Basic Rules

There are five important ideas that you must remember when participating in an electronic conference:

·        An electronic conference is administered by means of a list server (or list), it is to say, a software (in this case called Majordomo) that operates in a computer (in this case located in Santiago, Chile).

·        ˇMajordomo is not a person! It is a software and, therefore, it only recognizes fixed commands in a given format. If you write Dear Mr. Majordomo, you will receive an error message. Later, we will review some of the commands that Majordomo does understand.

·        Behind Majordomo, there is a group of real people that will give you the technical assistance you may need. Its name is (Biznet-it and you can contact them by writing to the following address:

rcharnay@rimisp.org

·        The software that operates this electronic list does not identifies you as a person; it recognizes your Email address. It is your address what is registered as participating in the conference. This means that you can only receive and/or send messages through the Email address you registered to participate. You can register as many addresses as you want.

·        At the moment you send a message to the electronic conference, it is automatically distributed to all participants, without previous review, edition or approval. Once a message has been sent, it cannot be stopped nor changed.

Norms of good behavior

Just as in any other conference, if certain norms are followed, your participation will be more pleasant and more productive. Here are some suggestions:

·        Respect the objectives and subjects of the conference

In this conference we expect to read messages and documents on quite specific subjects. Avoid using this conference to share information or opinions on other subjects, even if they might be of great importance for you or the rest of the people.

·        Take care of viruses!

Remember that you will be interacting with hundreds of people and you do not know where the rest of us have been lately!  Install a good antivirus software in your computer. NEVER send files as attachments unless you are 100% sure they are not infected. Remember, your files will be received by hundreds of people and, none of them will be pleased of getting a virus.  It is MUCH safer to send your comments as texts in the body of an Email.

·        Avoid to send personal messages to the list

If you are participating in a conference in the  real world and you see a friend on the other side of the room, you wouldn’t yell at him “Hey, Peter!!!” in the middle of the conference of another person.  The same happens in an electronic conference: do not send personal messages, since they will be received not only by your friend but also by hundreds of participants. The rule is to send to the list only the messages that eventually may be interesting for all participants.

·        Need Help? Send us a PRIVATE message

If you need any help, or need to change your Email address, do not send this message to the conference. Send it directly to us, in a private way to the following address:

rcharnay@rimisp.org

·        Commands of Majordomo

Any instructions to the software Majordomo should be sent to:

majordomo@rimisp.org

Sent messages to this address must ONLY contain the following commands:

Subscribe

To add an Email address to the list of participants. For example:

Subscribe consultwdr2008
end

Requests the Email address form which the message was sent, be registered as a participant of the electronic conference consultwdr2008

Unsubscribe

To drop an Email address from the list of participants. For example:

Unsubscribe consultwdr2008
end

requests the Email address form which the message was sent, to be dropped from the list of participant of the electronic conference consultwdr2008