frequest listserv errors

[Jack Reeves]

Here are more answers to listserv questions.  (I get copies of all
the error messages that the list generates).

1.  Request words such as help are sent to listserv, not
pianotech.  Pianotech is just a mailing list, nothing more-you write
a letter and send it to pianotech instead of sending it individually
to the 77 people on the mailing list.  Listserv is the computer
brain behind the mailing list, so questions about the list (the
request words), are sent to the brain, not to the mailing list.  Think
of listserv as being the name of the department secretary.
Listserv reads every message that comes through and if you
have filled the form out right, will send the message out to
everyone on the pianotech mailing list.

2.  If you send a "help" request to listserv, you receive a list
of the requests that listserv will respond to, such as help, get,
put, index, subscribe, unsubscribe, etc.  (about 20 of them).  You
cannot start a pianotech message with any of those words, or
listserv will interpret it as a request.  One recent  message began
"get the blue felt from...."  That generated an error message
because it started with "get" which is a listserv recognized
request.   "Get" could be anywhere else in the message except
the first word, and it would be OK.  One easy solution is to have a
standard greeting that you start every message with such as
Aloha or Hi Yall, etc.  Another easy solution is to learn the
request words and then not use one of them as the first word in
your message.

3.  Archives--All of the messages that have been sent out on this
mailing list with the exception of the first week or two have been
saved by listserv (the computer brain or the department
secretary) and orderly filed by week, as PIANOTECH digest 1,
PIANOTECH digest 2, etc.  A list of the archives is obtained by
asking listserv to send it to you.  The command is just two words,
     index pianotech.
Each digest has a name, which is the number of the day and
the year it was created.  For example, PIANOTECH digest 22
has the name pianotech.344.94.  That means it was created on
the 344th day of 1994 and contains all of the messages since
PIANOTECH digest 21 was created.  You can retrieve a digest
by telling listserv to send it to you.  The command to retrieve
PIANOTECH digest 22 is  get  pianotech pianotech.344.94
Notice the three elements (1) the get request, (2) the name of
the list, and (3)the name of the digest.  You must type the name
of the digest correctly including the period between pianotech
and the day number, and the period between the day number
and the year.  As was mentioned by Ron Torella, the archives are
also easily available via Gopher, Mosaic, Netscape, etc.

Have a good week,
Jack Reeves, BYU
jack_reeves@byu.edu