The following restatement of SCREEN-L's principles, guidelines and
operation is posted once a month.
The subject heading on this message will always be "SCREEN-L
Principles and Guidelines," so hardy veterans will be able to
scotch it with little muss or fuss. Comments on this message
should be sent to the SCREEN-L coordinator, Jeremy Butler:
[log in to unmask]
SCREEN-L'S FOUNDING PRINCIPLE
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.
In other words, 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.
CINEMA-L, a lively list also devoted to film, provides an
entertaining forum for folks wanting to chat more informally
about the movies. Its BITNET address is [log in to unmask] There
are other film and TV lists available as well. Contact Jeremy
Butler for more details.
SCREEN-L GUIDELINES
1. SCREEN-L messages should maintain a sense of collegial
respect for SCREEN-L's subscribers, even when disagreeing
with the opinions of others.
Personal attacks on subscribers will not be tolerated.
2. Identities are not always clear from the headers sent with e-
mail messages. It's always a good idea to sign your message
with something more human sounding than your e-mail address
(e.g., [log in to unmask]).
3. Each SCREEN-L message should include a descriptive "subject"
heading.
SCREEN-L's "digest" (see below) and most e-mail systems use
subject lines in their listing of messages. Descriptive
subject lines greatly facilitate subscribers' use of SCREEN-
L.
4. SCREEN-L messages are sent to hundreds of subscribers. Users
should avoid sending personal messages to a single person
through SCREEN-L.
SCREEN-L OPERATION
1. Leaving SCREEN-L:
Subscribers may leave SCREEN-L by sending e-mail with the command
UNSUBSCRIBE SCREEN-L
or
SIGNOFF SCREEN-L
to [log in to unmask] Please please please send this command to
"listserv" not to "screen-l." Messages sent to "screen-l" will, of
course, go out to everyone on SCREEN-L.
If you have trouble signing off, notify Jeremy Butler:
[log in to unmask]
2. Controlling your SCREEN-L subscription
There are a number of things you can do to control 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 [log in to unmask]
or [log in to unmask] Once again, note that the address is not
"screen-l," but rather "listserv." After the header, put in
the command:
SET SCREEN-L option
"option" is the thing you want to set for your subscription to
SCREEN-L. The specific options you can set are:
>>>SUSPENDING MAIL TEMPORARILY
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
>>>DIGESTS
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
>>>INFORMATION ABOUT THE SENDER OF SCREEN-L MESSAGES
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." 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
>>>ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF MESSAGE
If you're worried about your mail getting through to SCREEN-L
you can have SCREEN-L acknowledge receipt of your messages.
When you post a message, SCREEN-L will send you e-mail back
saying all's fine.
To receive acknowledgments:
SET SCREEN-L ACK
To turn this off:
SET SCREEN-L NOACK
>>>GETTING YOUR OWN MESSAGES BOUNCED BACK TO YOU
SCREEN-L knows who you are and if you don't want your own
messages sent back to you it won't. 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 stop your messages being sent to you:
SET SCREEN-L NOREPRO
To start your messages being sent to you:
SET SCREEN-L REPRO
>>>CONCEALING YOUR ADDRESS ON SCREEN-L
Anybody may review SCREEN-L and see your name and address on
it. To hide that address:
SET SCREEN-L CONCEAL
To unhide it:
SET SCREEN-L UNCONCEAL
3. Retrieving old SCREEN-L messages.
Every message posted on SCREEN-L is saved in an archive called SCREEN-L
FILELIST. This archive may be searched and individual messages may be
retrieved.
There are two ways to retrieve SCREEN-L messages: The Difficult Way and
The Gopher Way.
The Difficult Way:
Using an arcane programming language, you send a series of commands to
[log in to unmask] If it likes your syntax, LISTSERV will interpret
the commands and send you the messages via e-mail. (If you want more
details on The Difficult Way, contact Jeremy: [log in to unmask])
The Gopher Way:
Gopher is the menuing system developed by the University of Minnesota.
It greatly eases use of the Internet by providing a menu of choices that
replaces difficult Internet commands.
If you have a Gopher client, you may use it to connect to the Gopher
server at UA1VM.ua.edu (port 70, which is the standard Gopher port).
Once connected, you choose the "local listserv" option and then choose
"Film and TV Studies." At that point, you may search the SCREEN-L
archives or browse through messages chronologically.
=====================================================================
Jeremy Butler [log in to unmask]
SCREEN-L Coordinator [log in to unmask]
Telecommunication & Film Dept. * University of Alabama * Tuscaloosa
=====================================================================