Subscribe to the HIVES Email List
What Is the Email List?
The Chronic HIves email list is hosted by Yahoo Groups. It's a place to discuss the theory and state of progress made by medical science regarding this disease. It's also a place to discuss the effectiveness of the mineral oil treatment used successfully by its discoverer.
How Do I Subscribe?
Group Email Addresses
| Post message: | Hives@yahoogroups.com (You must be a member in order to post a message.) |
| Subscribe: | Hives-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (Send a regular email to this address.) |
| Unsubscribe: | Hives-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com (Send a regular email to this address.) |
| List owner: |
Hives-owner@yahoogroups.com (Send a regular email to this address.) |
(Note: You do not need to use a Yahoo email address for the group, even though you get one when you create a profile. Just make sure you click the alternate email button and provide your regular email address. You can maintain your privacy by only filling in the required information in the Yahoo profile forms.)
How Does It Work?
When someone writes a message to the main group address, it is sent to all members. When you reply to a message, your reply also goes to all members. You can receive messages one of three ways:
- As individual emails
- As a daily digest of all messages in one large email
- Not sent as email, but available to read on the Yahoo Groups website.
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Suggestions
- If you have suggestions for ways of making the Hives Email Discussion List or the Chronic Hives web site better, please submit them by contacting the moderator.
- The Yahoo Groups page sign-in link is small. Under the banner ad at the top of the page, if the line says "Welcome, guest" instead of "Welcome, (your user name)", you need to sign in.
- When you sign in, enter your user name and the password you created when you signed up. (Suggestion: check the box that says "remember my id and password" so you won't have to sign in each time you visit.)
- Put the page in your Favorites or Bookmarks so that you don't need to navigate to it each time you look at the page.
- Once you are signed in, you have access to other features besides messages. The menu on the left side of the screen allows you to view pictures, look in the database, and participate in group polls. (As the group is new, however, these features are presently empty.)
- As messages come in an archive of past messages develops. You can either browse through the archives in order, from most recent to older messages, or you can search for particular topics.
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How Do I Change My Member Status?
You may want to set your status to no emails, daily digest, or change your email address. Near the top of the Yahoo Groups page (right side), there is a link: "Edit My Membership." This link takes you to a page that allows you to make changes to your membership settings. Remember to click "save changes" at the bottom of that page!
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to: Hives-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com OR visit the website and unsubscribe by editing your membership.
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Bouncing
Periodically, your email address may "bounce" messages. The most common reason is that your email inbox is full; all messages sent to you will be returned to sender. In our case, this means the messages will be returned to the moderator. If this continues longer than a month, the moderator will delete you as a member, and you will have to rejoin the group to have access to the emails and the site.
To avoid being deleted from the group, if you are planning to be away from email for any length of time, please change your settings to 'No email'.
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Email Etiquette
Replying to Messages
When you replying to a message, use the standard format of writing your new "reply" message ABOVE the old message that you are replying to. This way it will be the first words that people read when they open the message. If they need to refer to the original message, they can scroll down to it. (If you place your "reply" message BELOW the orginal message, people must scroll down and hunt for your message in order to read it! It's much more time consuming.)
Off-Topic and Personal Messages
When you send a message to the group that is off the topic of Chronic Hives, please begin the subject with "NCH--". This makes it easier for those who don't wish to read off-topic postings to bypass them.
Keep the list uncluttered. Personal messages such as "Thanks!" or "Good luck!" to a specific person..... or anything of that nature, should be sent directly to the individual, not to the list. It is easier for everyone if emails between friends are sent privately. If you are communicating a message to another list member, but the content of your message is such that it may be useful to other list members, then send it as a regular public post.
Message Subjects
Before you click on the "send" button, check to see that the SUBJECT line of your message is stated CLEARLY AND SIMPLY. "Wow. I second that!" or "Can you believe it??" are meaningless when searching the archives. Examples of better subjects might be: "where do you buy mineral oil?" or "Are there issues with using baby oil long term?" You get the idea....actually STATE THE SUBJECT you are talking about in your email.
If you are replying to a specific person, it is also helpful if you place their name in the subject line. If you are responding to a posting that has someone's name already in the subject line, but the response is NOT directed to that person, please remove their name from the subject line.
Giant Messages
Sometimes emails can get extremely long if we don't all remove previous posting(s) from the body of the email. If you are replying to a specific part of someone's posting, it's fine to leave that, but if your message doesn't really pertain to what is already in that email, then just delete the previous content. This is especially important when replying to a digest email—the entire digest is sent again if you do not delete it.
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Who's In Charge?
The group is new and is presently managed by John Brown, author of the Chronic Hives web site: http://www.chronichives.yolasite.com/ He is the the original "guinea pig" for the mineral oil treatment that is the subject of the web site and the focus of this discussion group. He is not present on the discussion list in the role of a medical professional or advisor, but as an individual trying to use our common experience, reason and logic to make real progress in overcoming Chronic HIves. He receives no monetary benefit from any source including the sale of any products. No products whatsoever are sold through any source in connection with this effort.
The moderator's role is to keep the list on track and courteous, and also help with account issues.....subscribe and unsubscribe, and changing member settings. Please address list concerns by sending an email to the moderator.
