Subject: Footer in list messages

From: Chris McCrory <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 15:46:53 -0700

Hello...

	Can the administrator put a footer in the mail messages with a pointer to the FAQ?  That might increase the signal to noise ratio of the messages on the list.

<snip>

>   Hi...I'm trying to figure out how, when a normal user logs in, to make 
> their root directory their home directory, like an anonymous log in 
> does....can anyone help me with this?  My email is [email-masked] or 
> this addresses...thanks....Adam

The message below would be a good place to start.
<snip>

wu-ftpd FAQ:  http://www.cetis.hvu.nl/~koos/wu-ftpd-faq.html
guest howto:  ftp://ftp.fni.com/pub/wu-ftpd/guest-howto
wu-ftpd Resource Center:  http://www.landfield.com/wu-ftpd/

<snip>

Christopher McCrory
Lead Bithead, Netus Inc.
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

QUAKE Capture the Flag server @ quake.netus.com

"Some can do things others cannot"  R.J.

---

From: Bob Luckin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 97 17:54:12 CDT

Chris,

> 	Can the administrator put a footer in the mail messages with a pointer to the FAQ?  That might increase the signal to noise ratio of the messages on the list.

I've suggested this on the list a couple of times in the last few months
(not sure how to contact the list maintainer, so I hoped they'd spot the
post), but with no success.  I'm glad you've also requested this - perhaps
another voice will help.

  :-)

Cheers, Bob
-- 
Bob Luckin      [email-masked]      "Rats live on no evil planet"

---

From: "Philip Kearney III" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 20:43:38 -0400

On Wed, Jul 2, 1997 at 6:46:53 PM, Chris McCrory <[email-masked]> wrote:

> 	Can the administrator put a footer in the mail messages with a 
> pointer to the FAQ?  That might increase the signal to noise ratio of the 
> messages on the list. 

I don't think they can.  This list server uses ListProc as its list managment 
system and the only thing I think they can possibly do is put the FAQ URLs in 
the "welcome" and "info" messages that subscribers get.  Right now, the 
welcome file only contains:

Welcome to WU-FTPD!

  The purpose of this list is to discuss configuration of, enhancements
to, or problems with the wuarchive ftpd.
 
  There is also an wuarchive ftpd announcement list.  You may subscribe
to this list by sending a mail message with a body of 
    SUBSCRIBE WU-FTPD-ANNOUNCE <your full name>
to the list server ([email-masked]).

<<

It really should contain URLs for the FAQ, the guest how to, etc.

Other than that, at least as far as I know, in ListProc 7.2, there was no 
option to set to tell ListProc to add a header or footer to the body of all 
incoming messages before mailing them out to the list subscribers.  Someone 
could check with CREN at http://www.cren.net/ and ask them if ListProc can do 
that now.  If it can't, then perhaps someone needs to send CREN a ListProc 
feature request.  But then again, what do I know, I haven't looked at ListProc 
in a while and I could be wrong and you can now add footers to incoming 
messages in ListProc.  :)

I do know, however, that Majordomo does allow the list owner to add a header 
or footer to the body or even extra header lines in the RFC822 header of all 
incoming messages before it redirects them to all subscribers.  It's one of 
the reasons I've always used Majordomo for setting up mailing lists for my 
current and previous employers.  The other is the cost of ListProc.  :)

I would imagine it would be too much of a pain to have someone sponsor a 
Majordomo mailing list server, move everyone over to that server, and change 
everyone's web pages to point to the new location just to get a footer in all 
postings from the mailing list.

For now at least, I think the list owner should just put the relevant URLs in 
ListProc's welcome and info files for the wu-ftpd and wu-ftpd-announce lists.

-phil

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philip Kearney III                mailto:[email-masked] 
Sr. Software Engineer             mailto:[email-masked]
System Administrator              finger [email-masked] for my PGP key
Ascend Communications, Inc.       
Client Software Engineering Group             
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Kent Landfield <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 22:26:09 -0500 (CDT)

# It really should contain URLs for the FAQ, the guest how to, etc.
# 
# I would imagine it would be too much of a pain to have someone sponsor a 
# Majordomo mailing list server, move everyone over to that server, and change 
# everyone's web pages to point to the new location just to get a footer in all 
# postings from the mailing list.

For a footer ?  Yes. ;-)  I'd be happy to have it run from the Resource Center
but that seems alot of trouble everyone to go to for what we'd get.   I'll 
contact Naeem and see if he can add a blurb to the intro message that resembles
what Michael Brennen <[email-masked]> sends around.  That would point new 
members at the places to start looking before asking questions on the list.

(Maybe we can talk Michael into posting his quick reference list weekly...)

-- 
Kent Landfield                        Phone: 1-817-545-2502             
The Landfield Group                   FAX:   1-817-545-7650             
Email: [email-masked]             http://www.landfield.com/
Please send comp.sources.misc related mail to [email-masked].
Search the Usenet Hypertext FAQ Archive at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 2 Jul 1997 23:42:28 GMT

Pink elephants with an attitude inspired Bob Luckin <[email-masked]> to tell garfield.mail.wu-ftpd:
: > 	Can the administrator put a footer in the mail messages with a pointer to the FAQ?  That might increase the signal to noise ratio of the messages on the list.
Hear hear.. and a note to first-time submitters where to find the faq and
all that.. better yet, to have it in the info when subscribing (or is it
already in there.. been awhile).

: I've suggested this on the list a couple of times in the last few months
: (not sure how to contact the list maintainer, so I hoped they'd spot the
[email-masked]?

: Bob Luckin      [email-masked]      "Rats live on no evil planet"
Do you have proof for that statement?

-- 
Perry Rovers ([email-masked])

---

From: Bob Luckin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 97 11:12:04 CDT

Kent said :-

[FAQ info in footer...]
> (Maybe we can talk Michael into posting his quick reference list weekly...)

I agree that putting it in the Welcome message would be a help - probably
should do this even if Listserv can put it into a footer for us...

And if Listserv can't generate footers, I'd suggest a daily post, rather
than a weekly one.  (I can do this if Michael doesn't want to.  However,
I'd want to be certain that the frequency of such a posting is acceptable
to the rest of the list.)

Cheers, Bob
-- 
Bob Luckin      [email-masked]      "No stab - mock combat's off !"

---

From: Andrew Bennett <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 1997 19:24:59 -0700

>to the rest of the list.)

Once a day may be a bit extreme.  But if you do post it occasionally,
(more than once a week or something) please use a unique subject line so
that those of us who don't need it can filter it out with our email clients.

Thanks

Andrew
--
   Andrew Bennett
   [email-masked]
   http://taz.hyperreal.com/~abennett/

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 3 Jul 1997 17:08:34 GMT

Pink elephants with an attitude inspired Bob Luckin <[email-masked]> to tell garfield.mail.wu-ftpd:
: And if Listserv can't generate footers, I'd suggest a daily post, rather
: than a weekly one.  (I can do this if Michael doesn't want to.  However,
: I'd want to be certain that the frequency of such a posting is acceptable
: to the rest of the list.)
I'd really hate to see the same thing everyday (heck, I'm trying to get rid
of all the administrative mail I get with lots of scripting stuff and you're
suggesting daily mails with the same info...) even if I just gateway the
list to a local newsgroup and can easily filter it. Since most faqs probably
come from users who weren't subscribed before, it would be far more
efficient IMHO to basically bounce the first submission and send back the
faq/info for the list again. One may argue that long time-readers who haven't
submitted anything yet will get the same treatment, but they will know
that it will happen.

BTW there are some Compuserve addresses on this list that are invalid. gotta
send them to listmaster someday.. 

-- 
Perry Rovers ([email-masked])