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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

Please direct any comments or suggestions for additional FAQs to the moderators.  

  1. What is a spoiler?
  2. I'd like to ask a question on DorothyL, but I don't think anyone is going to be interested in the answer but me. What do I do?
  3. I sent a note to DorothyL, but I haven't seen it yet. Should I repost it?
  4. I'm not getting my DorothyL, what do I do?
  5. I want to get DorothyL as email instead of a daily digest. May I?
  6. My address changed or Listserv says I'm not subscribed, what do I do?
  7. I got unsubscribed temporarily, do I still have my Nom?
  8. I got an email message about a virus threat. Should I post it to DorothyL?
  9. Do I need to quote an entire message if I just have a short response?
  10. Suddenly I'm getting spammed. How come? (or it must be DorothyL's fault)
  11. The top line of my digest says there are 45 messages, but the Table of Contents only lists 40 -- what is going on??
  12. Why are there weird characters (e.g., =20) in my post?
  13. Other posting issues

1. What is a spoiler?

Spoilers are messages which, unintentionally in most cases, give the solution to a mystery, or otherwise "spoil" the story for another reader. Standard practice regarding potential spoilers is to include a spoiler warning and space both before and after the potential spoiler. If you aren't sure it is a spoiler, use a spoiler warning anyway. It is better to be too careful than to unintentionally ruin someone's reading enjoyment.

2. I'd like to ask a question on DorothyL, but I don't think anyone is going to be interested in the answer but me. What do I do?

Send the question and request that the replies be sent directly to YOU and not to DorothyL. If you do have responses sent directly to you, and you get responses indicating that other folks want to share in what you learned, then we encourage you to post a summary of responses to DorothyL.

3. I sent a note to DorothyL, but I haven't seen it yet. Should I repost it?

Before reposting a message to DorothyL, make sure that you have waited at LEAST 3 days (sometimes Listserv backs up, sometimes the message goes to Kara to be forwarded and she's may not be around to forward it immediately). Then check the archives to be sure that it never did get out. After doing both of those things, THEN you can repost the note.

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4. I'm not getting my DorothyL, what do I do?

What you should

NOT do is post a note to DorothyL saying you are not getting DorothyL

. It may delay a response to your problem since usually only The moderators can help you and they do not necessarily read DorothyL every day.Check the archives at http://listserv.kent.edu/archives/dorothyl.html or J. Alec's website http://mysteryvault.net/ first. IF the digest is not there, that is an excellent indication that NO digest was issued and NO ONE got one. If that's the case, please sit tight, we'll try to get things fixed as soon as possible.If you have missed THREE or FEWER digests, please wait at least a day before doing anything. It could a temporary problem (like Listserv being down) which will sort itself out.If you have missed MORE than THREE digests, then try the following: Subscribe again. If there is some difficulty contact one of The moderators for assistance.

If Listserv responds that you are not subscribed e-mail one of the moderators to have them check out the situation.

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5. I want to get DorothyL as email instead of a daily digest. May I?

Yes, you may now get DorothyL as individual email messages. DorothyL email is sent out daily after 6 p.m. ET. To set your subscription to email, do the following: send an email message to listserv@listserv.kent.edu which reads: set DorothyL mail

6. My address changed or Listserv says I'm not subscribed, what do I do?

Just unsubscribe from the old address and resubscribe - if there is some difficulty, e.g., deleting the old address, then contact one of The moderators for assistance.

7. I unsubscribed temporarily, do I still have my Nom?

Yes, unless you sent a note to Michael Kovacs (ulcjh@acsu.buffalo.edu) the Nomskeeper, releasing your nom, a temporary unsubscription will not negate your hold on your nom.

8. I got an email message about a virus threat. Should I post it to DorothyL?

NO!! ALL Virus warnings must be passed through diane@kovacs.com *before* posting. MOST will not be posted to DOROTHYL. Full Information on these is available at SARC: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html FSecure is also excellent http://www.fsecure.com/virus-info/ and has good up-to-date info on real virus/worms and hoaxes.If you get anything else off-topic that you think might be of interest to DorothyLers (the $250 cookie recipe, the send cards to this sick little boy, the kidney "theft" story, any friend of a friend story, etc.) you MUST submit it to one of The moderators FIRST. If you post it directly to DorothyL without checking, your subscription will be terminated!

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9. Do I need to quote an entire message if I just have a short response?

Please don't. Just quote the part you want to respond to. If you can't figure out how to cut out the extraneous part, either don't quote anything (DorothyLers are quite bright and can usually figure out what you are responding to without you needing to quote all of the discussion to that point) or don't reply. "Me too"s and other one-line, insubstantial responses are not encouraged.

10. Suddenly I'm getting spammed. How come? (or it must be DorothyL's fault)

Complaints about spam should never be made on the digest. The topic is totally off-topic. Spam is currently one of those unfortunate annoyances of life. Just like you will get junk mail and telephone solicitations, you will probably get spammed at least once, but more likely a lot, in your Net life. As for the question of whether it is DorothyL's fault: The moderators have never and will NEVER sell or make available the subscribers list for DorothyL. Only Diane, Michael and Kara have access to the list of subscribers directly. No one else does. But, there is absolutely no way we can stop people from running software that goes through the archives or their own digests to glean e-mail addresses. It doesn't matter which discussion lists you subscribe to, and it doesn't stop even if you don't post at all because it is also very easy to glean your email address from any Web page you visit. We realize that spam is an awful problem. The moderators get spammed too. But until someone comes up with a permanent solution, we recommend the delete key.

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11. The top line of my digest says there are 45 messages, but the Table of Contents only lists 40 -- what is going on?

The Table of Contents for the digest will only list each subject heading ONCE. Messages which have the same subject heading are listed like this: Danger Mouse did What?!? (4) This means there is more than one message with that subject heading Those messages are counted in the message total, but are not individually represented in the Table of Contents.

12. Why are there weird characters (e.g., =20) in my post?

Most likely this happened because you wrote your post in a word processor like Microsoft Word or Word Perfect then copied the post and pasted it into your email message. Most modern word processors embed code in all documents. The only way to get rid of this code is to (1) save your post as a text file then copy and paste the contents of the text file into your email client. Or (2) see if your email client has a "paste special" option when you choose Edit | Paste. If it does, choose "unformatted text" as the "paste special" option. This will remove any embedded formatting that the word processor has added.

13. Numerous other posting issues: