Don't use the mailname "lists" (for example, lists@bogusmail.net). It triggers a bug in the list software.
Don't use an Earthlink address unless you plan to lurk forever. Our server doesn't reject Earthlink mail, the mail
just never arrives at the server. Earthlink swears it's not their fault. Whatever. Use
another email service.
Once I've approved your subscription, which usually takes between 8 and 36 hours, you'll receive
a welcome message. If you don't, check your spam folder.
The welcome message will have a password.
You'll need it to tweak your subscription (set/unset digest mode, suspend/resume mail, other fun stuff).
You probably won't save it. No worries; you can get a password reminder at your
Configuration Page.
Unsubscribing:
By request: Contact me, and I'll unsubscribe you manually.
On the web: Go here and follow the instructions in the
UNSUBSCRIBE section.
By email:
Compose a message to the list processor address :
ev-request@lists.evdl.org
Either the subject or the body of the message should say :
unsubscribe
Warning #1: The unsubscribe email command won't work if it's sent to the list posting address.
Use ev-request@lists.evdl.org.
Warning #2: Make sure you send your unsubscribe email command from the same email address that you used when
you subscribed to the list.
Check your email for a confirmation message. If you don't receive it within 10-15 minutes, check your spam folder.
You can then:
Reply to the message, leaving the subject line unchanged. You should soon receive a message confirming that
you've been unsubscribed. OR,
Visit the link in the confirmation message with your web browser. Depending on how your email works, the link
may be split over 2 lines, in which case you'll have to copy and paste it together in your browser's URL bar.
You'll then see a page with and .
Go for it.
Posting:
To post a message to the list, email it to:
How quickly you see it mailed back depends on how loaded the server is. Sometimes it's seconds, sometimes it's hours.
If you're in a hurry to reach someone in particular, try the phone.
Stopping list mail temporarily:
You'll want to do this when you go on vacation, especially if you set an automatic responder. That way you won't
return to find your mailbox clogged with list messages, and the rest of us won't have to watch your responder
replying to itself.
Browse to your
Configuration Page.
If you've lost your password, enter the email
address you use for the list and leave the password blank. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click
. You'll get your password by email in a few minutes. Copy and paste it into the form
and click .
On the next page, scroll down to the grey area and find Mail Delivery (first item). Click the radio button
for Disabled. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click .
Restarting list mail:
Follow the above instructions, but click the Enabled radio
button instead of the Disabled radio button.
Setting Digest Mode:
If you ask for digests instead of single messages, the listserver
will treasure up messages for a while, and then send them
to you bunched in a single message.
Browse to your
Configuration Page.
If you've lost your password (most people do), enter the email
address you use for the list and leave the password blank. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click
. You'll get your password by email in a few minutes. Copy and paste it into the form
and click .
On the next page, scroll down to the grey area and find Set Digest Mode (second item). Click the radio
button for Enabled or Disabled. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click .
Warning #1: Digests can be large! If your email system tacks the message you're replying to onto the end of your new one (most
do), by replying to a digest you can accidentally create a huge message. It may be so bloated that the listserver will refuse
to distribute it. To prevent this, please delete everything that you're not replying to before you send your post.
Warning #2: Digests have unhelpful subjects. When you reply, please change it to something relevant.
This may be a good place to suggest that you read about
netiquette.
If you've lost your password, enter the email
address you use for the list and leave the password blank. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click
. You'll get your password by email in a few minutes. Copy and paste it into the form
and click .
After changing any of the settings below, scroll to the very bottom of the page and click ,
or nothing you've done will take effect.
Unsubscribe.
Change your Email Address.
Change your password.
Have your current password emailed to you.
Disable mail delivery temporarily. See above.
Set Digest mode. See above.
Request Plain text digests or MIME digests. This has no effect if you're not in
digest mode. You may like MIME digests better. Try them and see. Some mail systems don't handle
MIME digests well, so you may not have a choice after all.
Unset Echo mode. Echo mode determines whether you receive copies of your own messages.
The default is on. I don't know why anyone would turn this off, but there it is if you want it. Gmail and some
other email systems seem to recognize your own posts and refuse to display them, regardless of how you
set Echo mode.
Set Acknowledge mode. If you turn this on, every time you post a message, the
listserver will send you a message telling you that your message has been distributed. I guess this is
in case you decide to turn off Echo mode, and then wonder whether anyone's listening. The default is off.
Set Password Reminder. The listserver can send you mildly annoying monthly reminders
of your password and how to make changes. The default is off.
Unset Avoid Duplicates. If this option is set, the list will try to avoid sending you
extra copies of emails where your own address is included in the TO and/or CC field. The default is on.
List conventions:
Post in plain text. No html, please.
No binary attachments. Post photos and such on a website that doesn't require a login and send the list a link.
No spam. Personal ads for used and owned-never-installed EV items are fine, just don't overdo it.
Don't post anything you don't have legal rights to.
Stay on topic. Specifically:
No partisan politics or religion.
No hydrogen or fuel cells. The list voted on this decades ago.
No overunity devices, magnetic motors, free energy, perpetual motion machines, or other laws-of-physics violators.
No ICEVs or non-plug hybrids.
Don't post racist, xenophobic, homophobic, or sexist comments.
Don't promote crime, hatred, or violence.
Thou shalt not be too annoying. Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed.
Don't be a troll. You may find yourself chained under the nearest bridge.
Moderation: I like a free exchange of ideas, so this list is usually unmoderated. However, I also like civility.
Flame wars drive off reasonable users.
I don't moderate people or threads because I disagree with them. However, when someone routinely ignores the list
conventions, or when things get a little overheated, a light tap of the
moderation truncheon is sometimes appropriate.
Moderation isn't censorship. That's something that desperate governments do. I'm not a government, and I hope I'm not
too desperate. But you can call it whatever you want. It won't change anything.
Not convinced? Fine. It's a big internet out there. There's lots of room for more EV discussion lists and forums.
If you don't like the EVDL's policies, try somewhere else, or start your own.
Solving Common Problems:
What to do when something goes wrong.
Q: I can't subscribe. I get a message that says, "List EV is closed; no more subscriptions are accepted
unless sent directly by the subscription manager."
A: You're using an obsolete subscription address and instructions. That was two servers and at least 15 years ago,
but the old address is still floating round the web.
Go here
and follow the instructions in the SUBSCRIBE section.
Q: I posted, but I didn't see my message.
A: Possible causes and suggestions:
Is your post in the
archive?
If so, you probably just have a hyperactive spam filter. Whitelist the list address.
Make sure you're using the correct address for posting:
We share the listserver with other lists. It might be overworked. Give it a few hours.
Are you getting list mail from others? If not, the listserver might be down. If it's not back up in 24 hours,
contact me.
Are you sure that you're really subscribed? If you can't log into your
configuration page, you probably aren't.
Try re-subscribing.
Are you sure you're sending from the email address that you subscribed with? Mail services have been known
to change sending addresses behind your back. Quick fix: re-subscribe.
Maybe you accidentally turned off your Receive Your Own Posts option. Check your
configuration page.
Maybe you put too many addresses in the TO or CC fields. Put
in TO, and everything else in BCC.
Maybe you put the list posting address in the CC or BCC field. It only works in the TO field.
Your message is too long. Possible causes:
You replied to a digest but left the whole digest on the end of your message. Please don't do that.
You replied to a long thread and left all the previous posts on the end of yours. Please don't do that.
You pasted something long into your message. Please don't do that. Send a link instead.
You attached a binary file to your message. Please don't do that. Post it somewhere on the web that doesn't require a login, and send the list a link.
Your email system uses a weird format that our server doesn't understand. The symptom is getting a rejection notice
that says something like "The message's content type was not explicitly allowed." To fix this, make sure that your
mail system is sending plain ASCII text, no HTML, no rich text, no fancy formatting.
Q: I asked a question, and it showed up on the list, but nobody answered.
A: It's possible that nobody knows the answer. It happens. Or maybe you just need to be a little clearer.
Don't use a generic subject such as "EV Problem," say something specific -- for example,
"Charger won't shut off."
Give us some background. What vehicle? If it's a conversion, what motor, controller, batteries? What charger? Where are
you located? What happened just before the problem started?
Q: I see replies to messages I don't remember reading. It looks like I'm missing some list messages. What should I do?
A: Some email providers just don't get on well with email discussion lists. Some have hyperactive spam filters. If you're
missing our mail, there's a good chance that you're missing other mail too. You might try a different email service.
The very best is to run your own mailserver. That takes a lot of knowledge and time.
Next best is to get a domain name and lease a shared webserver. For anywhere from $4 to $15 per month, you can create
email accounts - sometimes unlimited numbers of them - for yourself, friends, and family. You can also set up your own website
or blog, though you don't have to. There are probably thousands of hosting services, and hundreds of places to read reviews of
them. A few services even use renewable energy.
Or you can sign up with a free or low cost mail service. Most are strictly webmail, but a few let you use a mail client such
as Thunderbird or K-9 mail on your computer or handheld gadget. Some promise extra privacy or encryption.
Here are a few.
Disroot
is a volunteer-run open source project based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 2015. Their servers run on renewable energy.
You also get 2gb of encrypted cloud storage with your free account.
Disroot signup isn't instantaneous - a human volunteer looks over every application. It usually takes a couple of days.
Microsoft mail services
(Hotmail, Outlook, Live, MSN) can be a little over-enthusiastic with spam filtering, and they've periodically blocked our
messages for a time. They're not privacy-oriented, but they seem a little less intrusive about it than some of the other big
webmail operations. About 10% of our subscribers use MS.
Yahoo
serves about 12% of EVDL folks. It's also blocked our mail for various periods at times. Yahoo's mailservers also handle
AOL, AIM, and Verizon mail, so any Yahoo blocks apply to them. Yahoo is keen on ads, and its algorithms read your email
to decide what to advertise to you.
Gmail
used to be a reliable EVDL message deliverer, but has recently started bouncing some of our messages. Excessive bounces
can cause the listserver to temporarily disable your subscription, or even delete it. I've also heard reports of EVDL digests not arriving at
all. Even though 32% of our members still use Gmail, at the moment I can't recommend it for the EV list.
If none of the above sounds good, maybe you can find something you like on the webmail lists from the
Free Software Foundation or
Wikipedia.
Q: I thought I unsubscribed, but I'm still getting mail.
Q: I need to shut off my EVDL mail while I'm on vacation, but the EVDL's Configuration Page wants
a password. What password?
A: Your password was in your welcome message when you subscribed, which you probably didn't save.
No worries; the listserver will send you a password reminder.
At the top of the page, enter the email address you use for the list. Leave the password blank for now.
Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click .
A new page will open. At the very top it will say, "A reminder of your password has been emailed to you."
Leave this page open in your browser.
Check your email. Within a few minutes you should receive a message from the
server containing your password. Highlight and copy the password.
Back in your browser, paste or type the password into the Password blank on the web page. Click . You'll be taken to your configuration page where you can
suspend or resume your list mail, and change various other settings.
IMPORTANT: When you're done making the changes you want, scroll all the way to the bottom of your
configuration page and click . If you don't, none of your changes will
actually take effect.
Q: I got my password reminder from the listserver, but it doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?
Q: I received an email that says "Your membership in the mailing list EV has been disabled
due to excessive bounces." What's up?
A: Your mail system has been bouncing list mail back to the listserver. It can't handle all the bounces,
so it's stopped trying to send you mail.
Three common reasons:
Your mailbox is full. Delete some messages.
Your ISP has decided that our mail is spam. Contact them and tell them that it isn't. If they can't or won't help,
which unfortuntely is likely, try a
different email service.
Your ISP's mail server is overloaded. Contact them. You might need a
different email service.
If you reply to the message that says your mail has been disabled, leaving the subject unchanged, the listserver will
restart your list mail. You can also restart your mail from your
configuration page.
Make sure that whatever problem caused your mail to clog up in the first place has been fixed, or
the same thing will just happen again in a few weeks or less.
Getting support: To request help or report problems with the EVDL, please contact me at
