Last updated: Sat Apr 18 20:44:37 EDT 1998 Hello and welcome to the mailing list. I am Joel Abbott, and I maintain u2-list (or Wire as the subscribers have nicknamed it). As of Apr 24, 1998, u2-list had 4289 registered subscribers. There are most likely more recipients of the list since many people are not subscribed and read the list via one or more web sites. There is more information on this later. Note that the subscriber lists for this mailing list is never released to anyone to ensure the privacy of you, the subscriber. Note that the subscriber lists for this mailing list is never released to anyone to ensure the privacy of you, the subscriber. This mailing list is not a commercial forum. Please read this entire document! There has been a rather large increase in mail forgings lately. If you did not subscribe to this mailing list, send to the administrative address listed below saying you wish to unsubscribe. Then contact your mail support people at your site so they know that this has occurred. They might be able to track it down. Please be assured that I only intend send this mailing list to people who request it. However, I have no control over other people's mail misconfigurations or people forging mail. This list is not affiliated in any way with anyone in U2, at Island Records, etc. It is simply a mailing list maintained by a fan for other fans. The founder of this mailing list was Rob Bakie . From there, the list moved to its second maintainer, Thomas Jordan . On January 20, 1994, wire moved to me, its third maintainer. The list lives on! Please read this entire introduction and then save it so that you may refer to it in the future if you need. I send this generic introduction out to everyone who requests to be on the list as sort of a greeting. Feel free to start a topic of your choice as long your posting contains something pertaining to U2. There are no moderators on this list, so everything you send to: u2-list@gartholamew.com goes directly to everyone who is subscribed to the list. Before you post to the mailing list, keep in mind that many people will be reading what you write. The administrative address for u2-list is: u2-list-request@gartholamew.com As you may have noticed, it is very similar to the normal postings address, except that it has a -request appended to it. This is the way many mailing lists work. Please use the administrative address for administrative messages (removal from list, change of address, etc.,). (To change your address, send an unsubscribe request from your old address and then a subscribe request from your new address). Do not send list-related mail to my personal email address as I will most likely not want to or be able to answer it. And please do NOT send administrative messages to the postings address, as the rest of the list recipients probably aren't interested in your request to be removed/changed, etc! DO NOT SEND THESE REQUESTS TO THE POSTINGS ADDRESS OR TO MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS! This is one of the worst things a person can do. Please don't do it. If your mail system sends a response to the mail sender when it successfully delivers mail to you (for example, Microsoft Exchange Server Internet Mail Connector Version 4.0.994.63), I will have to remove you from the list. With the number of people on the mailing lists that I run, that generates too much mail for me to receive. In general, BE A GOOD CITIZEN! If you are being disruptive, and this causes problems for the other subscribers, I will be inclined to remove you from the list. It does seem kind of silly to put a statement like this in the introductory information, but I have already run into situations where I guess it just wasn't obvious that you aren't supposed to make life miserable for other people. Due to an increase in the amount of subscribers and subsequent postings which contain non-U2 info content and/or frequently asked questions, rules are being enacted to help curtail these postings and make Wire more informative. If you violate a rule, you will be promptly notified. Subsequent violation of the rules can result in permanent suspension from the U2 Mailing List. 1) Currently your posting will be going to 4289 other people and will be archived forever! Use a descriptive subject for your posts!!! If your subject is "stuff" then you should consider your posting skipped which means that you are likely adding bulk to the mailing list which is not needed. 2) Don't use misleading subjects like "I found part of Bono's diary" just so that people will read your posting. Use a good subject and make it reflect the content of your posting. 3) Post *only* U2 related messages to the mailing list. Please do not make extraneous posts, articles on other bands, repetitive posts, and other long messages. If need be, please create a web page on which to place this information and then post just the URL to this web page. If you have a basic question about U2, please consult the U2 FAQ maintained by Maryann Stump before posting to Wire. The FAQ is at http://www.gartholamew.com/MailingLists/u2-list/faq/index.htm If you want to read postings as they are posted, but you aren't on the reflector version of the list, I encourage you to read them on a web site that was specifically set up for this purpose by Darci Chapman . Also if you want to make a posting to the list, please check this web site to see if it has already been posted. Please do not post duplicate information. If you don't have access to the web, then you should get it. Many things on this list assume you have access to it. There is no way I can provide the entire U2 mailing list experience via email. Darci's reflector postings website is located at http://www.wildheart.org/archives/wire/ 4) If you are having problems with the list, *DO NOT* send to the postings address about your problems. Send them to the administrative address. I *DO NOT* want administrative mail cluttering the list! This includes subscribe and unsubscribe requests as well as general problems or questions! 5) Do not carry on arguments on the list which should be kept to private email. Arguments directly relating U2 are inevitable, but if you get out of control then you will be warned. 6) Do not post in MIME, HTML, or any other formatted or encoded format. Please post in regular human-readable ASCII text. I know this doesn't work for everyone's native language, but most of the people speak english on this list so I would prefer it if we all use the same language. Also do not post images, sounds, etc. Put them on a web page and point people to the web page. Your postings can get rejected if they are sent in MIME, HTML, or other non-regular ASCII text format. 7) There is a 10 postings per day limit placed on all subscribers. If you post more than 10, your excess postings will be rejected. 8) I am attempting to combat some of the mail problems by only allowing subscribers to post to the list. If you are posting mail to the list, make sure you are posting from the address under which you subscribed. Otherwise this is another way your postings can get rejected. You may not be notified if your posting is rejected. Sorry. 9) Do not quote an entire message or a large piece of text just to respond with one line, etc. Keep your quoting to a small, relevant size. As a guideline, the amount you are quoting should be near the amount of content your are writing. Obviously don't put in a bunch of filler just to meet this guideline. 10) If you have a long list of items for buy/sell/trade, ask people to email you for the list or put it on a web page and post the URL of the web page. I consider any list over five lines to be long. 11) Do not post a piece of mail which is longer than 25KB. 12) Do not forge mail to the mailing list. 13) Do not promote "spam" activity. This includes chain letters, etc. I consider virus warning hoaxes to be chain letters so don't post those either. See http://www.kumite.com/myths/ for more information on virus warning hoaxes. 14) Don't make postings to the list which are designed to mislead people. What does this mean? I think it should be self-explanatory, but just in case it isn't, posting lies and false information is in my opinion an example of purposely misleading people. Also, posting from multiple email addresses and not telling people that you are the same person so that the result is that people think you are a different person is misleading. I don't want to take up a bunch of space giving examples of this so I reserve the right to apply the "no misleading postings" rule liberally. 15) Don't repeat postings. If you feel you need to send a posting again, wait at least two weeks. If this is an announcement for items for sale/trade/buy, etc then wait at least one month. Refer to rule #8 on content of for sale/trade/buy type postings. I reserve the right to change my mind on this if I feel your posting is being repeated too often. 16) If you post to the list and for whatever reason it bounces back to you (you entered the wrong address, the network was down, etc), do not resend the failed posting to the list. First off, you should check to make sure the posting really didn't get posted. Some mail systems lie to you. Secondly, if you repost the failed message, often it will containt the error messages at the beginning of the message, and this wastes alot of space besides being rather confusing. 17) Limit your "signatures" to 4 lines or less. By following these rules, we can make this list more enjoyable for all! If you are new to the Internet or just want a refresher, check out the Internet Rules of Netiquette available at the URL http://www.gartholamew.com/MailingLists/misc/rfc1855.html Please be patient if you have a problem with the list. I run this list in my spare time for free (thanks to SolidSolutions.com for letting me do so). If you have a problem, send mail to the administrative address, and I will do my best to help you with your problem. However, if your question is covered here, I may not be able to address your issue due to time contraints. Please make sure it isn't covered here before you send mail to me. I don't want to alienate new subscribers. The point I am trying to make is that things have happened in the past that could very well destroy the list if they happened again, and that would be really unfortunate. Enough of this topic. OK, now that the nasty stuff is out of the way, let's get more informative. The digest is the only version available to new subscribers. The reflector version is available only for people who have had to suffer the digest for 6 or more months. If you want to be on the reflector version, you must also have a *very* reliable address. I only move people to the reflector version if they have been on the digest for 6 months without interruptions and without ever being dropped due to a bad address check. The reason I am so strict with this is because bounces and failures to reflector recipients causes problems for other list members and for me. Do not ask to be put on the reflector version of the list unless you meet the above criteria. (For those confused to the terminology used here, reflector version recipients get postings as they are posted, and digest version recipients receive one message per day with all of that day's postings bundled inside.) If you want to read postings as they are posted, but you aren't on the reflector version of the list, I encourage you to read them on a web site that was specifically set up for this purpose by Darci Chapman . Also if you are wanting to make a post to the list, please check this web site to see if it has already been posted. Please do not post duplicate information. If you don't have access to the web, then you should get it. Many things on this list assume you have access to it. There is no way I can provide the entire U2 mailing list experience via email. Darci's reflector postings website is located at http://www.wildheart.org/archives/wire/ Please note that it is possible to be both on the reflector and digest versions of the list if you originally subscribed to the list under the reflector version. A significant number of people liked this so I made it possible at one time. If you are currently on the reflector and only want to be on the digest, make sure you unsubscribe from the reflector. If you are going to post something to the list that might require timely responses, keep in mind that the digest only goes out once per day and is an accumulation of everything posted in the last 24 hours. For example, if you sell some rare vinyl recording, allow the digest people some time to respond. If your mailbox has a limit on the size of the messages that can be delivered to your mailbox, it is possible that you may miss a digest as I put no limit on the sizes of the digests. For example, as of the time of the writing of this piece of text, juno.com does this, and I won't even let juno.com people on the digest because of the bounced mail I get from all of the rejected digests. I might change this at some point, but probably not any time soon. If you miss a digest, you can get it from the mailing list archive. Excellent compilations has been produced through the efforts of Wire. One is a five 110-minute tape volume by Bob Reck known as the A-Z tapes. The A-Z tapes are no longer available through Bob, but you may be able to get a copy by posting to the list. For information on other compilations, ask the mailing list. Want an official Wire mailing list T-shirt, hat, etc? Check out the Official Wire Gear Homepage at http://www2.magmacom.com/~yearwood/u2.html for details. A third party company is making everything. Just as with the list itself, neither I (Wire mailing list maintainer) or any wire subscriber are making any money from this service, however the 3rd party company is. :) Wire stuff is being archived at: http://www.gartholamew.com/MailingLists/u2-list/ Everything that Thomas Jordan put together, things that have been contributed by members of Wire, and the things I have found are all located here. This includes samples, pictures, past postings, etc. Also the two most recent digests are always available via the home page in HTML and plain text formats. Getting them off the web site is the only way to get these items. Please do not ask me to mail them. I cannot mail anything to individuals. Please use the web site. If you want to donate something to the archive, put it in ftp://ftp.gartholamew.com/incoming/ but please send me mail and let me know that you have done so. Be sure to include the name of the file(s) you have uploaded. Doing this will make sure I get to it before the directory gets cleaned out. I don't scan /incoming regularly. I keep a list of U2 WWW sites. If you find one that you think is stable, let me know, and I will add it to the list. Also, if you notice that I have one listed that is nonexistent, please let me know so I can remove it. Please note: if you send a message to the list, it is possible that you may get errors. Whenever you send a submission to the list, it gets sent to EVERYONE on the list. I try to have things setup so that the errors get sent to me instead of to you, however that will not always happen. You can ignore these errors. If you receive an error message after posting to the list, this should only mean that piece of mail to that member of the list failed. However, you should always receive a copy of your own submission to the list (if you are on the digest you should receive it via the digest). If you don't receive your own posting, this means the message might not have made it to the list, and you should contact the administrative address. Please do *NOT* resend your posting until you are sure it didn't make it to the list. I do maintenance on the list every day to reduce the occurrences of these errors, but it is a fact of life that the errors will always occur, and I apologize. Given the amount of people on the list, if you receive a couple bounces, that is still a pretty low percentage of failures. By the way, this list does not require that people post in a particular language, but "english" is the most widely used, and it would be preferred if everyone used "english" since it appears to be what most people on the list know as a common language. Please, keep in mind that this list is what you make of it. There is no charge for this list, and it is worth that much. :) The content is entirely based on you, the subscriber and poster. Have a good day. p.s. If you are an aol.com subscriber, and you are having trouble reading the digest, contact aol.com, not me! I have no control over how they represent the mail that I send out to mailing list subscribers. You pay for your mail service, but my mailing list is free! Contact them for mail support, not me!