CONTENTS

1. Voyager-L and Voyager-L-Digest Information
1. Voyager-L
2. Voyager-L-Digest
2. How to send commands to a list
3. Getting Help
4. Sending messages to Voyager-L
5. Subscribing and Unsubscribing
1. Subscribing
2. Unsubscribing
1. Unsubscribe fails, why?
3. Changing Your Email Address
4. Changing From Voyager-L to Voyager-L-Digest
5. Vacation
6. Voyager-L Resources
1. Web page
2. Voyager-L-Back Issues
3. Voyager-L Searchable Archives
7. List Etiquette
1. Suggestive Subjects
2. SPAM Policy

Appendix A. Majordomo Help File

1. Voyager-L and Voyager-L-Digest Information
   
   Generally, voyager-l and voyager-l-digest are two lists maintained for the Voyager User’s Group. The lists are maintained at Shippensburg University.
   
   Lists require software to operate, and both Voyager-L and Voyager-L-Digest are managed by a suite of software including : "Sendmail v8" by Eric Allman, "Majordomo 1.94.4" by D. Brent Chapman, and "Bulkmail" by Keith Moore. For those trivia buffs who always ask, why is "Majordomo" called "Majordomo?" From the Majordomo Manual:
   
   majordomo - n: a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another. From latin major domus" - "master of the house".
   
1. Voyager-L
   Voyager-L is an open forum for discussion of Endeavor’s Voyager product and related library issues. Voyager-L was originally maintained by Dee Vincent at Michigan Technological University. Starting in May, 1998, Voyager-L was moved to its current home at Shippensburg University.
   
   Voyager-L has approximately 2300 subscribers, from hundreds of academic, corporate, and governmental sites; and from countries around the world.
   
   Voyager-L is a "traditional" list, subscribers to the list send messages to the list’s address, and the list management software quickly distributes that message to all other subscribers on the list. This is done message by message. If twenty messages are sent to Voyager-L, then subscribers on Voyager-L will each receive twenty messages in their mailboxes.
   
   
2. Voyager-L-Digest
   Voyager-L-Digest is a "non-traditional" list, of a type called a "digest". As mail is sent to the Voyager-L list, it is also sent to the "digester." The digester’s job is to accumulate messages until it has enough to package together, and release as a single digest message. That is, if twenty messages are sent to Voyager-L, then the digester will accumulate them until there are enough to create a digest message, and one large email message will be sent out to the subscribers of Voyager-L-Digest.
   
   Some people prefer the digest approach, as it reduces the daily traffic on their Email inboxes. Others prefer the real-time aspect of Voyager-L. It is truly a personal preference which list to belong to.
   
2. How to send commands to a list
   The list is managed by special software, called "list management" software. The application’s name is "Majordomo." There are a variety of things one can do using Majordomo. For example, if you want to subscribe or unsubscribe yourself from one of the lists, you would send a command to Majordomo. You may also want to find out who is on one of the lists, or find out what lists you are currently on. To do any of this you will need to send a command or a set of commands to the "list management software." Please note that the "list management software" is not the "list manager". The "list manager" is usually the human being who maintains the list.
   
   All commands sent to the list are sent through Email. To send a command to the list management software, send an Email message to: "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu". Most Email programs that you are using allow you to send a subject with the message, Majordomo (the program) ignores the subject line entirely, so it can be anything you desire or left blank. The "body" of the message is where you enter your command or commands.
   
   The most common command used by someone on Voyager-L is to unsubscribe themselves. To unsubscribe from the Voyager-L list, simply send as a message, the sentence:
   
   unsubscribe voyager-l
   
   If this is sent to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu" you will receive confirmation that you are unsubscribed from voyager-l.
   
   There are a number of other important and some other less useful commands. At the end of this FAQ will be a list of Majordomo commands.
   
   The most common mistake with Voyager-L is sending your requests to "majordomo@mtu.edu". This will no longer work. You must update all of your bookmarks and address books, and instructions to use "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu".
   
3. Getting Help
   Using the instructions presented in section "2.0How to send commands to the list", send an email message to "Majordomo@voyager.ship.edu", and in the body of the message, simply send the phrase "help"
   
   In reply, Majordomo will automatically send you a mail message back including the "Majordomo List Help" file.
   
   Also, at the end of every Voyager-L message are brief instructions to subscribe, unsubscribe, and get help.
   
4. Sending messages to Voyager-L
   Sending messages to Voyager-L is a very easy process. Send an Email message to the list address, in this case, "voyager-l@voyager.ship.edu" . The contents of your Email message will be delivered to all 1300 subscribers on Voyager-L in about 6 minutes. Do include a very descriptive subject line on your message, this will help other subscribers sort out those messages which are interesting to them. Your message will be delivered as is, with the following change: Whatever subject you enter will have a prefix of "[VOYAGER-L]: " attached to it before it is sent. This is so subscribes on the list can quickly see that the message is from a list, and see exactly what list it is from.
   
   One common mistake in sending messages to Voyager-L is sending them to "voyager-l@mtu.edu." The list has moved, please update any address books you have to send them now to "voyager-l@voyager.ship.edu".
   
   Only subscribers may post messages to the voyager-l list. If you are a subscriber and your messages still will not post to the list, please e-mail to voyager-l-approval@voyager.ship.edu to inquire about the format of your address in the list. The format of your e-mail address in the voyager-l list must match exactly the format of your address in any e-mail that you send. For example, if you are subscribed to the list as "user@ship.edu" but e-mail sent from you has a return address of "user@ark.ship.edu" you will not be able to post to the list. You will need to change the format of your e-mail address in your e-mail software or unsubcribe the incorrect address and resubscribe the correct address.
5. Subscribing and Unsubscribing
1. Subscribing
   To subscribe to Voyager-L, send a command to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu", and in the body of the message, include the statement "subscribe voyager-l" or
   "subscribe voyager-l-digest". You should receive a reply from majordomo in a few minutes. If you do not, make sure that you sent the message to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu". Even if the subscription request was botched, Majordomo will reply one way or the other if it received the message. The list manager, Endeavor, approves all subscription requests. Please be patient, it could take several hours or a couple days for the approval to be processed.
   
   To subscribe someone else to Voyager-L, send a command to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu" and in the body of the message, include the statement "subscribe voyager-l email_address". Note that in this case, the list manager must manually approve that type of subscription, which may take several hours to several days to approve.
   
2. Unsubscribing
   To unsubscribe from Voyager-L, send a command to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu", and in the body of the message, include the statement "unsubscribe voyager-l" or "unsubscribe voyager-l-digest". You should receive a reply from majordomo in a few minutes. If you do not, make sure that you sent the message to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu". Even if the unsubscription request was botched, Majordomo will reply one way or the other if it received the message.
   
   It is common to continue receiving Voyager-L messages for a short time after you unsubscribe, since there may already be mail working its way through the queue that is yet to be delivered. If you continue receiving messages for several days after you unsubscribe then something is wrong, contact the list manager.
   
   If you are not sure what lists you are on, you can always try sending acommand to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu" including the following statement in the body of the message: "unsubscribe * your_address" This will unsubscribe you from any lists which you are on (on that system). For example, an address appears on Voyager-L and Voyager-L-Digest, this version of unsubscribe would eliminate both subscriptions.
   
1. Unsubscribe fails, why?
   There are two command reasons why an unsubscribe request fails.
   
   The most common is that the subscriber’s email address was changed along the way. As a courtesy, most sites automatically forward email from your old address to your new address. So, the first step to debunk this common problem is to find out what email address and lists you were subscribed as. Send majordomo the command "which domain.name" where domain.name is the most significant part of your sites’ domain name. For example, Shippensburg’s domain name is "ship.edu". The command "which ship.edu" will send back a list of all addresses subscribed to any list that include the phrase "ship.edu" in them. Look through this list and find your old email address. Using that, send a message to "Majordomo@voyager.ship.edu" and include the phrase "unsubscribe voyager-l email_address". The list manager (human being) will need to approve the unsubscribe request, so it may take some time for a response to come back from Majordomo.
   
   The second most common mistake when unsubscribing from Voyager-L (or the digest) is sending the command to unsubscribe to "majordomo@mtu.edu". That is the address of the old list server. You should receive an email message back from "majordomo@mtu.edu" stating that you are not on list Voyager-L. The key here is that someone there is a reference to "mtu.edu". Commonly, out of frustration, people trying to get off of Voyager-L send the list manager a note saying "I tried to unsubscribe from this *~!#@ list and it tells me I’m not subscribed! But I’m still receiving emails from it! " Please make sure that you are sending the command to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu"
   
3. Changing Your Email Address
   Send an Email message to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu", and in the body of the message include two (2) lines. On the first line, include the command "unsubscribe voyager-l oldaddress". On the second line, include the command "subscribe voyager-l" This will effectively change your old email address to your new one.
   
4. Changing From Voyager-L to Voyager-L-Digest
   Send an Email message to "majordomo@voyager.ship.edu", and in the body of the message include two (2) lines. On the first line, include the command "unsubscribe voyager-l" and on the second line, include the command "subscribe voyager-l-digest".
   
   Note, the process can be reversed, if you want to go from the digest back to the regular list, unsubscribe from the digest on the first line, subscribe to voyager-l on the second line.
   
5. Vacation
   One common request from people going on vacation is that they be temporarily suspended from Voyager-L (or digest) while they are away on vacation. If your site has disk quotas, or you just don’t want to deal with 1000 email messages waiting in your inbox when you return, you should think about suspending all of your list server accounts. There is another list management package named "ListProc" which supports a "vacation" type command. Majordomo (the one which manages voyager-l) does not support this type of command. The only way to do this is to unsubscribe yourself before you leave on vacation and subscribe yourself when you return.
   
   Also, one common mistake people do is before they leave on vacation, that set an "auto-responder" which automatically replies to anyone who sends them Email that they are away for some length of time, lounging around on some beach, drinking cool drinks under a hot tropical sun. While it is nice to have envious co-workers, the 1300 people on Voyager-L do not really want to know this.
   
   So, a message sent to Voyager-L will be send to that person’s mail inbox. The auto-responder will automatically respond with its message, which will go back to the list. So, now, 1300 have just received an automatic response that someone is on vacation. Now, here is where things get really hairy. Because the auto-responder replied back to the list, then the auto-responder’s reply will be delivered to the list as a message. This will be then be delivered to the same recipient again. Now, the auto-responder may reply back (to its own message). This creates a mail loop. Every message the list delivers causes the auto-responder to generate a cycle of requests. Some auto-responders will not respond to their own messages, some will.
   
   To avoid having 1,300 unhappy list subscribers and one REALLY mad list manager when you return, unsubscribe yourself from the list(s) you are on, and subscribe when you return.
6. Voyager-L Resources
   Voyager-L has some other great resources in addition to the Email list service. Following is an attempt to catalog those resources. There have been requests for other "off-list" resources, for example, having an Email to News server gateway for the list traffic. This type of activity is beyond the scope of the list. If there is some Voyager-L resource out there which is not included in this section, please notify the KLN Hub Adminstration Team at Shippesnburg University (kln@ship.edu) and it will appear in future versions of this FAQ and on the Voyager-L web page.
   
1. Web page
   Voyager-L has a web page (like everything else these days). The address is: http://voyager.ship.edu/voyagerl
   There is a searchable archive of Voyager-L there, as well as links to help texts, FAQs, and other Voyager-L resources.
2. Voyager-L-Back Issues
   Back issues of the Voyager-L-Digest (and thus Voyager-L) are available through the list server. To retrieve them, send email to majordomo@voyager.ship.edu with the commands listed below. Note that only voyager-l list members will receive responses to these commands.

   Step 1
   ------
   Get list of available back issues of the digest:
   
      index voyager-l
   
   You'll receive a list from 1999 to today that looks something like this:
   
   -rw-rw----   1 majordom mail       56444 May 15 13:41 v02.n927
   -rw-rw----   1 majordom mail       57464 May 15 17:03 v02.n928
   -rw-rw----   1 majordom mail       57266 May 16 13:30 v02.n929
   -rw-rw----   1 majordom mail       56027 May 16 18:00 v02.n930
   -rw-rw----   1 majordom mail       63923 May 17 16:04 v02.n931
   -rw-rw----   1 majordom mail       66208 May 20 08:30 v02.n932
   
   
   Step 2
   -----
   Retrieve specific digest
   
      get voyager-l digestname
   
   example:
   
      get voyager-l v02.n932
   
   That copy of the digest will be emailed to you.
   
   

   
   This archive is that it only includes messages sent since Voyager-L moved to Shippensburg University in 1999.
   
3. Voyager-L Searchable Archives
   There is another searchable index maintained by Wally Grotophorst at GMU, at http://sparky.gmu.edu/waiscom/voy-l.html
   
   This includes Voyager-L submissions since April 1996.
   
7. List Etiquette
   Emily Post would have quite a chapter in her book describing the etiquette of electronic communication. General "etiquette" rules apply to Voyager-L as well. This FAQ should not serve as a legislative document for acceptable behavior on Voyager-L. But, as a rule of thumb, generally offensive behavior will generally get someone booted from the list quickly. Voyager-L has been an easy list to manage in that respect, mostly because everyone on the list are professionals using this as a tool for professional activity. If there is doubt whether an activity is offensive, then don’t send it :-p
   
1. SPAM Policy
   SPAM to a list are messages which are either blantantly false, advertise something in an undesirous manner, or invite someone to replicate a chain letter. Voyager-L has basically been pretty SPAM free. Hopefully, Voyager-L will continue to be SPAM free in the future.
   

Appendix A. Majordomo Help Files