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OMNIBUS PHONE
For those unfamiliar with the
term, an omnibus phone is a telephone circuit which connects with several
signal boxes or other railway locations simultaneously. It was common for a
whole group of signalmen to chat about rules, politics, sport or all kinds of
gossip during quiet spells.
Email List
Our "virtual" omnibus phone is an Email List, or
Email Discussion Group. We call it The Blower. Contributors
send an email to a special address, from where it is automatically distributed
to everybody that has joined the List.
There is quite a lot of information on this page
about the use of this Email List - you may wish to print the page out for
reference.
If you are having difficulty, please check this
page for information before emailing for assistance.
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
The Blower is not in good health, as you may know. And at the
moment it seems to be getting worse. My miracle cure for reinstating
people to the circulation list doesn't seem to work - for every
one added, another seems to fall off the system. There are still
some factors I could explore, but I expect it is a combination of
problems and the identification and testing will take a long time.
I know this is trying the patience of you all.
But you don't want the bad news, so here is the good news.
I am going to transfer activities to a web-based forum system.
In favour of this is the fact that it will reduce the number of
emails landing at your doorstep, and also let you view only messages
of interest. It will also allow you to view (and search for) old
messages. On the down side it consumes on-line time, which may not
suit those that have not succumbed to the switch to broadband.
The new forum is at http://www.signalbox.org/forum/
.
If you only want to be able to read messages, you do not need to
register your details - at present the contents are available for
viewing to any visitor.
If you want to be able to post messages of your own you will need
to register. It is a simple process, but please read the announcement
message in the About This Form section for important information
about the protection of your email address.
The forum is divided into several sections on different subjects.
Please take care to post in the appropriate area. There is even
a section for non-signalling chat!
This is only experimental, but please dive in and enjoy. I look
forward to reading the first postings soon.
I will keep "The Blower" alive for another day or so,
to allow for late running postings to get through, then it will
be closed for the time being.
I hope (pray?) that everything will now run smoothly.
Any comments? Post them in the new forum please.
Kindest regards,
John
(The DI)
{7/11/07] |
[ Frequently Asked Questions |
Advanced Features | Support
]
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The most popular question concerns non-receipt of messages
How do I join?
To join the Email Group, please send a request email to
theblower-request@studio433.co.uk with the only word join in
the body. You must make this request from the email address to which you would
like the email messages to be sent. You will only be able to send messages from
this designated address.
Click
here to join the group.
Requests to join are manually approved, and membership will normally be
activated within 24 hours - but please allow for holidays etc. You will receive
a joining message as confirmation.
How much does it cost to join?
Nothing - its free. The service is sponsored by
Studio433.
How do I send a message?
Simply address your email to theblower@studio433.co.uk and
it will be distributed to all. Your message will be rejected if you do not send
it from the email address under which you joined the group.
How many messages per day will I receive?
It is hard to say, for it varies from day to day. It usually averages
around 25 or 30 per day.
I'm not receiving messages
There are a number of possible reasons why you aren't receiving
messages:
- Whilst the server and software running this service is reliable (the guaranteed
99.7% uptime is usually exceeded) it is possible for the service to have stalled.
It will be restarted at the earliest opportunity.
- The number of messages sent varies - conversation might have run dry and
it is possible that there have been no recent postings.
- Your mail provider might be failing to handle your mail correctly.
This has been known to occur in the following circumstances:
- Email Filtering - THIS IS THE MOST COMMON REASON FOR MISSING EMAIL:
Some ISPs will, as a rather helpless attempt at reducing the quantity
of junk mail, block email when it:
- is not addressed specifically to the sender, or
- is from the same address as the destination address, or
- one of a number of messages from the same source, or
- comes from an IP address where they suspect junk mail has been sent
from in the past
In particular, item iv is ineffective when a large provider uses large
blocks of IPs dynamically. Please contact your ISP to see if any filtering
of your mail is taking place.
Example page that makes interesting reading: http://www.docsplace.org/missingmail.htm
For more information, make a web search for something like aol missing email
One of our users has raised the matter on AOL messageboards (General Home
News, subject 'AOLs Unhappy Customers' where it fitted neatly onto an
existing thread). For those on AOL who are not familiar this is a link
to their news/messageboards aol://5863:126/mBLA:33191.
Then go down to 'General Home News' and on the next window click on the
upper line then look for the thread title. The Board Host is a helpful
lady and is taking the matter up on our behalf but whether that will get
us what we want is of course another matter. All AOL users are encouraged
to use this facility.
Another user has persisted and AOL now accept that they are blocking mail.
A letter has been sent to them on this matter. A copy of this letter can
be downloaded in PDF format here. The response received
showed that the content of the letter had not been absorbed.
I have also written to BT Internet several times regarding "lost"
messages but have not received any reply.
- A few ISPs are known to occasionally delay email for as much as 48 hours.
One particular ISP known at times to be affected in this way is Freeserve.
There is no evidence to suggest any mail is actually lost when this happens,
but it may arrive in the wrong order, so be prepared to see a reply before
a question has been asked!
- Some free web-based email services do not accept email that is not specifically
addressed to their service. As the group address is theblower@studio433.co.uk
rather than your own specific address, this may result in rejection of
messages. Please check with your mail provider.
Do I have to receive every message?
Yes, but you can choose to be sent a daily summary rather than
individual messages. You need to send the command digest true to
activate this option.
Please see the Advanced Options section for more
details.
How many people are there on the List?
Again, it varies, but there are usually around 150. Quite a large
proportion do not participate in the chat but just read the messages, which is
their choice of course.
What subjects can be discussed?
Absolutely anything relating to railway signalling. If you have other things
to share with specific members of the group, please do so by private email -
not everybody would like to read them.
It is prohibitied to use this service to promote petitions and commercial activities.
Can I send a message in HTML?
You can, if you wish, but plain text messages are generally preferred on
news groups and email lists.
HTML email is "styled" text, allowing italics, underlining and other
features.
In the early days of the Internet, the sending of email messages in any
form other than plain text was heavily frowned upon owing to the additional
on-line time consumed downloading the larger messages.
However, times have changed, and with faster connection speeds the
difference in download time is rarely noticeable. Much modern software sends
HTML email by default too.
Nevertheless, you should bear in mind that some users' email software is
unable to read HTML mail. You should choose the option in your software to
"Send both plain and styled text" (or something similar) to ensure all members
can read your messages.
Please do not send images to the group.
What if somebody insults me?
Please confine arguments and "flame wars" to private email, this is not
a subject that everybody wants to read about. Persistent offenders will be
removed from the List.
Can I send pictures to the List?
No. Not everybody wants to receive them as they can occupy on-line time
and run up telephone bills. There is a size limit on message sizes to prevent
large images being sent, but smaller ones can get through. Offenders will find
themselves removed from the List.
Can I join the list twice so I can receive messages
at home and at work?
Certainly. You can join under as many email addresses as you wish, but
if you try and join twice under the same address, you will receive a response
telling you so.
How do I leave the List?
Simply send an email to theblower-request@studio433.co.uk
with just the word leave in the body.
My messages keep being returned, with the
comment that I am not a member of the List
Either you have not joined the list, or you are sending them from an
email address different to the one you signed up with.
I have changed my email address
If you have changed email address you will need to leave the group under
your old address and rejoin under your new one. If your leaving message is
rejected because you are sending from your new address, add the old email
address after the leave command:
leave emailaddress
There are a number of advanced features of this Email List which may be
of interest. These are available by sending commands by email. All commands
must be sent to theblower-request@studio433.co.uk
and not to the List itself. If you send them to the List in error, you will
look very silly!
The command should always be the only content in the body of the email.
The subject line can be left blank. Some commands may not work if sent as HTML,
or if other text is included in the body of the email.
For completeness, all commands are listed here - including those covered
in the Frequently Asked Questions above. Some of these
special commands are disabled for security and privacy reasons.
This allows you to receive a daily summary (digest) of messages sent to
the List, rather than receive individual messages. The syntax requires the word
true or false to be added.
digest true will activate the digest and send it to you
daily.
digest false will discontinue the sending of the digest to
you, instead sending the messages individually.
Use the dir command to get a list of files available for
retrieval.
At present there are no files available for this List.
The command index serves the same purpose.
Use the command enumerate to receive a listing of all members
of the List.
This command has been disabled to ensure members' privacy is
respected.
The commands review and who serve the same
purpose.
Use this to request a file from the server to be sent to you as an email
attachment. The command takes the form get filename. Before you
do this, you will need to obtain a list of available files with dir or
index.
At present there are no files available for this List.
Use help to receive detailed instructions on the use of this
List by email.
See dir.
Use join to add your email address to the List, so that you can
send and receive messages.
The commands sub and subscribe serve the same
purpose.
Use leave to remove your email address from the List, so that
you stop receiving messages.
Use the syntax leave oldemailaddress if your email
address has changed.
The commands remove, signoff, unsub and unsubscribe
serve the same purpose.
Use lists to get a listing of all Email Lists on the server.
You may wish to join other similar lists. However, some private lists may be
configured to reject automatic signup.
See leave.
See enumerate.
See get.
See leave.
See join.
See join.
See leave.
See leave.
See enumerate.
This is a fully automated service run using proprietary software and as
such should present no difficulties. No promises or guarantees can be made
about its reliability. However, experience so far suggests it is far faster and
more reliable than the free advert-sponsored services available.
However, if you do have a problem, you may contact John
Hinson.
Known bugs
- If a message is sent as Styled Text (HTML), the footer detailing the
unsubscribe instructions are omitted.
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