Subscription is open, so anyone interested may subscribe to the list, whether or not they are SPS members.
The subscription process involves sending a command to the Listserv address, and then confirming your intent to subscribe by replying to a confirmation email sent by Listserv.
To subscribe to the SPS-L list, send an email to LISTSERV@LISTS.OU.EDU from the email address that you would like to subscribe. The body of the email needs to say:
You don't need the brackets, but please use your real name otherwise we won't have any idea who you are!
When the Listserv receives your subscription request, it will send you an email to confirm. You must follow the instructions in the confirmation email or you will not be subscribed to the list. This prevents anyone (other than the list owners) from subscribing you to the list without your permission.
Anyone who is subscribed to the list may unsubscribe at any time.
To unsubscribe from the SPS-L list, send an email to LISTSERV@LISTS.OU.EDU from the email address that you are subscribed with. The body of the email needs to say:
You may also use the handy webform to unsubscribe!
When the Listserv recieves your unsubscribe request, it will send you an email to confirm that you have
been unsubscribed. If you don't receive this email, your unsubscribe request was not processed (probably
a typo somewhere), so you'll need to do it again. You don't need to reply to the confirmation email, it's
just to let you know that your request worked. Also, this way you'll know if someone has (accidentally or
intentionally) unsubscribed you without your permission, and you can re-subscribe. If you're having trouble
unsubscribing, email the list owners.
The SPS-L list is a Private list, so only subscribers may post. You may only post from the email address you are subscribed with.
To post a message to the list, send email to SPS-L@LISTS.OU.EDU. The Listserv will receive the email and send it out to all the members, with your name and email address listed as the sender and reply-to of the email, and (SPS-L) appended to the end of the subject line.
By default, using simply "Reply" or "Reply to Sender" will address your reply to the original sender
of the list message rather than to the whole list.
If you'd like your reply to go to the whole list, choose "Reply to All" or "Reply to List".
If your email program doesn't have these options, or if they otherwise don't work,
add "SPS-L@LISTS.OU.EDU" to the recipient list of the reply email.
If you're going to be away and using an auto-reply of some sort, please turn off receipt of list mail by sending the command "SET SPS-L NOMAIL" to LISTSERV@LISTS.OU.EDU (see Listserv commands above for more info). This will avoid having your auto-response sent to the list and possibly inducing infinite auto-responder loops.
Listserv commands are just what they sound like: commands you send to the Listserv. Namely, commands are things that display or affect your subscription options or list parameters. "SUBSCRIBE" and "SIGNOFF" are the most frequently used commands, which is why they have their own sections at the top of the instructions.
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you send Listserv commands to the list itself. Always send to the Listserv address.
Listserv commands should ALWAYS and ONLY be sent to LISTSERV@LISTS.OU.EDU. Commands are sent in the body of the email, and you don't need anything other than the command and its required parameters in the email. Command output will be sent to the address from which the command was received.
In the event that you're having trouble sending commands or receiving the output, please email the list owners.
Probably the most important command. This will return a brief list of useful commands and the syntax for using them. The commands that follow are those listed by "HELP".
Returns information about "topic" or "listname". Use "INFO REFCARD" for a comprehensive command list, or just "INFO" for a list of available topics you can get information about.
Subscribe to list "listname". You may also add an optional WITH and then specify subscription options, using the same options as SET. For example: "SUBSCRIBE SPS-L Jane Doe WITH DIGEST NOHTML" would subscribe Jane Doe to the SPS-L list with the options to receive daily digest mails rather than individual posts, and to turn off receipt of HTML-formatted mail.
Unsubscribe from list "listname"
Returns a summary of your subscription options on "listname". Defaults are: MAIL (receive each posting to the list), FULLHDR (normal mail headers on list mails), REPRO (receive a copy of your own post), NOACK (no separate confirmation of posting success)
Set/change your subscription options on list "listname". For example, to set digest mode (all posts from the day wrapped up into one daily mail instead of individual postings), use "SET SPS-L DIGESTS". To turn off receipt of HTML-formatted emails from the list, use "SET SPS-L NOHTML". You can send several options at once too, so the above two could be combined into a single longer command like "SET SPS-L DIGESTS NOHTML".
Search archives of "listname" with "keyword(s)..."
The SPS-L list is archived online at:http://lists.ou.edu/archives/sps-l.html
Anyone may view the list archives, but its existence is not made public other than here.
Although the archives are publicly accessible, neither links to or even the existence of the SPS-L list are
published on http://lists.ou.edu or in a "LIST" command sent to the Listserv.
Further, only list owners can view the list of subscribers to the SPS-L list. Other subscribers will only know
your email address if you post to the list.
Hopefully, this will help prevent spammers from joining our list in the first place (to send spam to the list address),
prevent ill-minded subscribers from obtaining everyone's email address, and also prevent spam-spiders from
traversing our list archives looking to harvest our email addresses. So far, this seems to be the best mix of security
and freedom we could come up with.
If it becomes a problem, we'll set the archives to Private, and only subscribers will be able to view them.
Your SPS-L list owners are:
If you still have questions after reading these instructions, please email the list owners. More info on the OU Listserv system can be found at http://lists.ou.edu. The official Listserv website is http://www.lsoft.com