1)
Mandate and Purpose
An
open discussion list for any issue relating to breast cancer.
This
is an unmoderated list open to researchers, physicians,
patients, family, and friends of patients, for the discussion
of any issue relating to breast cancer.
While
some of the list will be devoted to discussions of medical
advances, as well as possible therapeutic treatments, both
mainstream and alternative, the list should also have a
less rigorous side to it. The list does not recommend particular
therapies, but seeks to increase the information available
on options and choices.
It
will also be a forum for breast cancer patients and their
loved ones to vent frustrations and offer alternative strategies
in dealing with the patriarchical medical-industrial complex,
and to offer help and insights into the psychosocial management
of the disease.
Finally,
the list will offer a venue for the discussion of the work
of various grassroots breast cancer advocacy groups worldwide,
to announce events, to exchange ideas related to breast
cancer activism, and, more broadly, to discuss the politics
of breast cancer and health care. [Return
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PLEASE
NOTE: Increased public awareness of the role of BCRA1
and BCRA2 mutations in the etiology of some breast cancers
has led to more people requesting and obtaining genetic
testing for such mutations. If you have obtained such
tests, DO NOT POST RESULTS to the BREAST-CANCER List!!
The BREAST-CANCER List is widely distributed and postings
are archived at a number of publicly accessible WWW sites.
Genetic testing results are HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL and dissemination
of results may affect ones ability to obtain treatments
and insurance benefits. [Return
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2)
How-to Post and Other BREAST-CANCER Commands
Please
save this message for future reference, especially if you
are not familiar with LISTSERV. This might look like a waste
of disk space now, but in 6 months you will be glad you
saved this information when you realize that you cannot
remember what are the lists you are subscribed to, or what
is the command to leave the list to avoid filling up your
mailbox while you are on vacations. In fact, you might create
a new mail folder for subscription confirmation messages
like this one, and for the "welcome messages"
from the list owners that you will occasionally receive
after subscribing to a new list.
POSTING
TO THE LIST: To send a message to all the people currently
subscribed to the list, just send mail to BREAST-CANCER@mun.ca.
This is called "sending mail to the list", because
you send mail to a single address and LISTSERV makes copies
for all the people who have subscribed. This address (BREAST-CANCER@mun.ca)
is also called the "list address". You must never
try to send any command to that address, as it would be
distributed to all the people who have subscribed. All commands
must be sent to the "LISTSERV address", LISTSERV@mun.ca.
It is very important to understand the difference between
the two, but fortunately it is not complicated. The LISTSERV
address is like a FAX number, and the list address is like
a normal phone line. If you make your FAX call someone's
regular phone number by mistake, it will be an unpleasant
experience for her but you will probably be excused the
first time. If you do it regularly, however, she will probably
get upset and send you a nasty complaint. It is the same
with mailing lists, with the difference that you are calling
hundreds or thousands of people at the same time, so a lot
more people get annoyed if you use the wrong number.
To
prevent unsolicited distribution of large binary files,
email file attachments and to facilitate reading the BREAST-CANCER
List when it is received in DIGEST form (see below), line
limitations have been imposed. Global restrictions @mun
limit email messages to 2 MB or less; size limitations of
1000 lines or less are in place specifically on the BREAST-CANCER
List. If you attempt to send a message that exceeds these
limits, it will be rejected.
At
the present time, there are about 500 people from more than
20 countries subscribed to the BREAST-CANCER List. This
translates to at least 100 postings daily. The server software
provides a posting daily limit to protect the email community-at-large
from situations where automatic mailings-gone-mad could
occur. The default setting is 50 mail messages per day.
Currently, given the size of this community and traffic,
this default setting has been increased to 150 postings
per 24 h. If traffic exceeds 150 posts in any one day, further
BREAST-CANCER traffic is halted until myself or my sysops
examine the situation and restart the server. Among many
various solutions available, list traffic can be kept to
a reasonable and manageable level if users remember to group
messages addressing various subscribers or threads on the
List under a single mail heading, and to personally email
fellow subscribers *off-list* whenever possible or appropriate.
In addition, effective January, 1999, each list subscriber
is limited to 5 postings per 24 h period. [Return
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TO
REDUCE SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE STRAIN ACCOMPANYING THE VOLUME
OF MESSAGES HANDLED DAILY by the BREAST-CANCER Listserv,
the following measures are currently in place to reduce
error message traffic:
1) Auto-delete functions
of LSoft listserv software have been made more stringent:
Any address that generates 50 error messages in total, or
for a duration of 3 days, whichever comes first, will be
DELETED from the B-C subscription list;
2) For many reasons,
LSoft listserv software does not automatically recognize
all address formats, and so cannot see all errors. But I
can! From now on, any address reporting mailbox full (ATTN:
AOL users especially!!), transient failure, name server
timeout, etc for 3 days, will be DELETED! Any address reporting
unrecoverable error such that messages in a queue will be
deleted, will be DELETED immediately from the B-C List subscription
list.
3) Upon initial sign-on,
as well as every 60 days subsequently, subscribers will
be asked to confirm their request to sign on. This will
reduce subscriptions from incorrect or bogus email addresses,
and further reduce error messages. We are working to remove
the confirmation requirement from the unsubscribe request
- it is not clear how as it appears connected to my password
protected functions. I'll be back to you concerning this.
4) Every 60 days Listserv
will automatically ask all users set to NOMAIL if they wish
to RENEW their subscriptions. You will have 7 days to reply
to the message. If you do not, you will be automatically
DELETED. If in the time you have been on NOMAIL your address
has changed you may be unable to renew easily (see 3 above),
but again it should keep the list leaner and more efficient.
If
you find yourself signed off, please do not take offense.
You have very likely not *done* anything for which this
might be retribution. If you find yourself unceremoniously
signed off without your knowledge, check that your mailbox
is not full, and that your system is not down. If all is
well, simply resubscribe.
SUBJECT
HEADINGS: In order to allow efficient searching of digests
and archives (see below), as well as to give recipients
some idea as to the issues you wish to address in your posting,
we suggest that you pay particular attention to the "Subject"
line of all submissions. Rather than simply hitting the
"Reply" function, please take a moment to double
check the "Subject" heading and ensure the existing
"Subject" remains true to your post. [Return
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PLEASE
NOTE* LISTSERV does not compute messages containing a
signature file (.sig file, like mine below). ALL MESSAGES
DIRECTED TO LISTSERV@mun MUST BE DEVOID OF .SIG FILES
(I.E. SIGNATURE FILE FUNCTION "OFF")! [Return
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DIGEST
FORMAT: By sending a SET BREAST-CANCER DIGEST command
to LISTSERV@mun.ca, you can change your mechanism of receipt
of postings- from individual, full-header messages received
as they are sent to the List by subscribers, to a single
(rather large) daily collection or "digest" of
messages with condensed headers. This is particularly useful
if you have limited mailbox space, pay per message received,
or simply like to download mailings and search according
to your particular interests. To revert to default settings
(i.e., to receive individual postings), send a SET BREAST-CANCER
NODIGEST message to LISTSERV@mun.
NOMAIL:
If you wish to temporarily halt the receipt of BREAST-CANCER
postings, but remain subscribed, you can do so by sending
a SET BREAST-CANCER NOMAIL command to LISTSERV@mun.ca. To
return to receiving regular mail, send a SET BREAST-CANCER
MAIL command to the same address. Remember, if you remain
NOMAIL for 60 days or more, LISTSERV will ask you to RENEW
your subscription (see #4 above). [Return
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LEAVING
THE LIST: You may leave the list at any time by sending
a SIGNOFF BREAST-CANCER command to LISTSERV@mun.ca.
PLEASE
NOTE: LISTSERV will then send you a message asking for
a confirmation of your request to signoff. Please do not
overlook this, because without it your request will be
ignored.
We
are currently reviewing the need for this confirmation request
upon unsubscription. Please stay tuned! [Return
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ARCHIVES:
The BREAST-CANCER List is continuously archived at http://bclist.PeteBevin.com/
and is word searchable.
In
addition, archives are maintained at the Association for
Cancer Online Resources (ACOR) at http://listserv.acor.org/archives/breast-cancer.html.
I
can now recommend using Pete Bevin's site over the one at
ACOR - the interface is much easier, and with the new search
function, it now does everything the other one can do. [Return
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OTHER
OPTIONS: You can also tell LISTSERV how you want it
to confirm the receipt of messages you send to the list.
If you do not trust the system, send a SET BREAST-CANCER
REPRO command and LISTSERV will send you a copy of your
own messages, so that you can see that the message was distributed
and did not get damaged on the way. After a while you may
find that this is getting annoying, especially if your mail
program does not tell you that the message is from you when
it informs you that new mail has arrived from BREAST-CANCER.
If you send a SET BREAST-CANCER ACK NOREPRO command, LISTSERV
will mail you a short acknowledgement instead, which will
look different in your mailbox directory. With most mail
programs you will know immediately that this is an acknowledgement
you can read later. Finally, you can turn off acknowledgements
completely with SET BREAST-CANCER NOACK NOREPRO. [Return
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IF
YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS about the BREAST-CANCER
list, write to the list owner, Jon Church, Faculty of Medicine,
Memorial University of Newfoundland, at:
jchurch@mun.ca
jon
church memorial university of newfoundland
st. john's, newfoundland (the eastern edge...)
"We're
not interested in a world in which to be human is a weakness."
Rene-Daniel Dubois
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