Comments: Screen-L's coordinator, Jeremy Butler, jbutler@bama.ua.edu .
1.1. What is Screen-L's founding principle?
1.2. Are there other film/TV discussion groups that are less "academic" than
Screen-L?
1.3. Are there guidelines or limits to the discussions on Screen-L?
1.4. How do I send a message to all the Screen-L subscribers?
1.5. How do I reply to a message I receive from Screen-L?
1.6. What format should messages to Screen-L use?
1.7. What sorts of messages are inappropriate for Screen-L?
2.1.1 How do I leave Screen-L?
2.1.2 How do I rejoin Screen-L?
2.2 Are there modifications I can make to my subscription besides just signing
off?
2.2.1. What subscription options can I set?
2.2.2. Can I suspend mail temporarily?
2.2.3. Can I get a bundled "digest" of Screen-L messages?
2.2.4. How can I get more information about the persons posting Screen-L messages?
2.2.5. How can I get an acknowledgment of messages I post to Screen-L?
2.2.6. Why aren't my own Screen-L messages sent back to me when they're posted?
2.2.7. Can I find out who is subscribed to Screen-L?
3.1.1. Can I nab old messages via a Web browser?
3.1.2. Can I nab old messages via e-mail?
Screen-L is designed for persons teaching, researching, and making film and television--whether they are film/TV educators, students, professionals, media librarians, or self-schooled fans. Discussion, therefore, is invited regarding film/TV criticism, theory, history, production issues, and teaching.
CINEMA-L, a lively list also devoted to film, provides an entertaining forum for folks wanting to chat more informally about the movies. Its address is listserv@auvm.american.edu. There are other film and TV lists available as well. E-mail Jeremy Butler (jbutler@bama.ua.edu) for more details. Or, connect to ScreenSite's list of film/TV discussion groups:
http://www.tcf.ua.edu/res/listserv/ftvlist.htm
Screen-L is a *moderated* list. This means that all messages are read by a moderator before they are passed along to the list. He filters out messages that are inappropriate. The moderator is Jeremy Butler (jbutler@bama.ua.edu).
In order to "post" a message to Screen-L, simply send e-mail to Screen-L@bama.ua.edu. You will first receive an acknowledgment of your message and then, when/if your message is forwarded by the moderator to Screen-L's subscribers, you will receive a second note informing you that it has been posted.
All Screen-L messages have a special mail code (REPLY-TO) attached to them so that replies automatically go back to Screen-L and *not* to the human who originally posted the message.
Warning: this makes it easy to reply to Screen-L messages, but it also makes it very simple to mistakenly send personal, private messages to Screen-L that you intended to send the human posting the message. If you want to send a private message, use your mail system's FORWARD function or address a new message from scratch.
While there's no strict format to Screen-L messages, it is always a good idea to:
Healthy disagreement and differing opinions are welcome, but when that disagreement turns into venomous insults and hateful verbal assaults it will not be tolerated.
Screen-L messages should somehow relate to the *study* of film and TV, not just the casual enjoyment of these media. This is interpreted rather broadly. Postings to Screen-L need not be dry, didactic treatises from which all joy has been crushed. But also, they should not noodle on about, say, the poster's penchant for full-lipped actors.
If someone asks what "rosebud" was in CITIZEN KANE, only *one* reply will be distributed.
Screen-L is designed for the interchange of messages. Longer essays, however, may be stored in Screen-L's archive (called Screen-L FILELIST) so that Screen-L users may request them. For more information, contact Jeremy Butler (jbutler@bama.ua.edu).
Subscribers may leave Screen-L by sending e-mail with the command
UNSUBSCRIBE Screen-L
or
SIGNOFF Screen-L
to LISTSERV@bama.ua.edu. Please please please send this command to "LISTSERV" not to "Screen-L." LISTSERV is the clerical robot (a piece of software residing on the University of Alabama's mainframe computer) that automatically controls Screen-L and all its subscriptions. Its address, not Screen-L@bama.ua.edu, should be used to sign off or otherwise modify your subscription.
Important technical note: Using the REPLY function on your e-mail system will *not* work when trying to sign off. If you REPLY to a Screen-L message then your message will go to Screen-L@bama.ua.edu.
If you have trouble signing off, notify Jeremy Butler (jbutler@bama.ua.edu).
Subscribers may re-join Screen-L by sending e-mail with the command
SUBSCRIBE Screen-L YourFirstName YourLastName
to listserv@bama.ua.edu.
There are a number of things you can do to modify how your subscription to Screen-L is handled. In LISTSERV terms, you can "set" several options that will modify how Screen-L mail is sent (or not sent) to you.
Here's the basic method: send mail to LISTSERV@bama.ua.edu. Once again, note that the address is not "Screen-L," but rather "LISTSERV," Screen-L's clerical robot. After the header, put in the command:
SET Screen-L option
Option is the thing you want to modify for your own personal subscription to Screen-L.
Descriptions follow...
NOMAIL turns off your mail delivery but keeps your name on Screen-L. Thus, to suspend mail delivery:
SET Screen-L NOMAIL
To restart delivery:
SET Screen-L MAIL
Every day Screen-L collects all of the day's messages and packages them into a single file called a "digest." The digest has an index at the start that contains the messages' subject headings. Following the index is each of the day's messages--in chronological order, separated by a line of hyphens, and identifying each poster with his/her real name and e-mail address.
To receive the daily digest of messages:
SET Screen-L DIGEST
To receive the index that is packaged with the digest but not the messages themselves:
SET Screen-L INDEX
Since Screen-L is archived, you can order specific messages that you see listed in an index.
If your account is set to DIGEST or INDEX you will not receive individual messages as they are sent by Screen-L. To quit receiving digests/indexes and go back to getting messages one at a time:
SET Screen-L MAIL
In some mail systems it is difficult to tell the original source of mail that was bounced off a LISTSERV like Screen-L. You can, however, have Screen-L put this information into the body of the message itself (as opposed to it being solely in the header).
This is called a "dual header" and it looks like this:
---------------------- Information from the mail header ----------------------- Sender: Film and TV Studies discussion (Screen-L@bama.ua.edu) Poster: Jeremy Butler (jbutler@bama.ua.edu) Subject: TV: It's My Life -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To receive dual headers:
SET Screen-L DUAL
To get rid of the dual header:
SET Screen-L SHORTHDR
If this does not work, try:
SET Screen-L SHORTBSMTP
Normally, Screen-L acknowledges receipt of all messages. That is, when you post a message, Screen-L will send you e-mail back saying all's fine. You can, however, turn this off.
To stop acknowledgments:
SET Screen-L NOACK
To turn them back on again:
SET Screen-L ACK
Screen-L knows who the poster of a message is and does not send a copy of his/her message to him/her. But then, if you're worried about getting through to Screen-L you might want copies of your messages sent to you just to be sure they made it.
To start your messages being sent to you:
SET Screen-L REPRO
To stop your messages being sent to you:
SET Screen-L NOREPRO
Due to the increase in unwanted bulk e-mail (aka, spam) on the Internet, subscribers may no longer get a list of other subscribers on Screen-L.
Every message posted on Screen-L is saved in an archive. This archive may be searched and individual messages may be retrieved.
Screen-L messages are bundled by week-by-week and are archived at:
http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html
You may also search these archives by clicking on the following link:
http://bama.ua.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=screen-l
3.1.2. Can I nab old messages via e-mail?
You may email a request to LISTSERV, the clerical robot that runs Screen-L. Since your request will be handled by a software robot and not a human, you'll have to phrase it just right.
Here's what you do: