Wrathall Mailing List

The Wrathall Mailing List

Roy Wrathall of Yorkshire recently contacted ROOTSWEB in order to set up a mailing list to serve as a bulletin board and discussion group for those researching Wrathall genealogy. Roy has received notification from Rootsweb that the WRATHALL mailing list is now up and running. Here's the brief version of how to subscribe to the list. At the moment all the messages, etc. are 'standard' versions.

Subscribe to the list in mail mode by sending a message to:

WRATHALL-L-request@rootsweb.com that contains the word

subscribe

and nothing else. If you prefer digest mode, then send the command instead to:

WRATHALL-D-request@rootsweb.com

Audrey May , an Australian researcher, recently asked how often digests were sent out on the WRATHALL mailing list. Roy explains that the digest is mailed either when enough individual messages have been sent, or after a certain time [possibly once each day], and the number of emails is variable depending upon the size of each one.

Here is the long version of the Mailing List instructions that I got when I subscribed:

You have added to the subscriber list of:
WRATHALL-L@rootsweb.com
the following mail address:
wrathall@pacbell.net
By default, copies of your own submissions will be returned.

Welcome to the WRATHALL mailing list! You are currently subscribed in "mail mode", which means that you will receive every posting made to WRATHALL as a separate e-mail. The directions on how to change to digest mode are given below.

1. How to unsubscribe. Send a message to
WRATHALL-L-request@rootsweb.com
that contains (in the body of the message) the command
unsubscribe
and no additional text.

2. How to subscribe. Whatever you just did worked, or you'd not be getting this message. But for future reference (for instance, if your subscription is cancelled for whatever reason and you want to resubscribe), just send the command "subscribe" to WRATHALL-L-request@rootsweb.com.

3. How to change to digest mode (several postings are combined and sent to you together as a single large message). There are two steps. First, send the command "unsubscribe" to WRATHALL-L-request@rootsweb.com to discontinue mail mode. Second, send the command "subscribe" to WRATHALL-D-request@rootsweb.com to start receiving digests.

4. How to change to NOMAIL mode. There is no formal NOMAIL mode. All you have to do is follow the directions above and unsubscribe when you want the messages to stop, and then when you want them to start again, simply subscribe again.

5. If you'd like to post a message so everyone on the mailing list receives it, just send it to WRATHALL-L@rootsweb.com. It will then be sent on to everyone in both mail and digest mode. You don't need to send it explicitly to both.

For your verification, a transcript of the original subscription request is included below.

It is now possible to search the archives of the lists held by Rootsweb - here is part of the announcement Roy received:
The new search engine server is now online and can operate at the speed of a full T1 connection. Courtesy of hacks by Dale Schneider, you can search the USGenWeb Archives, now with *headlines* and *updated* to within the last 24 hours, at:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ussearch.htm

Courtesy of hacks by Karen Isaacson, you can search the archives of any mailing list (except those withdrawn by the listowner), now with nicer *formats* and *updated* to within the last 24 hours, at:

http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl

To search the WRATHALL archives, use:

http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?surname=WRATHALL

Roy has been working to make the WRATHALL mailing list more user-friendly:
A facility offered by the rootsweb mail server is to add taglines to each message. I have configured them to give the search url (as "copied" from the BULL list). I know that there are several Wrathall Websites out there; if you would like to have your website "plugged" in the tagline then please contact me at roy@sullom.demon.co.uk with the URL of your Wrathall pages.

The taglines will now rotate between the search utility, my website and James Wrathall's website until I find some more to include !

Some people have mentioned that their messages don't show up on the mailing list. This may be caused by sending messages in HTML or Rich Text Format, which RootsWeb doesn't allow. Roy Wrathall forwarded this explanation from the RootsWeb staff:
The message you submitted to this list (included above) wasn't sent to the list subscribers. RootsWeb accepts only plain text mail. That means that HTML mail, attachments, ``enriched text'', and a few other formats can't be sent to RootsWeb mailing lists. You can post your message if you send it in plain text; turn off the ``Post in HTML'' or ``Enriched Text'' features of your mail reader, and don't use any attachments. See http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/listowners/html-off.htm for instructions on turning off HTML in most of the popular mail programs, or ask your ISP's technical support line for help.

We've had to institute this policy because of the problems that accompany these fancy mail formats. Some people don't have mail programs that are capable of processing the special file formats. Even among those who do, different mail programs handle these special formats in very different and confusing ways. HTML messages pose special problems to our digested mailing lists. Most of all, HTML-ified mail and attachments place a considerable burden on RootsWeb's overworked machines. All in all, mail in this format produces a lot of problems for RootsWeb's servers and subscribers, so we find it's best just to use plain text.