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The easiest way for most people to subscribe or unsubscribe from
mailing lists is with the web interface, linked below. The web
interface calls itself majorcool.
Once you have clicked through to majorcool, Enter your email address and click on the "go" button below your email address. Check or uncheck the checkboxes and click either "apply" button (one above, one below). If everything has gone well, you should get email in a few minutes confirming whatever you have done. |
| Click here to subscribe or unsubscribe to lists on list.purple.com |
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If you don't have web access, you can do the same things with email. Send mail to the purple list server with a two line body. Line one should say "subscribe listname" or "unsubscribe listname". The second line should say "end". (Specify the list you mean.) Be aware, the list server administrative software that you are mailing to is unforgiving of typos. |
Some of the lists are archived. Please search the archives before posting questions to the list if your question might have been addressed in the past.
| Archive | Search |
|---|---|
| University City | |
| UCwestBC | |
| Bike (newer posts) | |
| Bike (old posts) | |
| culture | |
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Old lists that no longer exist:
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| UCPride | |
From time to time people express concern about privacy and the list archive. Whether you can find your posts on the net or not, you must assume any mail you send to a list (these or any others) or on a web page may end up on the web or in a searchable place somehow. The list administrator exerts no control over what people do with list postings, and databases across the planet can subscribe without anyone necessarily knowing that that is what is happening. If you are worried that someone may see your post later, please don't post.
Just to be clear, though:
| By posting to any list hosted by purple.com, you consent that other people may repost or otherwise publish those emails you send to such lists, as long as such reposting or publishing is not for profit. You maintain copyright on your own work, you simply grant this one not-for-profit right to others. |
Please don't post overly long items. Try to post text whenever possible, providing a link to further content if you have an attachment you think people should see. The list server enforces a 40K limit per email, in any case.
The list administrator is Jeff Abrahamson. If you send him mail asking him to subscribe or unsubscribe you from a list at purple, he will almost certainly delete your mail without replying to it. If you have genuine trouble with the list, he would expect you to send him mail documenting your problem, what you did, and why you believe you have exhausted your recourse dealing with the automated systems for maintaining your subscription. Many thousands of people manage to use the automated subscription maintenance tools, most of them not computer gurus.
The most common two reasons that people have trouble unsubscribing is not following the directions and not knowing what address they are subscribed at. The second, especially, you just have to figure out yourself, as no one can help you. If you have more than one address that merges into one mailbox, you have to somehow figure out how you subscribed. Did your company change name and keep forwarding your mail? Do you have more than one account and some forward to others?
Some lists occasionally become noisy or delve for overly long periods of time into subjects that may be of minimal interest to some subscribers. It may be helpful to think of discussion on the lists as you would discussion at a party. If you are not interested in the discussion, don't listen (delete the mail). If you feel you will never be interested again, leave (unsubscribe). But it probably will not be productive to try to convince people that they should not talk if they feel they have something to say.
If the subscribers of a list mostly become uninterested in a subject, they hopefully will ignore the subject, and posters on the subject will quickly become silent as they perceive they have no audience. If a lengthy exchange involves only two or three people, those people hopefully will decide to take their exchange private if it becomes clear that it is going on for a while and is of only private interest.
In particular, though, note that the list administrator is highly unlikely to impose on others his own opinion of whether a topic is going on too long or is off topic. In the exceedingly rare case that a poster is genuinely spamming a list, he may intercede, but that has happened precisely once in the long history of the lists managed by him.
You may find it helpful to use a mail client that has the ability to filter incoming mail by criteria such as the list it is coming from. Outlook appears to have such facility, although abundant evidence suggests that Outlook poses security risks, primarly to its users. Eudora, which is available for free as well as paid download, also has these abilities. Both are available on both MacOS and Windows. If you use linux, BSD, or other operating systems, you probably want to check out something like procmail. You probably have many other options besides these few mentioned here. But neither the lists hosted here nor the list administrator is likely an appropriate source of further information on how to use your mail system.
This list is mostly composed of individuals. Unless someone specifically states to the contrary, you should assume that they are expressing their own opinion and not the opinion of any organization to which they happen to belong or are employed by. In particular, many peoples email clients add a text signature at the bottom without it being particularly remarkable to the person sending the mail. You probably shouldn't interpret that signature to suggest official communication by their organization.