What
happened to my SPALS
mail?
Where are
my SPALS messages?
SPALS is a busy
list, with a
high volume of messages
to the list. Once you have subscribed to SPALS, messages
begin to be delivered to your email directly.
If you are a new
subscriber:
If you have just
subscribed to SPALS, and you are not yet receiving messages
from the group:
- Has your
subscription been confirmed? You will not begin to
receive messages until after your subscription has been
confirmed.
- Are you
enrolled in the SPALS Digest? The SPALS Digest is
issued about once per day (more often when the amount of
discussion is high).
- Are you
checking the email account you subscribed to SPALS?
If you used more than one email account, SPALS mail is
sent only to the account that you subscribed to
SPALS.
- Does your
email program have a "junk mail" folder? If your
email program is set to filter our messages that are not
specifically addressed to you, messages from the SPALS
Digest may be placed in your junk mail folder until you
tell your email program to keep these messages with your
regular mail.
Otherwise, if you
are not yet receiving SPALS messages, please contact our
list
administrators
immediately for help.
If you were
receiving mail, but it suddenly stopped:
If your SPALS mail
appears to cease suddenly:
- Are you
receiving other email? Your Internet provider may
have a mail server problem, or our provider may be unable
to reach yours temporarily -- such incidents are common.
Or, if your
mail began bouncing,
we may have unsubscribed you.
- What day is
it? The volume of SPALS mail does vary a great deal,
and it is normal for mail to drop to a trickle (2-5
messages) on any given day. Typically, weekday traffic is
twice the amount of traffic on weekend days -- and on
weekends with statutory holidays, the message volume
often drops dramatically. Because of the high proportion
of members from the United States, US statutory holidays
have the greatest impact.
- Are you
current with the Digest Archive? The digest archive
web page contains the most recent SPALS Digests.
(Information on accessing the Digest Archive is posted
regularly to the SPALS List.) It is normal to have
messages current with and a little ahead of the messages
posted in the Digest Archive.
Otherwise, please
wait 18-24 hours after the time of your last SPALS message.
If, in that time, no more messages arrive, please contact
our list
administrators
for help, noting the date, time and subject of the last
message you received.
|
|
See also:
Why
did I miss the message from (name) about
(topic);
Why
did I stop getting messages;
Why
am I missing messages from time to time
|
|
What
causes undeliverable mail?
Sending email is a
process that depends upon the interconnection between mail
systems -- and based on the logs we have seen concerning
undeliverable mail, often multiple tries are necessary to
interconnect (when, for example, the receiving system is
down or busy, or the circuits are busy).
When systems cannot
exchange mail within a certain time -- often several days,
one of the systems may reject the mail, resulting in an
"undeliverable mail" message. More often, the systems place
the given piece of mail onto "low" priority -- which can
cause delays of several weeks before the mail emerges to be
sent again.
Sometimes a "fatal"
error will occur because of a unique, one-time circumstance
-- and based on our logs this occurs with about 1 in 10,000
messages. More often, mail may be undeliverable for several
hours or several days, due to circumstances with your
provider. Based on our logs this occurs more than
weekly.
|
|
|
|
Why did I
stop getting messages from SPALS?
If SPALS receives a
consistent string of undeliverable mail messages from your
provider, the list administrators will be forced to
unsubscribe your address until the problem is solved. While
these conditions often are transient, the administrators
cannot predict when the problem will stop.
Your account will be
unsubscribed from SPALS whenever (a) your account has
generated undeliverable mail consistently and it appears
that it is still doing so; and (b) if the message indicates
your mailbox is full.
If you suddenly stop
receiving SPALS messages, and it continues for more than a
day, please resend your bio to one of our list
administrators
to ensure that you are still subscribed to the mailing list.
If you have a continuing problem with your email, please
work with your provider to correct the problem before trying
to resubscribe to SPALS.
|
|
See also:
Where
are my SPALS messages;
Why
did I miss the message from (name) about
(topic);
Why
am I missing messages from time to time
|
|
Why do I
get 2 copies of SPALS messages?
Some mail systems
can be configured to keep a copy of each message send by the
user. If your email is configured this way, you will receive
2 copies of SPALS mail that you have sent -- one that is
kept by your system, and a second one that is returned from
SPALS with the normal distribution.
If you have received
2 copies of a few messages, check who the message was sent
to -- some people have a habit of copying their friends as
well as the list. This can result in you receiving one copy
directly, and another from SPALS.
If you are receiving
2 copies of all messages, you could be subscribed twice --
this is unlikely, but possible if your email address has an
alias. If you are receiving 2 copies of all messages, please
contact one of our list
administrators.
If you have suddenly
started receiving 2 messages from SPALS, check the messages
carefully. One of the messages may indicate that it is
"returned mail" from one of the subscribers on the list.
Usually any "returned mail" is sent to our list
administrators -- but some mail servers send the "returned
mail" back to the original poster. If you are worried about
this in any way, please contact one of our list
administrators.
|
|
See also:
Why
am I still getting SPALS posts as well as the
digest
|
|