EV Discussion List help

EVDL Subscription Information and Help

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About the EVDL: The Electric Vehicle Discussion List, founded in 1991 by EV enthusiast Clyde Visser, is an active and vital source of information and help for people involved with electric vehicles. Most of our participants are hobbyists who have built, or are building, their own EVs. They usually (but not always) use conventional gasoline or diesel vehicles as "gliders."

According to the list's charter:

The EV (Electric Vehicle) Discussion Mailing List is intended to provide a forum to discuss the current state of the art and future direction of electric vehicles. It is not intended to discuss either EV appropriateness or comparisons with other transportation primary drive modes such as the venerable internal combustion engine. Those discussions are best relegated to the appropriate usenet newsgroup.
An electric vehicle is any vehicle which uses an electric motor as the primary or sole motive force. The energy storage device used to drive said motor can use any technology including, but not limited to, solar electric, electric battery, fuel cell, internal combustion engine coupled with an electric generator (hybrids), or any combination of these.
Production electric vehicles are currently available. Internal combustion engine vehicles can be converted to electric power. A number of companies perform this conversion. A number of manufacturers provide equipment and components allowing you to "do it yourself."

If you're thinking about buying an EV or building your own, you'll find hundreds of folks on this list who'll be glad to help you out. Our members can be found literally round the world, from California to Australia.

Archives: it's not a bad idea to have a look at the archives before you subscribe. That'll give you an idea of whether this list is really for you. There are several, but only one that's official (== I try to keep it working and up to date).

EVDL Archive / Forum Interface

If you don't like that one, you might try one of the unofficial (and unsupported) archives:

Gmane threaded archive

and

Yahoo Groups Digest Archive

How to subscribe:

The easy way is to use the EVDL's web subscription page. You can also subscribe by email if that works better for you. See below.

You can use just about any email address to subscribe. However, a warning -- there seems to be a bug in the list's software. If you use the mailname "lists" (for example, lists@bogosity.net) to subscribe, you may not be able to log in to the EVDL Configuration Page. I suggest you use something else. How about "mailinglists" instead?

To subscribe on the web, just browse to the EVDL Subscription Information Page and follow the instructions there.
If you'd rather use email only, send an email message to the list processor address:
Either the subject or the body of the message should contain:
Don't include a signature or any other text in the message body. If your email system won't let you send a message without a subject or without a body, just repeat the command.
The listserver will email you a confirmation message with instructions. You can either reply to the message, or use the web link in the message to confirm with your web browser.
When you've confirmed your subscription request, the server will email you a welcome message. This message includes a password. Please keep a copy of the message so you have that password -- you'll need it to change to digest, suspend emails for vacation, or unsubscribe. (But if you lose your password, no worries -- you can have it emailed to you from the EVDL Configuration Page.)

How to post: To post a message to the list, email it to:

If your post doesn't show up right away, don't be too concerned. When the server is loaded it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for your post to make its way through the server's digestive system (so to speak) and be distributed. If you're in a hurry, may I suggest the phone?

How to stop EVDL mail temporarily: This is the thing to do when you go on vacation. That way you don't return to find 953 messages in your mailbox.

To disable (or enable) mail delivery, go to your EVDL Configuration Page.

You'll need your password. If you don't know it (likely), just enter the email address you use for the EVDL and leave the password blank. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the Remind button. You'll get your password by email in a few minutes. Copy and paste it into the form and click the Log In button.

On the next page, scroll down to the grey area and find Mail Delivery (first item). Click the radio button for Disabled or Enabled. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click the Submit My Changes button. Done.

How to set Digest Mode: If you ask for digests instead of single messages, the listserver will squirrel away messages until it decides it's collected enough, and then send them to you scrunched into a single message. (Normally this will be one digest per day, but if traffic is heavy that day, you might get more than one.) You still have the same amount to read, but it seems like less, since it comes to you in fewer boxes. (Really.)

To set (or unset) digest mode, go to your EVDL Configuration Page.

On the next page, scroll down to the grey area and find Set Digest Mode (second item). Click the radio button for Enabled or Disabled. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click the Submit My Changes button. Done.

Just a warning. Not to discourage you from using it, but Digest Mode can lull you into posting some seriously huge messages. This happens when you reply, but forget to delete the entire digest from the bottom of your message. (Thanks, Microsoft, for making top-posting the norm by including this delightful "feature" in Outlook Express. Thanks also to the me-toos who've copied it.)

Digest mode may also tempt you to post a message with a decidedly unhelpful subject -- something like "Re: EV Digest, Vol 12, Issue 29."

Either one of these netiquette faux pas may earn you some cranky responses from other EVDLers. Thou hast been warned. ;-)

How to unsubscribe: (Please bookmark this page. That way you'll have some idea of what to do if you ever want to drop your EVDL subscription.)

To permanently stop receiving any mail from the EV discussion list, you can unsubscribe either on the web or by email.

To unsubscribe on the web, visit the EVDL Configuration Page and follow the instructions there.
To unsubscribe by email (which is actually easier), compose a message to the list processor address :
Either the subject or the body of the message should say :
The list processor will send you a confirmation email to make sure you really want to unsubscribe (this keeps other people from unsubscribing you without your knowledge).
Note: the unsubscribe command won't work if it's sent to the posting address. Also, you have to send it from the same email address you used when you signed up for the list. You can always change your email address or unsubscribe from the EVDL Configuration Page if you have your EVDL password.

If you have any trouble unsubscribing, contact me and I'll unsubscribe you manually.

Settings: You can make the following changes to your subscription at the EVDL Configuration Page.

After changing any of the settings below, scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the Submit My Changes button, or nothing you've done will take effect.

Unsubscribe.

Change your Email Address.

Change your password.

Have your current password emailed to you. You didn't save that welcome message, eh? Tsk, tsk. ;-)

Disable mail delivery temporarily. See above.

Set Digest mode. See above.

Request Plain text digests or MIME digests. The EVDL default is plain text. If your email system understands what to do with MIME digests, you may find them more readable. (And if it doesn't, good luck.) Try MIME digests and see whether your client works with them, and whether you like them. You can always change back.

Unset Echo mode. This determines whether you receive copies of your own messages that you send to the list. The default is on. I don't know why anyone would turn this off, but there it is if you want it.

Set Acknowledge mode. If you turn this on, every time you post a message to the EVDL, the listserver will send you a message telling you that your message has been distributed. I guess this is in case you decide to turn off Echo mode, and then wonder whether anyone's listening. The default is off.

Set Password Reminder. If you want, the EVDL can send you mildly annoying monthly reminders of your password and how to make changes. The default is off, by vote of the EVDL membership.

Unset Avoid Duplicates. If this option is set, the list will try to avoid sending you extra copies of emails where your own address is included in the TO and/or CC field. Default is on.

Solving Common Problems: What to do when something goes wrong.

Q: I can't subscribe. I get a message that says, "List EV is closed; no more subscriptions are accepted unless sent directly by the subscription manager."
A: You're using an old EVDL subscription address and instructions. That was two servers ago. We changed in August of 2007 and again in November of 2012. But somehow, obsolete, incorrect instructions are still floating round on a few (apparently orphaned) websites.
Use these instructions instead.
Q: I posted, but I didn't see my message.
A: There are several possible causes for this problem.
1. Do you see your post in the archive? Your message might be reaching everyone else but you. When this happens, the most common reason is that it's getting caught in your own spam filter. Check the filter and whitelist the EVDL address if necessary.
2. Make sure you're using the correct address for posting --
3. Sometimes it takes a while for a message to get through the server, anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. The time depends on how heavily loaded the server is. Give it a while before you start worrying.
4. Are you getting EVDL mail from others? If not, the server might be down. This happens now and then. It's usually back up by the next morning, with lots of posts asking, "Is the list down?"
5. Are you sure that you're really subscribed to the EVDL? If you've just signed up, it's possible that your subscription didn't go through properly. Mail from nonsubscribers quietly vanishes without a trace. (I could program the list server to forward it to me for review, but then I'd be up to my neck in spam.)
  If any of the following is true, you're probably not subscribed to the EVDL:
  1. When you subscribed, you didn't receive a confirmation message from the server.
  2. You didn't reply to the confirmation message, or didn't follow its directions 100%.
  3. You replied, but you didn't receive the welcome message and your password.
  4. You got the welcome message, but It's been 24 hours and you haven't received any EVDL messages (normal traffic can be anywhere from a couple to a few dozen messages per day).
  Check your spam filter. Email from the list may be ending up there. (This is a pretty common problem.) Or, when you tried to subscribe, the confirmation or welcome message might have gotten snagged in the filter. If the confirmation message gets stuck there and expires before you can reply to it, you'll have to try subscribing all over again.
6. It may seem obvious, but are you sending messages from the same email address that you subscribed with? Messages from addresses that aren't subscribed are silently dropped into the bit bucket, so you won't receive a rejection notice.
7. Even if you're using the right mail account, your email address may have changed ever so slightly from what you used when you subscribed, just enough to confuse the listserver. For example, maybe you subscribed as janeb@blueberry.com, and that's the address you use -- but under the surface, your ISP (Internet Service Provider), troglodyte.net, actually has that server as an alias. When your mail goes out into the world, it's marked as being from janeb@blueberry.troglodyte.net. The EVDL's listserver doesn't know who that is, so it shrugs and dumps your mail into the bit bucket.
  The solution is to re-subscribe, using your "real" address.
8. Maybe you accidentally turned off your Receive Your Own Posts option. Check your configuration page to see. Note: you need a password for the options page. See below to find out how to get it.
9. You might have posted something that made the server choke, and either reject or discard your message. (The difference is that if it rejects your message, it sends you mail telling you it's done so, but if it discards your message you won't hear a thing; the message just won't show up.)
  Some reasons that the server might either reject or discard your message:
  1. Too many email addresses in the TO field. On the theory that mail with lots of recipients might be spam, the EVDL listserver likes to have its address all by itself in the TO field. It will sometimes accept one other address, but that's about all. The solution is to put any extra recipients' addresses in the BCC field. However, do not put the listserver's address in the BCC field because then it will see ...
  2. No address in the TO field. A lot of bulk mail is sent out with all the addresses in the BCC field. The server does not want bulk mail. Ergo, if it doesn't find its own address in the TO field, it says "uh-uh."
  3. Your message is too long, over 40 kilobytes. That's a lot of typing! Actually, this error usually means one of the following:
    1. You replied to a digest, and left the entire digest on the end of your message. (This is the default behaviour for some very well known email programs and webmail services, I'm sorry to say.) To fix this, resend the message, this time deleting all the digest text except the item you're replying to.
    2. You sent a large binary attachment -- a multi-megapixel photo, for example. To fix this, don't do that any more. Instead, post your attachment somewhere on the web. Use a file sharing service or photo gallery. Then resend your message, this time without the attachment, and with a link to the binary file.
    3. You copied and pasted a long web article. To fix this, don't do that any more. Instead, send the list a message describing the article, and a link to it.
  4. The message has an unusual format that the server doesn't understand. The result can be a rejection notice that says "The message's content type was not explicitly allowed" or something else equally cryptic. Or, your messages might just never show up. We've even had a case where the messages appeared on the list -- totally blank!
    About all you can do is experiment with different email settings. If it's on plain text, set it for fancy mail. Or vice versa. If nothing works, you might have to just use a different mail system for the EVDL. See below for a few webmail suggestions.
Q: I asked a question, and it showed up on the list, but nobody answered.
A: Make sure you've written your message so what you're asking is clear.
Don't use a generic subject such as "EV Problem," say something specific -- for example, "Charger won't shut off."
In the message body, ask the question clearly. Give us some background about your situation. At the very least, we usually need to know what kind of car, motor, controller and batteries you have. If you're asking about charging, also tell us what the charger is. You get the idea. But don't include too much extra or unnecessary information, such as personal details -- that just distracts from the question.
If you're using the EVDL through the archive / forum interface, make sure you're really subscribed to the EVDL itself. The forum is a convenient "gateway" to the mailing list, for people who like web forums better than email. However, if you want our hundreds of email-only subscribers to see your messages, you have to also subscribe to the mailing list.
If your post in the forum says "This post has NOT been accepted by the mailing list yet," that's what's wrong. You're subscribed to the forum only, not the EVDL. Only other people using the forum are seeing your posts. To fix this problem, click here, then click the Subscribe button.
Of course, it could also just be that none of our other members knows the answer to your question.
Q: I tried to post, but nothing showed up, and I got a message back from ev-bounces@lists.evdl.org saying "The message's content type was not explicitly allowed." Did I say something I shouldn't have? Am I banned from the EVDL?
A: No, nothing like that. That's a server error message. It doesn't have anything to do with what you said in your message -- it's strictly a technical problem. It means that the listserver couldn't process your message for some reason. It might be an attachment it doesn't recognize, or some kind of unusual message format.
You might want to send me a copy of your original message, and the server's response, so I can try to figure out what made it reject your message.
Q: My email system isn't working too well with the EVDL, and the IT guru here isn't happy about the amount of traffic from the list. Any recommendations?
A: Here are the free (actually, ad-supported) services that EVDL members have reported experience with.
1. Gmail (Google Mail) seems to be the current favorite. At last count, 17% of EVDL members subscribed via Gmail. They say they like the threaded display of list mail. (You do know that you no longer need an "invitation" to use Gmail, right?)
  One downside of Gmail is that, for some reason, it filters out the list's return of your own posts. That is, it won't let you see your own words in (virtual) print. Apparently Google considers this a feature.
  
  Another would be privacy concerns about Gmail, mostly for the way its ad software looks at your mail and serves up ads related to it. But some folks find that the ads are occasionally entertaining.
2. Yahoo used to be first choice, and it's still fairly popular. In a recent count, 9% of EVDL subscribers were using yahoo.com addresses. A few years ago, Yahoo had some server overload problems that caused missed messages. Things seem to have improved since then.
  Like Gmail (see above), Yahoo mail also now blocks mailings lists' return of your own posts. The same privacy concerns also apply now that Yahoo is also serving ads based on keywords it reads in your mail.
  Yahoo mail has some moderately obnoxious flash ads. Fortunately, most modern browsers such as Firefox and Seamonkey can be set up to block them.
3. Lycos was once pretty widely used. No more. As I type this, we have only one person signed up at a lycos.com address. But Lycos does work OK, just as long as you set it to send plain text mail.
  The problem is that Lycos doesn't seem to have a permanent plain text option. You have to tell it to send plain text for every message you write, and then click OK in the annoying dialog box that asks if you're sure you want to do that.
4. I do NOT recommend Hotmail. It's given the EVDL listserver fits off and on for years. Despite that, Hotmail subscribers amount to 7% of our membership, so I guess they must be doing OK with it.
Q: I thought I unsubscribed, but I'm still getting mail.
A: Here are a few possibilities and suggestions:
1. Make sure you used the right listserver address and command. Obsolete, incorrect instructions are still floating around on various other websites. Look here for the correct procedure.
2. When you unsubscribe, you have to give the listserver the exact email address you used when you originally subscribed. If you subscribed as jimbo886@email.funnypapers.com, but your ISP changed your address format and now you're jimbo886@funnypapers.com, that may be why unsubscribing isn't working for you. As far as the listserver is concerned, those addresses are two different people.
3. Did you include the word unsubscribe in your email to the listserver? Are you sure you typed it right? The listserver will just ignore words that it doesn't recognize. One person tried to unsubscribe by typing "unscribe."
4. When you unsubscribe, the listserver emails a confirmation message to the address it has for you in its records. This is so that other people can't unsubscribe you without your knowledge. You aren't really unsubscribed until you reply to that message. If you unsubscribed but never got a confirmation message, check your spam filter. If it's not there, make sure you're following the unsubscription procedure to the letter.
5. If unsubscribing by email isn't working for you, try the web method described here.
6. Sometimes it takes a while for the unsubscription to get through the server's thick skull. Wait 24 hours or so and see what happens.
7. If you can't unsubscribe yourself, contact me and I'll unsubscribe you manually.
Q: I want to shut off my EVDL mail while I go on vacation, but the EVDL's Configuration Page wants a password. What password?!
A: Your password was in your welcome message when you subscribed. You did save that message, yes? No? No worries, nobody else saves it either. ;-) It's OK; the listserver will send you a password reminder.
1. Use your browser to open the EVDL Configuration Page.
2. At the top of the page, enter the email address you use for the EVDL (leave the password blank for now).
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and click the very last button on the page, the one which says Remind. A new page will open. At the very top it will say, "A reminder of your password has been emailed to you." Leave this page open in your browser.
4. Check your email. Within a few minutes you should receive a message from the server containing your password. Highlight and copy the password.
5. Back in your browser, paste (or type) the password into the Password blank on the web page. Click the Log In button right under that blank. You'll be taken to your personal EVDL configuration page where you can suspend or resume your EVDL mail (and change various other settings).
6. IMPORTANT: When you're done making the changes you want, scroll all the way to the bottom of the configuration page and click the Submit My Changes button. If you don't click this button, none of your changes will actually take effect.
Q: I got my password reminder from the listserver, but it doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?
A: Make sure you're actually using the EVDL Configuration Page. If you're getting an error message that says "No registered user found for this email, please enter a correct email address and click Get Password," you're in the wrong place, trying to connect through the forum interface.
Q: I received an email that says "Your membership in the mailing list EV has been disabled due to excessive bounces." What's the problem?
A: This means that your mail system has been "bouncing" EVDL mail back to the listserver, telling the listserver that it can't deliver the mail to you. When this happens consistently, the listserver figures that something is wrong with your email.
Every message the listserver sends out takes time for it to process, and every message that bounces takes even more time. To avoid overburdening itself or the mail system, it shuts off your EVDL mail, and tries to contact you to see if you're still there.
Every other day for a month, the EVDL listserver will email you a warning like the one you just received. If it hasn't heard back from you at the end of that time, it'll assume that you've probably abandoned your mail account, and will unsubscribe you.
Why does your mail bounce back to the EVDL listserver? The most likely reason is that your mailbox is full. Of course, in that case you probably can't get the warnings that your subscription has been disabled, either! The EVDL listserver hopes that sometime during the month that it keeps trying, you'll delete some old messages and free up some space in your mailbox, so its warning can get through.
Another reason is that your ISP thinks our mail is spam. You may have to get in touch with them and tell them it isn't.
Bounces can also happen if your mail server is down for a long time. Once in a while, a mail server that's still working, but desperately overloaded, will bounce so many messages that the EVDL listserver will think it's down.
If you reply to the message that says your mail has been disabled, the EVDL listserver will restart your EVDL mail. Just make sure that whatever problem caused your mail to clog up in the first place has been fixed, or the same thing will just happen again in a few weeks.

List conventions: Mostly just a matter of good netiquette and civil behavior.

Be collegial and civil. Remember that our members come from all backgrounds and have many different reasons for interest in EVs. Not all are environmentalists, though many have at least some concerns in that area. They come from all over the political spectrum.
1. Follow the Fidonet Principles:
  1. Thou shalt not be too annoying.
  2. Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed.
2. Avoid off-topic subjects likely to cause flames, especially partisan politics and religion.
3. Keep it clean. Remember that some people are offended by profanity, especially when it invokes the names of deities or drops the "F-bomb." If you just have to swear, why not be creative and make up some interesting new curses?
4. Treat list members online as you'd treat them face to face.
5. Argue your points with verifiable facts, not insults or abuse.
6. If you post an opinion, don't forget to flag it with the standard "IMHO."
7. If you're kidding, use an appropriate icon. ;-)
While I discourage discussion of politics and environmentalism, sometimes these subjects are bound up closely with EVs and we just can't avoid them. Part of civility is the personal discipline that keeps the discussion cordial in those cases. This means holding your fire when someone's opinion angers you, and remaining tolerant of others who hold views you don't agree with.
Some people think that being collegial and civil amounts to being excessively "politically correct." If you see it that way, then I'm sorry to say that either you'll have to be "PC," or you'll have to find somewhere else to discuss EVs.
Stay on Topic. Mildly off-topic posts are OK if you flag them with "OT" in the subject line. Please use good judgement and stay close to EV-related subjects.
1. Don't post about overunity devices, magnetic motors, free energy, perpetual motion machines, or anything else that appears to violate the laws of classical physics. You'll get reamed. (Seriously.) You might try overunity.com, Peswiki, or the Keelynet Yahoo group instead. Electrifying Times also sometimes welcomes such discussions.
2. This list is focused on EVs, not on the energy to run them. In particular, it's usually not a good idea to bring up nuclear power. Discussions of PV (solar) energy should be tightly framed in an EV context ("What's the most effective way to power my EV from the sun?").
3. Questions and comments about ICE vehicles (internal combustion engine powered) are seriously off topic for the EVDL, unless they're EV conversions. You'd think this would be obvious. I wish. :-(
4. Some list members don't consider non-plug-in hybrid vehicles to be EVs. These vehicles get 100% of their energy from liquid fuel, so those folks have a point. Vehicles such as Toyota Priuses (Prii?) and Honda Insights have plenty of other homes on the net anyway, so I say go there if you want to talk about them. On the other hand, if you want to try converting one of these guys to a 100% plug-in battery EV, let's talk. (You're very brave. Ask us why.)
5. I would now like to quote the list's charter. "[The EVDL] is not intended to discuss either EV appropriateness or comparisons with other transportation primary drive modes such as the venerable internal combustion engine." This means that we're not here to debate whether EVs are practical or desirable or useful in a general way. That said, none of us is so Pollyana-ish as to believe that an EV is practical or desirable or useful for absolutely everybody in the world. If you want to know whether an EV will work for your own personal transportation situation, tell us something about what you need, and we'll have at it.
6. Many years ago, EVDL members decided that fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen power were not things they wanted to talk about much. I know, I just quoted the charter up there, and it says "the energy storage device ... can [be a] ... fuel cell ...," but that's what the members decided, and who am I to argue?
7. The EVDL is not a general purpose bulletin board. Don't forward or quote email which you've received from others, unless you're sure it's on topic and you know it was specifically intended for the EVDL (such as when an unplugged EVDL member asks you to forward something to the list). This means that internet chain letters, virus warnings, urban legends, political or religious tracts (no matter how urgent), inspirational or humorous stories (no matter how moving or hilarious), and the like are all unwelcome on the EVDL. Your questions and comments about electric vehicles, however, are welcome.
8. At the risk of sounding cranky: Don't tell us the 1990s called and want their mailing list back, or that we should convert to a web forum or start a Facebook page. We've had that discussion many times already (see the archive). Sorry, those things are not going to happen. However, if you really can't abide our nice, practical, low bandwidth email approach, try our (much slower) archive / forum front end.

No advertising. The EVDL is a noncommercial, informational resource. We don't allow it to be used for selling stuff. This includes posts that mainly promote a product or its website.
That said, where would we be without parts to build our EVs? We need reputable vendors and manufacturers of EV parts and products for hobbyists. If you're one, you're welcome on the EVDL, but we ask that you follow these guidelines:
1. No unprompted mentions. Don't post just to mention your products and/or services. Bring them up only when an existing conversation (thread) makes the discussion appropriate and natural. We're a bit flexible on this for long-time members, as long as it's done judiciously and tastefully. However, spamming is absolutely verboten. If you subscribe just to advertise, I guarantee that you'll be shown the door.
2. No promotional language. Announce and discuss your products and services only in factual, value-neutral terms (like NPR and PBS sponsorship announcements). Save the glowing descriptions for your own website.
3. Support users of your products and services on the EVDL. This is not optional.
4. As best you can, also take part in general EV help and support, even when it's unrelated to your products and services. Often people building EV components have a long history in EVs and a huge storehouse of knowledge to share with our members. It's in your own best interests anyway, because users you help are that much more apt to become your customers, no?
Since one way to build an EV on the cheap is to buy used parts, you're also allowed to mention personal EVs and EV components for sale, with some limitations:
1. The EVDL is a discussion list, not a swap shop. That's why the EV Trading Post exists, not to mention Ebay. Post your ads there.
2. Once you've done that, you can announce your EV Trading Post ad or your Ebay auction on the EVDL. (Be sure to tell us it's yours.)
3. Don't keep nagging us to look at your ad. One post is plenty. If you still haven't sold it in a couple of weeks, then it's probably all right to bring it up again, but don't overdo it.
4. You're welcome to alert us to goodies you've spotted for sale. The same admonition about not dunning us repeatedly applies. Don't forget to tell us what your relationship is to the seller, even if that relationship is "none."

Post in plain ASCII text. Please, no HTML or "rich text." The listserver will filter your post if you use HTML. However, that makes it work harder, which slows down its mail delivery. Make it happy. Send plain text.

Don't send binary attachments to the list. If you have something to share, please post it on a free, open, public website and email the list the URL. "Free and open" does NOT mean your private Flickr page or your login-required Facebook page. "Free and open" does NOT mean something that other people have to sign up for, even if signup is free.
File sharing services such as Yousendit and Mediafire work nicely for this purpose. If you're posting photos and need some suggestions, you might consider Imagebin (but note that they delete photos after 14 days). Wikipedia offers a list of photo sharing services.
Another option is to use the EVDL archive / forum interface. It allows you to upload files to its separate server, and automatically includes a link in the message sent to the list. Note though that you can't post through the forum front end until you've registered for it. That registration is separate from (and in addition to) your EVDL subscription.

Trim quoted text. Don't repeat the entire message to which you're replying. Be especially careful of this if you're on the digest. The server tries to trap messages that quote entire digests, so if you do this, your post may be blocked or rejected.

Be original. Your own thoughts and ideas are far more valuable and interesting than anything you might find elsewhere. Not only is copy and paste a pretty feeble substitute for creativity, it also risks copyright violation. Think twice.

Guard your rights. Information you post on the EVDL may end up in FAQs and other public resources. You should think of posting material on the EVDL as equivalent to releasing it into the public domain. If you want to retain ownership or copyright in something, please don't post it on the EVDL at all.

Be circumspect. The EVDL is archived in several public places, most of which are not under my control. Once hit "Send," your words are writ large for all to see on the web forever. If you wouldn't want a relative, friend, rival, [ex-] employer, [ex-] spouse, or [ex-] partner to see what you wrote, don't send it!
The EVDL's administrators don't monitor posts for content. You are solely responsible for what you write. I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice. However, if you're writing something which in some jurisdictions might be considered libelous, slanderous, or otherwise might expose you to liability, I suggest that you consult your attorney before sending the message.

Moderation: I like a free exchange of ideas, so the EVDL is usually unmoderated. Fortunately, our members are pretty good about following the list conventions.

However, I also like civility (a nice old fashioned word, that). Experience has shown that the lack of it often leads to flame wars. Flame wars drown out rational discussion of EVs and lead reasonable people to unsubscribe. These are not good things. Thus I may moderate or even shut down flameish users or threads to keep the list's tone civil. I do not moderate or ban users to keep them from expressing opinions, or because I disagree with them. That kind of behavior is for tyrants and other disgusting people.

I think this is a pretty fair policy, even though judgement is involved. (How could it not be?)

I realize that moderation of mailing lists, usenet groups, and forums is kind of controversial. Some people consider it censorship. Well, it's not. Censorship is something governments do. This is not the government, and the EVDL is not a communication medium.

The internet, however, is a medium -- a big one. There's lots of room for more EV mailing lists and forums. If you don't like the EVDL's policies, try somewhere else.

If you don't like any of them, by all means start your own. There are plenty of free and ad-supported forum and/or mailing list services (your favorite search engine is your friend). You can even lease a virtual server for a few bucks a month and sell your own ads if you're so inclined. Have at it.

Getting support: To request help or report problems with the EVDL, please contact me at .

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