This is the roots-l.welcome2 file, the third in a series of ROOTS-L introductory files. To request another copy of the initial file in this series, in the event that you lost or accidentally deleted it, send a message to ROOTS-L-request@rootsweb.com with the single word "archive" (no quotation marks) in the subject line and the message get roots-l.welcome Do not include a signature file or anything else in the message. To request the next file in the series, send instead the message get roots-l.welcome3 File Contents roots-l.welcome - Overview of ROOTS-L - Posting guidelines roots-l.welcome1 - Surname lists in signatures and other netiquette issues - Getting started with your family research roots-l.welcome2 - SmartList commands to use with ROOTS-L - Searching the archived messages - Why subscriptions sometimes get deleted roots-l.welcome3 - The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) files - The genealog files - The family files SmartList commands to use with ROOTS-L ====================================== Unless otherwise noted, please send these commands to ROOTS-L-request@rootsweb.com. They won't work if sent instead to the mailing list address. If you set up aliases for the two addresses, make them enough different you can remember which is which. Be sure to use the commands as shown here, don't add or remove spaces, change the spelling, add other info, etc. SmartList only recognizes and processes commands if they are exactly right. And this is important: do =not= include a signature file in your message or anything other than the command(s). For all but the first two of these, use the word "archive" (without the quotation marks) as the Subject. 1. subscribe To subscribe to ROOTS-L in digest mode 2. unsubscribe To unsubscribe from ROOTS-L in digest mode Send it from the same address from which you subscribed, or it won't work. If you can't do that, send a message to rootserr@rootsweb.com -- be sure to say what your old address was, don't make us guess ;-) 3. get roots-l.catalog To get a catalog of ROOTS-L files. (Be sure to put the word "archive" in your subject line!) 4. get faq.index To find out about the ROOTS-L Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) files 5.. get family.readme To find out who is researching which surnames 6. get roots-l.welcome To get a copy of the roots-l.welcome file 7. get roots-l.welcome1 get roots-l.welcome2 To get more information about posting guidelines, etc... 8. get volume96/3 Get the 3rd digest sent out in 1996. 9. get messages/253 To get a copy of message 253 But how do you know you want message 253? Instead of taking the full ROOTS-L digest, you can instead receive an index of the messages posted each day, then order the individual messages you want. To receive the index, send the command "subscribe" to the address ROOTS-I-request@rootsweb.com. (ROOTS-I instead of ROOTS-L!) Be sure to "unsubscribe" from ROOTS-L-request@rootsweb.com, or you'll receive both the index =and= the digest. (ROOTS-L, ROOTS-I, and ROOTS-M are =separate= mailing lists, but carry the same messages in different formats.) What's ROOTS-M? ROOTS-M is ROOTS-L in mail mode, where every posting is sent to you as an individual message. To change to this mode, send the command unsubscribe to ROOTS-L-request@rootsweb.com (if you're changing from the digest) or to ROOTS-I-request@rootsweb.com (if you're changing from the index), and the command subscribe to ROOTS-M-request@rootsweb.com. There is no NOMAIL mode. If you want messages to stop, just send the message "unsubscribe" to the appropriate address (if in digest mode, ROOTS-L-request@rootsweb.com; if in mail mode, ROOTS-M-request@rootsweb.com; and if in index mode, ROOTS-I-request@rootsweb.com), then when you want messages to restart, send the message "subscribe" to the same address... Availability of archived messages ================================= We never throw away anything. Every message sent to ROOTS-L since it began back in 1987 is stashed away somewhere. But there are over 100,000 archived messages, how does one cope? Well, if you have WWW access, trundle over to the ROOTS-L home page at http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/roots-l.html and look for the link about searching the archives on-line. It will take you to Infobases, which has put on the Web a searchable version of our archives. The searchable archives are usually at most a month or so out of date. For now, if you don't have WWW access, there is as far as we know no way to search the archives. (In fact, as we transition from one mailing list program to another, they're only available on the Web page.) Why subscriptions are sometimes deleted ======================================= Well, for starters, we don't usually go around deleting subscriptions. If yours was zapped, most likely your site was not receiving the mail sent to you, and if so you probably did not even receive the message saying that your subscription has been deleted. If you don't receive any mail for 2 days, then - please subscribe again when your system is working again.