(1) Subscribing, unsubscribing, setting nomail:

When you signed onto the list, you used a particular email address. Messages from that address control your subscription. If you change addresses, please also change your subscription by signing off at the old address and signing on at the new address.

If you are taking a vacation, rather than clog your mailbox with list postings (and mine with "undeliverable message--mailbox full" notices), please set nomail and then set mail when you return.

New, summer 2005: You can now make changes in your subscription using a web form. Go to the Memorial University Newfoundland lists page, http://lists.mun.ca
and  get a password (using the email address associated with your subscription to the list). Then follow instructions to sign off, switch to nomail, or request digests instead of individual mailings.

The old method of communicating with the listserv by email still works. All messages having to do with the status of your subscription are addressed to

listserv@mun.ca

and it understands the following commands:

subscribe Arthurnet yourfirstname yourlastname

unsubscribe arthurnet

(or)

signoff arthurnet

set arthurnet nomail

set arthurnet mail

set arthurnet digest

If you have already changed addresses and need to be signed off the old one, let me know: I can do this for you.

(2) How to Post to Arthurnet

Address your posts to the address arthurnet@mun.ca

When you post, please sign your name (a given name, not an SCA or net handle). This makes it easier for other listmembers to reply. Also, the common language of the list is English, so include translations into English of posts or texts in other languages.

All posts come to the moderator, currently Judy Shoaf. She frequently digests several similar posts into one, to help Arthurnetters who don't want to see 20 short messages in their box each day. Sometimes posts do get lost, so inquire if yours does not show up! (The listserv software apparently has trouble processing messages from certain addresses, so yours might have come to me as an error message instead of a post.)

If you are answering a question or arguing with a position, please be polite.While many on the list may agree that the person you are addressing is ignorant/wooly-headed/narrow-minded, such opinions are best left unexpressed. The moderator reserves the right to edit out harsh phrases, but alas also the right to forget to do so.

When replying to a previous post, make it clear what the point of discussion was and if possible include the poster's name in your reply. On the other hand, don't include a lengthy excerpt unless it is absolutely necessary to your argument. Your valiant moderator does try to edit posts so that they are neither cumbersome nor incomprehensible, but your help is appreciated.

Because the body of Arthurian literature is so familiar, we do not usually worry about "spoilers." If you are posting about a movie/t.v. show/book, there should be content in the post that actually tells what Arthur has to do with the work in question.

(3) Frequently Asked Questions and student research

If you are new to the list and are writing a paper or using the list for research purposes, take a look around in the library before asking a REALLY BIG question like "What can you tell me about the Grail?" or "Where can I find information about Arthur?" Instead of expecting us to write an encyclopedia article for you, at least read an encyclopedia article on your question, and get hold of a copy of::

****The Arthurian Encyclopedia**** or ****The New Arthurian Encyclopedia**** ed. Norris Lacy.

(These books should be available at a library near you. If they aren't there, tell your librarian to buy the latter!)

Then you can ask a stronger question.

Another good resource is the Arthurnet Archives at http://www.mun.ca/lists/arthurnet where all previous discussions can be searched by keyword. There have been lengthy discussions of the films Excalibur and First Knight, and also of some Arthurian novels and other works, which may well be better discussions than you would be able to generate today by asking about the films.

However, if you are doing research, consider the following wise words from an Arthurnetter:

"Pauline J. Alama" <hwyn@troi.cc.rochester.edu> Subject: Re: Students and Internet

As we open another season of students discussing their paper topics on Arthurnet & other academic networks, I think it may be worth posting some kind of cautionary statements about what students can and cannot get from these nets.

I don't mean to accuse any of the people who've recently posted pleas for paper topics, but last year I was alerted to the possibility of abuse in students' net use, when my husband (a high school social studies teacher) showed me a "research" paper one of his students had handed in, with citiations exclusively from e-mail addresses. The student had gotten on a network discussing the subject of her paper, and had cited the opinions people posted as "evidence" of the statements in her paper--in fact, the only "evidence" she used. She seemed to have the impression that if someone said something on the internet, it was a "source" as good as anything she could find in a book or journal.

Students should be aware that our net discussions are no more fitting as scholarly evidence than our discussions over coffee. There's no editor & no fact-checker to ensure accuracy of postings. Not all of us are experts, and even those that are sometimes post comments about things outside their area of expertise, or make mistakes which they don't catch--after all, this is a conversation, not a journal, and we don't always check our sources before conversing. Nothing we say here constitutes evidence of anything except our opinions--and those have been known to change in mid-discussion!

Pauline Alama hwyn@troi.cc.rochester.edu