General eGroups Tips
Q. What is the difference between chat rooms and discussion groups?
The difference, honestly, is gray and varies from place-to-place & from owner-to-owner. And if this discussion doesn't serve you well, I would highly recommend you visit the San Diego Chronic Illness Support Group's (one of whose support group leaders is Scott Winterbottom) chat page! But let's try this... Here we go...
A. A "chat room" is normally a place where one "goes" to talk in "real-time." You sign on with some "nickname" (similar to using a handle with CB radios). It's as if you & I set up a chat room & met there personally & talked ... right now - in real time, person-to-person. There will probably be other people there but it depends on the chat room!
Q. So what is a mailing list then?
A. Conversely, a mailing list is just that ==> ONLY a mailing list. You send your emails to it; you receive yours &/or other emails. Mostly, it's just like receiving emails from other people with a similar interest. It's a little less manic & potentially overwhelming than chat rooms. However, some of the mailing lists are really big (like Fibrom-L or alt.med.cfs) so even mailing lists can be very overwhelming. On some of the lists, you can subscribe to certain topics (such as MED, RES, CHAT, or whichever are particular to specific lists). On those same lists, it's very important to use your topic category when you post. It only polite and helps keep the mail volume down for everyone since each person subscribes only to the topics that interest them.
B. A "discussion group" (such as those available at Yahoo!) can be set up in different ways. We'll use the DFW groups as an example. The main group is set up more like a mailing list except that we can't send each other emails/posts (unless the moderators approve it). This group is moderated and a "posts ONLY" environment (it acts more like a mailing list than a real discussion group). It's set up this way to cut down on the total number of posts. That means:
- Mary Martini (& Carol Sieverling) watch over it (aka "moderate" it).
- Only posts they believe are useful or appropriate will get through (they have complete control over that because, in the this group, only moderators can post).
- You receive emails/posts on a one-by-one manner as they're sent, in a digest form (with ALL emails included in one long email) or NO emails & you visit the website to read the posts/emails as you see fit. From there, you can also search the emails (depending on if the group owner allowed this function).
- All other posts are either:
- answered via "back-channel" or "back-channelled" (via one-on-one email/conversation)
- trashed
- rerouted to the appropriate place or person
C. The CFS-FM-DFW-chat group is set up differently; it's closer to a real discussion group. It's moderated but your post does NOT have to be approved by the group moderator or owner unless they determine it's necessary! You are only "moderated" if you are causing a problem, flaming, or posting inappropriately. For example, you would NOT want to try to post stories about Star Trek in the group. The first one would probably get through. But that's it. You would then be either informed of what constitutes an appropriate type of post, immediately banned, or "put on probation" (all posts by you would have to be approved by the moderator to see if you understood yet that it was a health-oriented chat group). B.3. above applies to this group also.
D. When posting to a group—particularly a public or a large group—be careful about the email address you use. The standard recommendation is to use a disposable email group (any of the free email services) which you can discard in case a spammer gets hold of your email and so that your main email address doesn't get bogged down with spam.
E. For a newbie, I'd probably recommend:
care2.com - the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Forum (www.care2.com/c2c/group/fm_cfs). It's friendly, helpful, great people. Good info, good links and a relatively easy way to ease into how lists work!.
There are many, many Yahoo! CFS/CFIDS and/or FM groups (at last search 347 on "CFS"; 598 on "fibromyalgia"). The CFAlliance group (health.groups.yahoo.com/group/CFAlliance/) is quite helpful and full of good information although I don't know how "heavy" the moderating is there. Heavy-handed moderating is why the alt.med.fibromyalgia (at Google under Groups) still exists & is unmoderated & there's a separate (but moderated) group called alt.med.fibromyalgia.recovery.info for those who prefer more focused posts! Check out our lists page for more helpful lists; you'll have to decide which are the best fit for you. Good luck!
Our Groups eGroups
Yahoo: How To Sign Up
- Go to www.yahoogroups.com.
- Under "Join a Group," type in:
- CFS-FM-DFW for the announcement list
- CFS-FM-DFW-chat for the chat list
- DFW_Newsletter for the newsletter list
- Hit enter or click on search.
- Our group will appear. (Please read description.)
- Follow the instructions to subscribe (join). It's free!
- If you have problems with this process, just email the moderator (mlmbirdwatcher (at) yahoo (dot) com and ask her to subscribe you to the list (or lists) you wish to join.
- You can also use the following email addresses if you’d rather not go to the webite.
·To Post message:
- CFS-FM-DFW@yahoogroups.com
- CFS-FM-DFW-chat@yahoogroups.com
- DFW_Newsletter@yahoogroups.com
·To Subscribe:
- CFS-FM-DFW-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
- CFS-FM-DFW-chat-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
- DFW_Newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
·To Unsubscribe:
- CFS-FM-DFW-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
- CFS-FM-DFW-chat-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
- DFW_Newsletter-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
·To Email the List owner:
- CFS-FM-DFW-owner@yahoogroups.com
- CFS-FM-DFW-chat-owner@yahoogroups.com
- DFW_Newsletter-owner@yahoogroups.com
Q. Is the www.yahoogroups.com/group/ CFS-FM-DFW considered a chat room?
A. No. It's an "announcements-only list." Only the moderators can allow an email or "post" (virtually the same for our purposes here) through. They view a message (email or "post") and "approve" it (i.e. - deem it valuable to the rest of the members) OR "deny" it & either tell the person the answer to their question or tell them who to ask instead or tell them where else to find the information.
Conversely, with the chat (CFS-FM-DFW-chat) group, if you send an email (or "post" to the group), it's sent automatically without moderator approval. UNLESS you have been "flagged" by the moderators as one who should be "moderated" (in which case, they have to "approve" your message). It doesn't really matter except that some moderators are ... heavy-handed in their decision making. It can be really good in that it cuts down on the quantity of emails that go through. It can be bad in that it reduces the free exchange of information.
Q. What does the CFS-FM-DFW moderator do?
A. A volunteer group member (Mary Martini – mlmbirdwatcher@yahoo.com) reviews all emails and approves them before they are sent out. She will not edit them, or answer questions. She only makes sure inappropriate emails are not sent out.
Q. How do I reply to an announcement or request?
A. The sender's name and email address will be visible – and now they will be listed as the sender. To reply, all you have to do is hit "reply"!
Q. What if you're interested in the info someone else has requested?
A. If someone asks if there is a good endocrinologist in Dallas, and you'd like to know too, just hit "reply" and ask the sender if they would share any information they receive with you. Most folks will happily forward any responses to you.
Q. If I join, who will have access to my email address?
A. Your address is visible to other members of the group only if you actually send an email to the group. If you only read the emails and reply to individuals, your email address is never visible to the group as a whole.
Q. How do I search the archived and searchable emails?
A. If you wish to see if you missed any emails, or look up one sent months ago, all the emails will be kept in an archive according to date. The search engine feature allows you to locate a specific email. This archive is not public—it is available to members of CFS-FM-DFW only. And in the archive the email addresses of the senders are blocked—the server is x'd out. To access the archives, go to www.yahoogroups.com, enter CFS-FM-DFW. The search engine is a little window in the upper right corner.
Q. I missed a message or I'm looking for an old one. How do I find it?
A. The messages are all archived at yahoogroups.com in our member files. Through this archive service, you can search on a topic, person, email, date—anything you need to search for will be there unless it has been intentionally deleted by the moderator for administration purposes.
Q. Will this group ever change from an "announcements-only" list?
A. There are no plans to change it. It will remain an announcement/request for info list, not a discussion group. A discussion group (such as the CFS-FM-DFW-chat group) could generate more emails that many folks want to deal with. Thereare a great many discussion groups for CFS and/or FM already exist. Keep in mind we are sharing personal experiences, not giving medical advice. If you are interested in particular treatments, see your health care provider.
Yahoo! Special Note
This change in Yahoo Groups was recently brought to our attention. Thanks to Lori for these directions.
It's really a nasty little 'trick' Yahoo has done. They've instituted this "sheet" of marketing choices but haven't told anyone. I wouldn't have even noticed this change if it hadn't been brought to my attention on another yahoogroups mailing list I subscribe to.
- Go to yahoo and sign-in to your account.
- Click on Account Info link at the top right of your screen. You will need to enter your password again (this is an added measure of security.)
- In the second section down the page, there is a choice to "Edit your marketing preferences" (under the Member Information section, under the yahoo email address and then the alternate email address).
- When the marketing preferences page comes up, it's pretty self-explanatory. You need to just click "No" on everything unless you WANT to receive info on something!!!
- Notice at the bottom of the page is an option "Do not contact me via mail/phone." Checking this wouldn't hurt anything either!
- Next you just "Save Choices" to complete the entry.
- When it's saved, you'll get a note stating that it takes approximately 10 days to be processed.
- To return to Yahoo! or "My Yahoo!" (your customized Yahoo! page), just click your choice in the right upper corner.
