For those who are not familiar with message groups, they are an internet service which allows any member to e-mail everyone else in the group without having to maintain a complete and up-to-date list of addresses. You can also look back at past messages online.
I recommend that all members join the main GMES group. (There is a '16mm' group but this is now closed.)
I'm sure the membership will think of things to say, but here are some suggestions:
Time-sensitive messages; "If you're coming to the meeting tonight, there is a burst water main and London Road is closed".
Requests for information; "Does anyone know where I can find plans for a 12" diameter vertical boiler?".
Tool loan; "Does anyone have a 1/4" Whit left hand tap I can borrow?".
Requests for help; "Can someone meet me at the club tomorrow to help with...?".
Offers of help; "Does anyone want a lift to the exhibition at...?".
Local railway info; "There's a steam special on the Guildford-Portsmouth line tomorrow at 12:00".
And, to borrow a traditional subject line from another group; "Wot I done today".
Please read the whole of this section carefully. Then read it again. Maybe print it out.
Please note that the group is restricted to GMES members only. Note also that you only have to join the group once; you do not need to re-apply in order to send a message. Please note down the user name and password that you choose when joining in case you need to make changes in the future.
To join the GMES Yahoo group, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GMES/, then click on the "Join this Group" button on the right hand side. (If you are already a member of the group and are logged in, the button will not appear.) If you already have a Yahoo ID, sign in as usual and then continue. If not, choose the "Sign-Up" link and create your Yahoo ID and then apply to join the group.
In the "Comment to Owner" box on the joining request form you MUST INCLUDE YOUR NAME. If the e-mail address you are using for the GMES group is not the one on the GMES membership list, you MUST INCLUDE THE ONE ALREADY KNOWN TO GMES in the message. Please don't just put "I am a GMES member". If I'm not sure who is applying I may take a guess and send an e-mail, asking for confirmation, to the address I have. If I really can't work out who is applying, I will reject the application. This is simply to prevent non-members joining the group.
Note that the e-mail address you use for messages from the GMES group does not have to be the ...@yahoo.com address that you are given on creating a Yahoo ID. You can add your usual e-mail address as part of the sign-up process (or later) and you can choose it as your primary address. In fact I recommend that you do this unless you already use the Yahoo address regularly. Several members have said that they don't get the messages; it turns out that it's because they have not chosen to use their 'normal' e-mail address and have forgotten that they have to check for messages on the Yahoo e-mail service. I also suggest that you choose a user name that is not your e-mail address; it's then less confusing if you ever change your e-mail address (you may not be able to change your user name at a later date).
If you want to start a new topic you can either go to the GMES group home page and click on "Start Topic" (RHS at the top of the message list) or you can send a message to GMES@yahoogroups.com using your usual e-mail program. Note that if you use this method, you must use the "From" address that you registered with Yahoo for this group.
Similarly, to reply to a message, you can go to the group, click on the heading for the message in question and then click on "Reply". There is an option in the "To" box to send the reply to the originator only and not the group. You can also reply using your usual e-mail program.
The heading must reflect the content. If you want to change the subject, start a new topic. If you're replying to two different messages, send two separate replies.
At present html messages are allowed on this group but this will be kept under review.
If you are sending a reply, include enough of the original mail to make it understandable without having to go back to the original post but don't force people to scroll down two pages of original message to read your one line reply. Top posting, bottom posting or interleaved; use whatever will be easiest to read; Wikipedia article.
Messages which will only be of interest to one member should be sent directly to that member.
If you think your message may cause embarrassment or offence, don't send it.
Initially, everyone can freely post messages. Anyone causing trouble will have their message status changed to "moderated", requiring each message to be approved before it appears. Persistent offenders will be kicked off. (I've not had any trouble yet.)
If you have a major problem with the way the club is being run, this is not the place to discuss it. Talk to a member of the CoM instead.
Please feel free to send an "I'm here" message on joining but, if you do, why not use it to tell us something about yourself and your latest modelling project.
Attached photos are welcome but please reduce the size to no more than 800x800 and the file size to 200kB or less. (Anyone still on dial-up is going to be pretty unhappy if you post a couple of 5MB photos!) If you have several photos to show, upload them to a website or to the photos section of the GMES Yahoo group or send them to the GMES webmaster for the website if suitable; then send a message with a link to them.
A good routine is to crop photos to remove unnecessary detail, then reduce the size to, say, 800x600 pixels. I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager (Picture>Resize...) for simple photo size reduction. There are many other tools available.
Please don't attach files of more than 1MB.
There are several message delivery options. These are: "Individual Emails", "Daily Digest", "Special Notices" and "No Email". I recommend Individual Emails so that you can save messages of interest and can view any photos. With Daily Digest you will only receive one combined e-mail per day (if at all) but without attachments (photos) and you cannot save individual messages for later reference. With Special Notices you only receive messages sent by a moderator and marked as such. With No Email you can only view the messages on the group website, again without attachments.
To make changes, from the group page click on "My Groups", then the "Edit My Groups" tab. For each group that you have joined, you can select your Profile, e-mail address and message delivery option.
If you find that you stop receiving e-mails from the group, first make sure that you have actually missed one by checking on the group web pages. Then check that your message delivery settings haven't somehow changed (see above). If Yahoo gets a delivery failure report when sending mail to a member it will eventually stop sending. To get this re-set, e-mail the webmaster or group owner (currently the same). Note that, unusually, messages can take up to 24h to be sent out. If you send a message and it doesn't immediately appear in your inbox, don't assume that you need to fix anything.
If you stop using the registered e-mail address (because you have changed ISP, for example) you will of course have to update your Yahoo e-mail settings.
A couple of suggestions to help managing e-mail:
If you use Outlook Express or Windows Mail, "View>Layout>Show preview pane" allows you to quickly read (and delete) e-mails without opening each one in a new window.
Each e-mail will automatically have "[GMES]" inserted in the subject line. Depending on how you receive e-mail, you may be able to automatically sort incoming messages into folders. I use Windows Mail (the e-mail client included with Windows Vista). I have a folder called "GMES Message Group" and made the following message rule (Tools>Message Rules>Mail...) :
Apply this rule after the message arrives
Where the Subject line contains '[GMES]'
Move it to the GMES Message Group folder
and Stop processing more rules
If you feel that you want to leave the group, please send an e-mail to the webmaster explaining why, so that we can consider whether any changes to the running of the group are necessary.
You can unsubscribe by going to the group home page http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GMES/, then click on My Groups (just below top right hand corner of page). Then "Edit My Groups" (top left). Then tick "Leave Group" box and "Save Changes".
If anything above is unclear or out of date (Yahoo changes things from time to time), please let me know.
Andrew Neish