With the Memorial Day weekend upon us and vacation season
approaching it's probably a good time for a refresher course for
those on the mailing list on what to do (and NOT do) while you
are away.

1. If you read the list at work (tsk, tsk), do NOT forget to
sign off or go "nomail." Otherwise, your computer geeks will
have set your network to send us a very annoying
"out-of-the-office" message every time we send something to the
list. Or, they're very likely to get annoyed at the volume of
mail that accumulates in your in-box.

2. If you read the list at home (as you probably should -- since
you're supposed to be working when you're at work ;-) you have
more options: signing off the list, going "nomail," setting
yourself to "digest" or setting yourself on "index."

3. If you are so obsessively attached to your office that you
lug a laptop with you on vacation, you can, of course, continue
to read the list while you are away. These both seem a bit anal
for a vacation, but I know people like that.

If _I_ get an out-of-the-office message (got one today, in fact,
which reminded me of this seasonal message) I _WILL_ set the
offender to nomail. That message also will bounce, of course, so
that person may or may not know why he or she can't get bonsai
mail upon his or her return. (That, of course, means I get
another desperate e-mail.)

So, here are your options:

1. To set yourself to "nomail":

send a message to:

No subject

Message should read: set bonsai nomail

When you want to resume getting mail, send message to the same
address.

It should read: set bonsai mail.

2. To set yourself to "digest" (which means you get one LARGE
e-mail every day that contains the full text of EVERY message
received by the list, and 2-weeks-worth of these humongous
e-mails will await you upon your return from Zanzibar):

send a message to

No subject

Message should read: set bonsai digest

When you want to resume getting mail, send message to the same
address.

It should read: set bonsai mail.

3. To set yourself to "index" (which means you get one
MODERATE-size e-mail every day containing a clickable LIST of all
the subject lines of the day's crop of messages and that will
await your return, also):

Send a message to

No subject

Message should read: set bonsai index

When you want to resume getting mail, send message to the same
address.

It should read: set bonsai mail.


Personally, I prefer the nomail option. I'll have a vacation's
worth of error reports, messages informing me when you subscribe
or unsubscribe, queries from some of you who have forgotten I'm
away, angry notes from these same people who get mad when I don't
reply because I'm away, and of course all the spam that slips
through my filters all awaiting my return. I don't need old
bonsai threads. If there was a war in my absence, I can read all
about it in the archives -- if I want.

NOMAIL is the ONLY option allowed business users when I get an
out-of-the-office response (which I'll get from their digest or
index commands when the daily mail bounces).

Jim Lewis - - list manager

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