My apologies for Brian and I being so quiet: there's a lot to be
done on this end, and if we divert from that to answering questions
from 100s of you, well, it'll be that much longer until the move
can be completed.
We brought several lists in last weekend, and I think it was a
learning experience for all parties. ;-) The owners of those lists
are going to be an invaluable asset when the remaining lists are moved
in: they'll know the ropes and can help you get settled in. (I
suspect Larry and Brian and I will all be too busy doing the actual
move to be able to answer even perfectly reasonable questions.)
Brian's top priority is to finish the server upgrade so that once
all the lists are moved in, we can party. The top priority for
Larry and I will be to get your lists set up and your subscribers
installed -- that is, to get you back on line again. We may have
to go with a "one size fits all" welcome message to begin with.
Once all the lists are here and working, we'll then begin the
process of getting each list tailored the way the listowner wants
it. I don't know how many changes the listowners will want made,
so I can't promise how long that will take. If several changes
need to be made to each of 1000 lists, it will obviously take
awhile. What would really help, if anyone has this skill set,
would be for someone to design an HTML form and write the associated
cgi program that would query
a listowner about the things that can be set in the rc.custom file,
and then write the rc.custom file in the proper format. If you
think you could do this, there's a sample rc.custom file at
https://sites.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/members/rccustom.html
Do you need web access in order to interact with SmartList? No,
but... One =can= send commands via e-mail, but the commands don't go
in the body of the message (like they do for MAISER and LISTSERV),
they go in the message headers. And I don't mean in the subject line.
You have to be able to add a new line to the headers of a message,
nestled in the the To, From, and Subject lines, and your commands go
in that line. This is fairly easy to do with the mail software I use,
all of which is ancient and unfriendly. It seems to be difficult to
do with modern mail software. The reason we built the web interface
in the first place was that listowners were finding it way too difficult
to send commands via e-mail. If you're a listowner without web
access, and can't insert additional header lines into your mail
messages, it might be a good idea to find a temporary co-owner who
can do these things for you. In the long run, I understand there is
a way to tailor SmartList so that it will let you put commands in
the body of the message. When we have time, we'll research that
and try to make that available. But in the short run, the options
for listowners are to use the web page for their list, or to master
the arcane art of dinking with their message headers, or to involve
someone else who can do one or the other. I'm sorry for the
inconvenience, and ask that you be patient. Again, getting the
lists moved, up and running, is our top priority. Making things
nice has to take second seat.
What else? Oh, mechanics. How will this happen? Larry and I
are still scratching our heads over the finer points (and in fact
we're going to move his lists first, to test out the design), but
between the two of us, we hope to be able to establish your lists
on RootsWeb, complete with subscribers. As soon as your list
is ready, you'll be notified and given the keys. What you'll want
to do first is probably post to your list, letting everyone know
you've arrived.
Because the establishment of a new list causes unusual stresses on
the system (more bounces than usual, more messages being posted due
to pent up demand and the novelty), we won't know until we start
moving lists in how fast we can go. I don't know if we'll attempt
any kind of prioritization (largest lists first, or smallest lists
first, say), or simply start with A and work through Z. More news
on that as it becomes available.
You don't need to ask me to create your list. I'll get that
information from Larry.
That's all I can think of just now. I'm sorry this is taking
so long, but it really did seem better to finish the upgrades
first and bring in the workload second. Much less exciting, I
know, but I think we've had all the excitement we can stand. ;-)
Karen