[act-ma] Using the new act-ma list

[Charlie Welch]

Several things about the new act-ma email list.

Hopefully it will eliminate the problems we have had with messages 
getting  lost.  Also people had a lot of trouble subscribing.  So please 
tell your friends about act-ma and

If you posted an event to the old list, you might want to repost it to 
the new one so the will all be at the new archives site.

One major issue is that with the new system we lost the ability to edit 
the subject lines.  We would do this to set the date format to the 
standard we use and sometimes to clarify the subject line.  From now on 
you must take responsibility to do this in you own posts.

The first thing in your subject line should be the date in the format 
2/17 my event.

It is important to due this because many visitors to our web site can 
then short the events by the subject and see them in date order and then 
find out your event is happening tonight.   Several of the local 
progressive radio stations use this feature to help them do their event 
calendars.  Follow the link below to see for yourself.

http://act-ma.org/pipermail/act-ma_act-ma.org/2007/subject.html

You have several different ways to sort the messages.  If you choose 
short by date the messages are sorted by the date they are posted not by 
the date of the event.

Also we urge you to think carefully about your subject line.  It is 
often the only thing the user reads.  You should convey the most 
important information about the event to attract peoples attention and 
make them want to open the full announcement.

Again you should send your messages to act-ma at act-ma.org