I've been very quiet lately, mostly because I've been very busy.
To those of you who don't know me, I'm the person who started the
NATIVE-L list and the other "NativeNet" lists (NATCHAT, NAT-LANG,
NAT-EDU, NAT-1492, etc.) and who moderated them for several years.
Now Mary Kuhner and Jon Yamato moderate NATIVE-L and NATCHAT and
Mark Dewart handles NAT-EDU and Yolandra Gomez will be moderating
NAT-HLTH (health issues of Native peoples) once I get a few bugs
worked out of the software for that list. In any case, though I
am not as active in day-to-day operations dealing with the content
of NativeNet lists, I still manage the technical operations.
I come to you now with a cautionary note and instructions on how
to temporarily turn off mail to your account if and when you go
away for the holidays and are afraid your mailbox might overflow,
and on how to get copies of articles that you might have missed
during your absence, or that predate your initial subscription -
or that you had one time but you've now lost.
First, the caution: Due to some new software having been installed
at the TAMVM1 site at Texas A & M University, where all but one of
the NativeNet mailing lists reside, and some problems with a machine
at that site that helps resolve mail addresses, we are experiencing
two major problems. The first problem has to do with the new soft-
ware having an "automatic-delete" feature that drops subscribers if
it thinks they can't be reached. Unfortunately, due to a snag in
the address resolution process, some valid addresses appear to the
LISTSERV software as being unreachable, so subscribers may be dropped
from the list without warning. I am presently attempting to disable
this feature. Meanwhile, I'm keeping track of dropped addresses, so
subscriptions can be re-instated after the problem has been resolved.
The second problem also seems to be the result of the new LISTSERV
software. It appears that articles sent to the posting address at
the TAMVM1 site are sometimes relayed without their message body to
the relay site ("gnosys") that I operate here in the Boston area.
To compensate for this problem, please submit new articles to the
posting address at gnosys ("native-l@gnosys.svle.ma.us") rather than
to the one at TAMVM1 ("native-l@tamvm1.tamu.edu"). Actually, the
first address is better anyway, and should be used in preference to
the second one at all times.
While I have your attention, I want to give instructions for unsub-
scribing from the NativeNet lists or temporarily disabling mail, which
is actually preferable if you intend to return later. If you have any
problems with the following instructions, it might be because the
address generated by your mail program might be different that what it
was when you first subscribed. (In these days of local-area networks,
system administrators often reconfigure mail software in ways that re-
sults in different mail addresses being used over time.) In the event
of such problems, please get in touch with me (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us).
In order to unsubscribe from one of the NativeNet mailing lists, you
need to send a message to the appropriate listserver. For the NATIVE-L,
NATCHAT, NAT-1492, and NAT-LANG lists, send a message to "LISTSERV@TAMVM1.
BITNET" or "LISTSERV@TAMVM1.TAMU.EDU" saying:
signoff NATIVE-L
or
signoff NATCHAT
or
signoff NAT-1492
or
signoff NAT-LANG
For NAT-EDU, send the message instead to "LISTSERV@INDYCMS.BITNET" or to
"LISTSERV@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU"
If you just want to turn off mail during a period of absence, so that your
mailbox doesn't overflow, send instead the message:
set NATIVE-L nomail
or
set NATCHAT nomail
or
set NAT-1492 nomail
or
set NAT-LANG nomail
(Later you just say "set NATIVE-L mail," etc. to re-enable mail to the
accounts.) You can send any number of these requests in the same message.
Lastly, you should know that archives of all articles posted to NATIVE-L,
NAT-LANG, NAT-EDU, NAT-1492 (now dormant) and NAT-HLTH (soon to be resumed)
are available. For instructions in using the archives, please send a note
to the address "listserv@tamvm1.tamu.edu" containing the text:
get nn-intro archives native-l
By following these instructions, you can obtain articles on any subject,
based on keywords contained within the articles themselves, along with
criteria based on posting date.
The instructions are written for retrievals from the NATIVE-L list, but
they can be used for any of the lists by replacing references to the name
"NATIVE-L" with the appropriate list name. (Note that the NAT-EDU list
is at the site "INDYCMS," so you need to use "listserv@indycms.iupui.edu"
to retrieve articles from that site.)
For those of you travelling during the holiday season (as I will be my-
self, though with any luck the NativeNet lists will remain operational
during my absence), as well as those who will be "staying put," please
let me wish you all the best for an enjoyable vacation. If you have any
questions pertaining to this message or any aspect of NativeNet, please
address them to me soon, as I will soon be going into "panic mode," and
may become unable to answer until a week or two after the new year begins.
Though the United Nations' declared "Year of Indigenous People" is now
drawing to a close, let us each work to keep the attention of the world
focussed on this most important of subjects and do what we can to bring
the sense of harmony and balance typical of the First Peoples to our own
lives and to help restore these things to the world as a whole.
Peace.
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst