I've had some folks ask what some of the terms in the rules mean, so I figured it might be best for me to explain them.? Some folks new to computers, Linux, and mailing lists can find them confusing.
* HTML Email:? HTML is the Hyper Text Markup Language and is sometimes erroneously called Rich Text email.? It is a series of instructions, written in text, that tell a web browser or an email program how to display text and graphics.? Normal email is simply just text.? HTML email wraps your text with markup codes so you can designate things like font type, font size, color, and so on.? It is very similar to Word Processing formatting.? But these codes are unnecessary overhead for an email list and just add bloat to each message.? HTML is what is used to code web pages.? We don't need all that fancy stuff in our email.? Also, most spammers send email with such codes in it, which is a security risk, so many of us automatically reject email with such codes in them for our own safety.
* Signature Lines:? Personally identifiable information placed at the bottom of your message, such as name, address, phone number, and maybe even a favorite quote.? On this list, since it is published on the Internet, including that information in your emails can make you a target for spammers and phone solicitors, so it would be wise to keep those details out of emails to the mailing list.? Also, keeping signatures to no longer than 2 lines helps keeps the list emails orderly and clean.
* PGP / GnuPG Signatures:? PGP = Pretty Good Privacy.? That is an encryption program.? It can be used to both encrypt an email and/or digitally sign it, thus proving it's from you.? GnuPG is a free software clone of PGP.? If you choose to use this stuff to digitally sign your emails, it must be included as an attachment to your email, not IN the email text itself.? It's kind of like attaching a file to your email.
* No binary attachments:? This means the list does not accept graphic files, sound files, or runnable programs attached to an email.? Only text and attachments made out of text will be accepted.
* We will not unsubscribe you from the list for you:? Occasionally we will get someone who insists we unsubscribe them from the list instead of doing it themselves. We aren't going to do it, and we won't nudge on this policy. These yahoo's complain and complain, then threaten legal action (usually via some anti-spam law or something), etc etc. Listen, we don't take kindly to threats, especially when it's due to someone's own laziness in refusing to unsubscribe themselves. What happens when someone starts bullying like that? We call our attorney and contact their ISP, and start applying pressure back. In the past, this yielded one person to lose their account with their ISP, and in their case, that ISP was the only high-speed in town. Sorry, but we don't take kindly to legal threats. Please, let's all play nice. If you can't figure out how to unsubscribe, even though the directions are posted above, I suggest adding the list address to your spam filter.
The rest should be pretty self explanatory.
Peace,
*TheDarb
