Please bookmark this page, especially if this is the first time you are subscribing to a mailing list.
If you ever need
to leave the list, you will find the necessary instructions below.
Perhaps more importantly, saving a copy of this message (and of all future subscription notices from other mailing lists) in a special mail folder will give you instant access to the list of mailing lists that you are subscribed to. This may prove very useful the next time you go on vacation and need to leave the lists temporarily so as not to fill up your mailbox while you are away! You should also save the "welcome messages" from the list owners that you will occasionally receive after subscribing to a new list.
This address (freshphys@mailman.rice.edu) is also called the "list address".
If you want to send mail to an individual faculty member or another student in Phys101, this is not a good way to communicate -- send them individual email.
Somtimes it is not clear whether you want to send the message to everyone or just one person. It is probably safer if you send it to a couple of people and ask if it is a message that might be useful to the entire list. But if you send it to the whole list, it is probably okay, and we will forgive you -- the first couple of times.
It is very important to understand the difference between the two, but fortunately it is not complicated. The LISTSERV address is like a FAX number that connects you to a machine, whereas the list address is like a normal voice line connecting you to a person.
If you make a mistake and dial the FAX number when you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you will quickly realize that you used the wrong number and call again. No harm will have been done. If on the other hand you accidentally make your FAX call someone's voice line, the person receiving the call will be inconvenienced, especially if your FAX then re-dials every 5 minutes. The fact that most people will eventually connect the FAX machine to the voice line to allow the FAX to go through and make the calls stop does not mean that you should continue to send FAXes to the voice number. People would just get mad at you. It works pretty much the same way with mailing lists, with the difference that you are calling hundreds or thousands of people at the same time, and consequently you can expect a lot of people to get upset if you consistently send commands to the list address. All the commands listed below are to be sent to listserv@listserv.rice.edu and NOT to freshphys.
Once you are used to this system, and trust the listserv to be actually sending your messages to the list, (or you may find that this is getting annoying), send a "SET FRESHPHYS NOREPRO" command and LISTSERV will stop sending you a copy of your own messages,
If you send a "SET FRESHPHYS ACK NOREPRO" command, LISTSERV will mail you a short acknowledgement instead, which will look different in your mailbox directory. With most mail programs you will know immediately that this is an acknowledgement you can read later. Finally, you can turn off acknowledgements completely with "SET FRESHPHYS NOACK NOREPRO".
We hope to be able to get web-archives for this list up shortly, so that you can access it directly from the web, without needing to sort thorough it.
This information should suffice for most users. In case you feel like you need more information, it can be found in the LISTSERV reference card, which you can retrieve by sending an "INFO REFCARD" command to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.RICE.EDU.
If none of this is working for you for whatever reason, write to me at lsuess@rice.edu and I'll see what I can manage.