readers to request the
complete version from you.
     If you have a longer posting of general interest, contact
the List Owner to see if it can be archived on the file server so
people can request it.
     Use a descriptive subject line.  Many people decide whether
they want to read a message based on the content of the subject
line.
     You may want to use the Internet abbreviations for the
country the message refers to, for instance, "MY: PM steps down"
tells the harried reader the message has something to do with the
Prime Minister of Malaysia resigning.
     (The Internet abbreviations are MY/Malaysia, ID/Indonesia,
SG/Singapore, PH/Philippines, HK/Hong Kong, TH/Thailand,
KH/Cambodia, VN/Vietnam, MM/Burma/Myanmar, PG/Papua New Guinea,
and AU/Australia.  If the posting concerns more than one country,
SEA might be appropriate.)
     SEASIA-L is not a "chat" list.  If you want to start up a
conversation with someone else, send it as email directly to
them, not to the entire list readership.
     Sign all your messages.  It helps to have at least a name to
associate with a post and some mailers strip off the header, so
the receiver cannot reply unless there is some kind of internal
address.  A "nom de list" is acceptable.
     Be tolerant of newcomers.  We were all new to this medium at
one time, we are all still learning, and procedures are still
being refined.

8.  Listserv commands
     "Listserv" is actually a program written by Eric Thomas and
you send email commands to the machine, rather than a person.  In
the following, the command is written in upper case and any
parameters are in lower case.  When you send the command, the
case is not important.  All commands must be sent to
LISTSERV@MSU.EDU (Internet) or LISTSERV@MSU (Bitnet).

8.1 To subscribe to the list, send the following:
    SUBscribe SEASIA-L yrfirstname yrlastname

    (Obviously, if you're reading this, you already are a
    subscriber, but it is easy enough to forward this note to
    someone who has never heard of SEASIA-L or even Bitnet, for
    that matter.)

8.2 To get a copy of the SEASIA-L subscriber list, send the
    following:
    REView SEASIA-L
    To get a list of subscribers sorted by country, send
    REView SEASIA-L (COUNTRIES

8.3 To get a list of available SEASIA-L files (past postings and
    any files available from the server) send the following:
    INDEX SEASIA-L

8.4 Once you get a list of files (from 7.3, above), you get the
    particular file by sending:
    GET filename filetype
    Note that both the filename and filetype are required and
    separated by a space.
       Each message is archived in a "notebook."  The early
    notebooks were saved on a monthly basis.  When these became
    too big, it was changed to a weekly basis.  Large files may
    not make it through the various network nodes to you.
       It is more efficient to search the archives and get only
    the messages of interest.  Send GET DATABASE SEARCH to
    LISTSERV@MSU.EDU to get a short explanation of how to do
    this.

8.5 If you don't want to receive mail temporarily (if you are
    leaving for the summer, for example), send:
    SET SEASIA-L NOMAIL
    To start it again when you return, send:
    SET SEASIA-L MAIL

8.6 For various reasons, such as a change in site name or just a
     glitch someplace in the network, your mail may start
     bouncing and I will set your subscription to NOMAIL to stop
     any more mail being sent.
         This is not very common, but if you have not been
     receiving mail for a while and want to check on your
     subscription and find out what the defaults are for your
     subscription, send:
     QUERY SEASIA-L

8.7 To get more information on the listserv program, send the
    following:
    GET LISTSERV MEMO

9.0  List etiquette
     SEASIA-L differs from many Bitnet or Internet discussion
lists.  It is focussed on a region, rather than a technical or
specific discipline, so there is a tremendous range of interests
represented.  The region has a variety of social, cultural, and
economic systems.  Many List subscribers do not use English as
their first language, and many subscribers are nationals of the
countries being discussed.
      The cryptic, often-uninflected style of email writing can
result in messages being interpreted in much harsher terms than
the writer intended.  All too often, this leads to "flame wars"
resulting in waste of computer resources, hurt feelings, and a
general disaffection.  Biting criticism and personal attacks are
unfunny and unwanted.
     SEASIA-L is a "self-moderated" list, in keeping with the
view that that the best way to handle inappropriate postings
(whether flames or simple off-topic messages) is either to send a
*friendly* message to the sender or ignore it.  Flames die out
without more fuel and discussion soon returns to the topic of the
list.
     Remember, there is a real person on the other end.  You are
responsible for what you write.
     Finally, be aware that it is a trivial job for "someone" to
monitor electronic mail or any discussion list.  It is also
extremely easy to save any message and to forward it
electronically or repost to another list.

Elliott Parker
List Owner, SEASIA-L
Department of Journalism
Central Michigan University
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859 USA
Office tele: +1 (517) 774-3196

Bitnet: 3ZLUFUR@CMUVM
Internet:3ZLUFUR@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU
Less certain possibilities:
     eparker@igc.org
     Compuserve: 70701,520
     The WELL: eparker@well.sf.ca.us
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU