AFRO-NETS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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AFRO-NETS FAQ is sent to the AFRO-NETS conference to assist subscrib-
ers who have questions or who wish to learn more about the conference
procedures. If you have suggestions for additional questions to this
document, please send to <neuvians@harare.iafrica.com>. These FAQ are
based on experiences from our sister conference ProMed.
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1. The basics
2. Help! My attempts to unsubscribe are not working. What should I
do?
3. How can I learn which conference I am subscribed to?
4. How do I obtain a description of the afro-nets conference?
5. I keep getting messages saying I am on the 'bounces' list. What is
this?
6. I am going on holiday. Can I temporarily suspend my subscription?
7. I see references to archive files and long numbers. What are they?
8. How can I obtain specific archive files?
9. Mailbox overflowing? Switch to the afro-nets digest!
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1. THE BASICS
For assistance or help, DO NOT send e-mail to the AFRO-NETS posting
address, <afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org>. E-mail sent to this address
is read by the scientific moderators. They work very hard to insure
that you receive content that is both accurate and informative. They
do not administer the operation of the conference.
Be sure to address any technical problems or questions to <owner-
afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org>. If you forget this address, it is re-
peated at the bottom of each AFRO-NETS message.
2. HELP! MY ATTEMPTS TO UNSUBSCRIBE ARE NOT WORKING. WHAT SHOULD I
DO?
If you want to unsubscribe from AFRO-NETS send a message to:
<majordomo@usa.healthnet.org>
and in the body of the message type:
unsubscribe afro-nets <email address>
OR
unsubscribe afro-nets-digest <email address>
as applicable.
3. HOW CAN I LEARN WHICH CONFERENCE I AM SUBSCRIBED TO?
Send a message to <majordomo@usa.healthnet.org>. In the body of the
message, type:
which
If you still require assistance, please send e-mail to:
<owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org> explaining the problem.
4. HOW DO I OBTAIN A DESCRIPTION OF THE AFRO-NETS CONFERENCE?
Send a message to <majordomo@usa.healthnet.org> and in the body of
the message, type:
info afro-nets
5. I KEEP GETTING MESSAGES SAYING I AM ON THE 'BOUNCES' LIST. WHAT IS
THIS?
If your account or site rejects e-mail from the AFRO-NETS conference,
we remove your address from the conference lists and place it on an
administrative list called 'bounces'. Otherwise, for the approxi-
mately three messages we average each day, we might receive upwards
of 100 error return messages!
At regular intervals a message is automatically sent to all 'bounces'
subscribers explaining why they are receiving the message and what
actions they can take to be removed from the 'bounces' list and put
back on the AFRO-NETS-mail conference. (We ignore return error mes-
sages from the 'bounces' list.)
The message contains a list of subscribers whose addresses are sorted
alphabetically by domain (e.g., .AU, .COM, .EDU) along with the con-
ference you were previously subscribed to. This should help you
quickly find your name and the address you were subscribed from. If
you do not respond (or your site rejects the 'bounce' postings) for
over two months, you will be removed completely.
6. I AM GOING ON HOLIDAY. CAN I TEMPORARILY SUSPEND MY SUBSCRIPTION?
No, the conference software does not include a 'vacation' feature.
Send e-mail and unsubscribe from the conference in question. Some
mailer programs will allow you to set up automatic filters to store
your AFRO-NETS messages in a special area during your absence. Please
be careful about generating auto-reply or 'vacation' messages to the
conference. If we receive these messages, we may remove you from the
conference and add you to 'bounces' at our discretion. We do not wish
to receive auto-reply or 'vacation' messages for each post we send,
until you get back!
7. I SEE REFERENCES TO ARCHIVE FILES AND LONG NUMBERS. WHAT ARE THEY?
AFRO-NETS moderators will occasionally refer to past postings that
have been archived. Often it is helpful to retrieve these archived
posts to gain additional insight into the current discussion.
For example:
[see also: Tuberculosis in South Africa (2) 970416125404]
This refers to the archive file named '970416125404'. To fetch this
archive file, send a message to <majordomo@usa.healthnet.org> and in
the body of the message, type:
get afro-nets 970416125404
You may include multiple 'get' commands in the message; be sure that
they are on separate lines.
8. HOW CAN I OBTAIN SPECIFIC ARCHIVE FILES?
There are two ways. First, you can use the 'get' command to retrieve
the TOPICS and CONTENTS files. TOPICS contains an alphabetical list-
ing of all the posts' Subject lines, along with the number of the ar-
chived file. CONTENTS is similar, but it is sorted by chronological
order. To retrieve the TOPICS file, send a message to <major-
domo@usa.healthnet.org>, and in the body of the message, type:
get afro-nets TOPICS
You will receive a message that looks like this:
"AFRICA RECOVERY": Maternal Mortality 970504061929
"NETWORK" - a family planning quarterly 970609085621
'Code of Conduct' between Donors and Recipients 971021172446
'EpiInfo' course for HSR trainers 970209033214
'get' command 970410034342
1. Southern African Malaria Conference 970210085023
18th African Health Sciences Congress 961129041051
18th AHSC/14th ESSA/IEA Conference 970107044853
3rd Reproductive Health Priorities Conference 970605063547
4th ICPC abstracts available 970628032428
8th International Congress of WFPHA 970603101124
Abstracts of LSHTM theses 971107041337
AFRICA-DEVELOPMENT: More than just internet connec... 970627035437
Africa Internet & Telephone Costs 970911150731
<...>
If you want to read about the above mentioned conferences, send an-
other message to <majordomo@usa.healthnet.org>. In the body of the
message, type:
get afro-nets 970210085023
get afro-nets 961129041051
get afro-nets 970107044853
get afro-nets 970605063547
get afro-nets 970628032428
get afro-nets 970603101124
You will receive individual e-mail messages containing one archived
post each.
Second, a new way to search the AFRO-NETS archives is to use GetWeb.
GetWeb is an e-mail interface to our WebGlimpse search engine on our
World Wide Web server. For example, to find references to Confer-
ences, send an e-mail message to
<getweb@usa.healthnet.org>
in the body of the message, type:
SEARCH AFRO-NETS Conference
Additional documentation about searching the AFRO-NETS archives is
available by sending a message to <getweb@usa.healthnet.org> and in
the body of the message, type:
GET http://www.healthnet.org/dist/getweb/help/PROMED.html
For general information about GetWeb, type:
GET http://www.healthnet.org/dist/getweb/help/HELP.html
9. MAILBOX OVERFLOWING? SWITCH TO THE AFRO-NETS DIGEST!
If you are feeling overwhelmed by the volume of AFRO-NETS posts, but
want to be sure you don't miss anything, try our Digest. This is a
weekly compilation of the unabridged posts, which come with a list of
contents at the top which you can quickly scan to see what interests
you.
To see what a Digest looks like, send the following message to
majordomo@usa.healthnet.org:
get afro-nets v97.n042
end
If you like the idea of switching to a Digest, send the following
message to <majordomo@usa.healthnet.org>:
subscribe afro-nets-digest
end
Happy reading!
Dieter Neuvians MD
AFRO-NETS Moderator
mailto:neuvians@harare.iafrica.com
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.