List delivery problems

[Carl S Zimmerman]

Overnight I've had a problem with sending messages to and receiving 
messages from this mail-list.  Although the problem is now resolved 
(and did not require moderator assistance to do so), I'm writing to 
offer advice to others who might encounter problems, or suspect the 
existence of a problem.

Most importantly, this mail-list is also a Yahoo Group.  Although you 
can subscribe and unsubscribe by email, without having a Yahoo ID, 
managing your subscription and solving problems can be easier if you 
do have such an ID.  It's free (and harmless!), so if you don't have 
one, I urge you to visit http://groups.yahoo.com/ and use the "New 
User? Sign Up" link in the upper left corner of the page.

One of the things that you can do with an ID is to read the list 
messages (and message archive) on the Web.  (It's not accessible to 
non-members, i.e., the general public.)  This is helpful if you think 
you're not receiving messages because of an email (or list) problem. 
If the latest message posted on the Group is one that you did receive 
by email, then there is no problem.  (Though perhaps everyone else is 
too sleepy or busy to contribute!)

In my case, that check did reveal a problem - very weird!  The Group 
server had sent a message to me that bounced back because of an error 
somewhere in the network, so it disabled my subscription.  Once I 
discovered that, I could use the "Edit Membership" settings page to 
"de-bounce" my ID and thereby restore message delivery.  Actually, I 
only missed about three messages, and could read them all through the 
Web interface.

Carl