The original FTE list was
started by Anthony Baxter back in 1994. Up until October of 1999,
Anthony had been the only list-owner and maintainer of FTE. But,
due to circumstances, Anthony was unable to keep over-seeing FTE.
FTE was moved to Smoe.org in October of 1999 where it's now being
run and maintained by John Stewart and Jenni Knoff. John and
Jenni, as well as the entire FTE list wish to thank Anthony for
all his hard work with the list over the years. Good luck in your
future endeavors Anthony!
Okay, back to business. The
number of posts on FTE can vary, depending on what's going on at
the present time. (I.E. Sarah touring, or Lilith Fair, etc.)
Sometimes, it's not uncommon to see around 100 messages per day
on the list, so be prepared to handle it. List mail usually does
go down though, when Sarah's on hiatus.
What's the difference
between the main and digest versions? The main version
simply "bounces" each post made to the list, back to
each person that is subscribed to the list. The digest version
collects, or "bundles" a number of posts together and
mails them all out in one easy email. The digest version is ideal
for anyone with limited time, email access, etc.
To subscribe to FTE:
send an email to fte-request@smoe.org
with these words for the body of your email: subscribe
To subscribe to the
digest version of FTE: send an email to fte-digest-request@smoe.org
with these words for the body of your email: subscribe
After you subscribe to FTE,
you'll get a confirmation email which will ask you to reply to
it, just to validate that it was actually you who signed yourself
up to FTE. This is to prevent other people from signing you up to
a mailing list that you might not want to be on in the first
place. Just follow the instructions in the confirmation email and
you'll be on your way!
To unsubscribe from FTE:
send an email to fte-request@smoe.org
with these words for the body of your email: unsubscribe
To unsubscribe from the
digest version of FTE: send an email to fte-digest-request@smoe.org
with these words for the body of your email: unsubscribe
Details for unsubbing from the
list are also attached to the bottom of each post that's sent to
the list.
Please do not send your
subscribe or unsubscribe email to the entire list (fte@smoe.org).
Send it to the above addresses. If you have any questions about
subscribing or unsubscribing, please email either John or Jenni
for help, or refer back to this page.
The second reason could be that
you have indeed been unsubbed from FTE.
Why would this happen???
If you're using an ISP that has
a mail quota on it, (I.E., AOL, Juno, WebTV, etc.) and you have
hit your limit on emails, then every message from FTE that gets
sent by you, gets "bounced" back to John and Jenni.
This is a hassle and a very time consuming thing considering the
size of the list. It might happen that you will be unsubscribed
from the list if there are continuous mail bounces.
If you're not receiving any
email, the first thing you should do is check to make sure that
you're still subscribed to FTE. To do this, send an email to majordomo@smoe.org with the words, who fumbling-towards-ecstasy,
for the body of your email. (Or, who fumbling-towards-ecstasy-digest,
if you're on the digest version.) If you don't see your name/email
address anywhere on the list, then you've been unsubbed from the
list. Simply resubscribe back to the list using the instructions
above and all's well!
If you're going to be away for
an extended period of time, it's usually proper protocol to
unsubscribe from the list while you're gone and then resubscribe
once you are back. This just saves any problems in case your mail
starts to get "bounced" back to the list-owners while
you're gone.
First off, there are some rules
from Smoe themselves (the people that graciously house FTE for us)
that we need to abide by. These rules are as follows:
There is to be NO
HTML style mail sent to the list. This includes
that nifty new stationery that Hotmail has.
There is to be ABSOLUTELY
NO binaries, (pictures, etc.) sent to the list.
If you have something that you want list members to see,
send it to them via email, or put it up on a webpage and
then send the URL to the list.
If you repeatedly violate either
one of these rules, you will be unsubbed from FTE.
Here are some other general
"rules" or suggested guidelines for FTE:
Label your posts
according to content.
While this isn't a set rule, it is considered polite
etiquette. Some basic labels for FTE include the
following: BST- Bull Shit Thread - This is for any
topic that has nothing at all to do with Sarah or her
music NSC- No Sarah content - If you're not
sure if your post is BST, but it has nothing to do with
Sarah OAC- Other artist content - If your post
is about another artist, other than Sarah. This would
include concert reviews, album reviews, etc. ASC- Actual Sarah Content - Now and
then, someone will actually post Sarah-related content SPOILER- If you're posting material that
might spoil another person's enjoyment. A good example of
this one is when Grammy time rolls around. Keep in mind
that while everyone gets the same list mail, not everyone
lives in the same time zone as you. So if you post
something that spoils the outcome of an event, thinking
the event is already over, the event might not have even
begun for someone else yet, because they're in a
different time zone.(Did you follow all
of that?) ;)
NP- Stands for "Now playing." Fumblers
are notorious for their love of music. Often times you'll
see this at the end of a post, followed by the name of a
song or CD, etc. It's just a way of sharing which music
you're really into at that particular time.
It's usually a good idea
after joining an Internet mailing list, to just sit back
for a few days, or even a week, and watch the posting
that goes on there. This will give you an idea of how the
list works and what kinds of things people post about,
etc. While we've all been "newbies" at one time
or another, no one takes too kindly to a newbie barging
onto a list and demanding this or that, or asking
questions, etc., that can be answered had they merely
taken the time to do a little research on the subject.
Try to remember that
although FTE is an open list, there are some topics which
no one will totally see eye to eye on. During these
situations it's easy to misconstrue what another person
is saying. When replying to what seems to be a
particularly provocative post, it's usually best to
consider your reply before posting. It's very easy to
escalate a simple exchange of differing viewpoints into
something that resembles WWIII. Topics that tend to bring
about these types of responses usually include religion,
sexuality, sexism, nationalism and lately, gun control,
etc. Just be aware that these topics have been known to
start a few good "flame wars" on FTE.
Keep what's said in private
email, private. It is universally considered bad manners
to repost private mail to the general public without
first asking the original author's permission and will
generally result in some kind of backlash.
Forwarded posts-
Right now there's no set rule for forwarding mail to FTE.
If you do decide to post forwarded mail, be aware that
some people don't like forwarded mail, especially if it's
long and you keep all of the headers on it. Try to label
the post according the subject matter of the forwarded
material so people can choose whether to read it or not.
Chain letters-
If they've been posted to a lot of people beforehand, or
if they detail good or bad luck if you don't pass the
message along, they are not welcome on FTE.
Following the whole
forwarded posts/chain letter deal is the subject of
bandwidth. You'll commonly hear this term used, if you
haven't already. If you're sending a forwarded post, or
replying to a post that's been sent to many people
beforehand, try to trim the irrelevant stuff from your
post before you send it. Not everyone has free Internet
access and some people have to actually pay per minute
for their online time. Therefore, it may be costing some
people money to download their email. So please be
thoughtful of your other 600+ list members when you send
things like this. Same thing goes when you're just
replying to a post. Only quote what is necessary from the
original author's post and get rid of anything else.
Leaving in a bunch of useless stuff, or quoting
excessively from the original author's post, only takes
up other's time and space.
There are some other basic guidelines for writing your
posts that will make your life and the lives of other's
much easier too. What follows is just basic Internet
Etiquette. For more on basic Internet etiquette, please
see the following link: Netiquette Guidelines
It makes reading much
easier if you use paragraphs to break up your text.
Reading solid text for page after page can become very
tedious. Also, if you have a spell check program, use it.
That's what it's there for.
Not everyone can read or
see your email if you put it in HTML format. An example
of this is the new stationery that Hotmail has. While it
looks pretty and exciting to you, to some people it ends
up just looking like a bunch of gobble-dee-gook and it
will take longer to download for some. We all want to be
exciting and different, but it seems as if email isn't
quite the place yet. ;)
Same thing goes with
attachments. (All of this was mentioned earlier in the
rules of Smoe, but it bears repeating.) It might be cool
to pass on a sound clip, or a video clip, but here again,
what you send to the list goes out to 700-some people.
Some of whom have to download their email. Some of these
people might not be happy to see an attachment in their
email. If you have something you want to share, ask
people to email you and then privately email it to them.
But don't send it to the list.
Please feel free
to contact either John or Jenni if you have any questions,
problems or concerns.
Site developed by
Jenni Knoff
Maintained by Jenni Knoff and John Stewart
John and Jenni
not only wish to thank Anthony Baxter for all his dedication
and hard work with the Fumbling-Towards-Ecstasy list over the
years, but we wish to thank Jeff Wasilko and the people at
Smoe who agreed to give FTE it's new home.
