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PROMED-MAIL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
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ProMED-mail FAQ is sent each month to the ProMED-mail conferences to
assist subscribers 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
owner-promed@promedmail.org
This document was last revised on: January 15, 2002
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0. THE BASICS
1. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
2. HELP! MY ATTEMPTS TO UNSUBSCRIBE ARE NOT WORKING. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
3. HOW CAN I LEARN WHICH CONFERENCES I AM SUBSCRIBED TO?
4. WHY DO THE SUBJECT LINE TAGS DIFFER FROM THE CONFERENCES I AM
SUBSCRIBED TO?
5. HOW DO I OBTAIN A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROMED-MAIL CONFERENCES?
6. HOW CAN I SEE ONLY HUMAN-SPECIFIC POSTS, NOT ANIMAL- OR PLANT-RELATED ONES?
7. I KEEP GETTING MESSAGES SAYING I AM ON THE "BOUNCES" LIST. WHAT IS THIS?
8. I AM GOING ON HOLIDAY. CAN I TEMPORARILY SUSPEND MY SUBSCRIPTION?
9. I SEE REFERENCES TO ARCHIVE FILES AND LONG NUMBERS. WHAT ARE THEY?
10. HOW CAN I OBTAIN SPECIFIC ARCHIVE FILES?
11. HOW DO I KNOW WHICH CONFERENCE TO SEND A POSTING TO?
12. HOW DO I SEND A POST?
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0. THE BASICS
If you learn ONLY ONE THING from this document: for assistance or
help, DO NOT send e-mail to the ProMED-mail posting addresses,
promed@promed.isid.harvard.org' OR promed@promedmail.org.
E-mail sent to these addresses is read by the scientific moderators.
They work very hard to ensure that you receive top-quality 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-promed@promedmail.org
If you forget this address, it is repeated at the bottom of each
ProMED-mail message.
1. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
Send an e-mail message to majordomo@promedmail.org
Type in the body of the message:
subscribe promed
end
You will then receive all posts, as they are generated.
OR type
subscribe promed-digest
end
You will then receive a consolidated mailing of all posts, approximately
daily. OR type
subscribe promed-ahead
end
You will receive animal, zoonotic, vector-borne disease posts, as generated.
OR type
subscribe promed-ahead-digest
end
A consolidation of AHEAD posts, approximately daily.
OR type
subscribe promed-edr
end
Emerging disease reports (new outbreaks only) as generated.
OR type
subscribe promed-plant
end
Only plant disease outbreaks, as generated. OR type
subscribe promed-port
end
Disease outbreak reports in Portuguese or Spanish, as generated.
OR type
subscribe promed-port-digest
end
A periodic consolidation of PORT posts.
OR type
subscribe promed-esp
end
Disease outbreak reports in Spanish (not necessarily the same as those
on promed-port), as generated.
OR type
subscribe promed-esp-digest
end
A periodic consolidation of ESP posts.
2. HELP! MY ATTEMPTS TO UNSUBSCRIBE ARE NOT WORKING. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
First, verify which ProMED-mail conference(s) you are subscribed to.
Many subscribers are unaware that ProMED-mail is actually a collection of
separate mailing lists, or conferences. When you've determined the
conference(s) you are subscribed to, send a message to:
majordomo@promedmail.org
and type in the body of the message:
unsubscribe promed
OR
unsubscribe promed-digest
OR
unsubscribe promed-ahead
OR
etc., as applicable.
Do not include multiple unsubscribe commands on one line.
3. HOW CAN I LEARN WHICH CONFERENCES I AM SUBSCRIBED TO?
Send a message to majordomo@promedmail.org
In the body of the message, type:
which
If you still require assistance, please send e-mail explaining the problem to:
owner-promed@promedmail.org
4. WHY DO THE SUBJECT TAGS DIFFER FROM THE CONFERENCES I AM SUBSCRIBED TO?
Each ProMED-mail posting you receive contains in the Subject line a `tag'
or series of letters: `PRO' optionally followed by `/' and more letters.
The tag helps the Moderators to keep track of which conferences they have
chosen to send the post to. The tags DO NOT indicate the conference(s) to
which you are subscribed.
Remember that posts sent to the `promed-plant', `promed-edr', and
`promed-ahead' conferences are also carried in the main `promed' conference.
In addition, the Moderators may decide to post a message to multiple
conferences; for example, to AHEAD and EDR conferences. Here are some
examples of tags you might see on the various conferences:
promed : PRO>, PRO/ALL>, PRO/PL>, PRO/PL/EDR>,
PRO/AH/EDR>, PRO/EDR>, PRO/AH, PRO/AH/PL>
promed-ahead : PRO/AH>, PRO/AH/EDR>, PRO/AH/PL>,
PRO/ALL>
promed-edr : PRO/EDR>, PRO/ALL>, PRO/AH/EDR>,
PRO/PL/EDR>
promed-plant : PRO/PL>, PRO/PL/EDR>, PRO/AH/PL>,
PRO/ALL>
promed-port : PRO/POR>
5. HOW DO I OBTAIN A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROMED-MAIL CONFERENCES?
Send a message to majordomo@promedmail.org
and in the body of the message, type:
info promed
You will receive a message describing all of the ProMED-mail
conferences.
Remember: there is no single conference called `promed-mail'.
The term `ProMED-mail' refers to the entire collection of conferences.
6. HOW CAN I SEE ONLY HUMAN-SPECIFIC POSTS, NOT ANIMAL- OR PLANT-RELATED ONES?
It is not possible. The conference moderators have designed ProMED-mail to
work this way. Consider that the next plant or animal epidemic may have
direct consequences on the human population and you will see why this is a
wise decision.
7. I KEEP GETTING MESSAGES SAYING I AM ON THE `BOUNCES' LIST. WHAT IS THIS?
If your account or site rejects e-mail from a ProMED-mail conference, we
remove your address from the conference lists and place it on an
administrative list called `bounces'. Otherwise, for the approximately
twenty sent messages we average each day, we might receive thousands of
additional 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
ProMED-mail conference. (We ignore return error messages from the
`bounces' list.)
If you're unsure of the address to which you were subscribed prior to
being `bounced', follow the instructions in QUESTION 3: HOW CAN I LEARN
WHICH CONFERENCES I AM SUBSCRIBED TO?
If you do not understand the instructions, forward the e-mail to
owner-promed@promedmail.org requesting assistance.
8. I AM GOING ON HOLIDAY. CAN I TEMPORARILY SUSPEND MY SUBSCRIPTION?
No, the conference software does not include a `vacation' feature. Send an
e-mail message to unsubscribe from the conference(s) in question, and
resubscribe on your return. Some mailer programs will allow you to set up
automatic filters to store your ProMED-mail 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!
9. I SEE REFERENCES TO ARCHIVE FILES AND LONG NUMBERS. WHAT ARE THEY?
ProMED-mail Moderators often refer to past postings that have been
archived. It is helpful to retrieve these archived posts to gain additional
insight into the current situation.
For example: "[see also: Potato late blight: global threat, 19970217230023]"
This refers to the archive file named "19970217230023." To fetch this archive
file by e-mail, send a message to majordomo@promedmail.org
and in the body of the message, type:
get promed 19970217230023
Also, some extra-long archived files have alphabetical instead of numeric
filenames. In those cases, the command is, for example,
get promed cyclospora
You may include multiple `get' commands in the message; be sure that they
are on separate lines.
10. HOW CAN I SEARCH AND OBTAIN SPECIFIC ARCHIVE FILES?
ProMED-mail posts and archives are freely available to all. However,
the use of posts or archived material for commercial purposes requires
permission and payment of a fee. Requests should be sent to
promed@promedmail.org
Please credit ProMED-mail as the source of information or quotations
used in publications.
Although ProMED-mail makes every effort to provide accurate information,
we cannot guarantee the accuracy of every posted item.
There are three ways in which you can search for and obtain archived posts:
First, sophisticated searches are possible at the ProMED-mail website:
http://www.promedmail.org
If you do not wish to use the Web, you can search by e-mail in two ways:
a) You can use the `get' command to retrieve the TOPICS or CONTENTS files.
TOPICS contains an alphabetical listing of the "Subject" lines of the posts,
along with the number of the archived file.
CONTENTS is similar, but it is sorted by chronological order.
To retrieve a TOPICS file for a particular year, send a message to
majordomo@promedmail.org
and in the body of the message, type:
get promed TOPICS-19xx
where "xx" is the last two digits of the year desired.
You will receive a message that looks like this:
<...>
Anthrax, cattle - Canada (Alberta) 19990724201301
Anthrax, cattle - Canada (Alberta) (02) 19990803185756
Anthrax, cattle - Canada (Alberta) (03) 19990806230300
Anthrax, cattle - Canada (Alberta) (04) 19990816202436
Anthrax, cattle - Canada (Alberta) (05) 19990901224029
Anthrax, cattle - Canada (Alberta) (06) 19991001153448
Anthrax, cattle - Canada (Alberta) (07) 19991005110926
If you want to read about Anthrax in Canada (Alberta), send another
message to majordomo@promedmail.org
In the body of the message, type:
get promed 19990724201301
get promed 19990803185756
get promed 19990806230300
get promed 19990816202436
get promed 19990901224029
get promed 19991001153448
get promed 19991005110926
end
You will receive individual e-mail messages containing one archived post
each.
11. HOW DO I KNOW WHICH CONFERENCE TO SEND A POSTING TO?
Send ALL posts to:
promed@promedmail.org
The moderators will ensure that your post is routed to the appropriate
conference(s).
12. HOW CAN I SEND A POST?
Send all items for posting to:
promed@promedmail.org
(NOT to an individual Moderator).
If you do not give your full name and affiliation, your report will not be
posted. Names can be withheld, however, for good reason.
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************************************************************
ProMED-mail makes every effort to verify the reports that
are posted, but the accuracy and completeness of the
information, and of any statements or opinions based
thereon, are not guaranteed. The reader assumes all risks in
using information posted or archived by ProMED-mail. ISID
and its associated service providers shall not be held
responsible for errors or omissions or held liable for any
damages incurred as a result of use or reliance upon posted
or archived material.
************************************************************
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<http://www.isid.org/ProMEDMail_Premium.shtml>
************************************************************
Visit ProMED-mail's web site at <http://www.promedmail.org>.
Send all items for posting to: promed@promedmail.org
(NOT to an individual moderator). If you do not give your
full name and affiliation, it may not be posted. Send
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etc. to: majordomo@promedmail.org. For assistance from a
human being send mail to: owner-promed@promedmail.org.
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