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What is FTE?
FTE is a mailing list for fans of Canadian
singer/songwriter, Sarah McLachlan, and is named after her third studio
album, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.
The mailing list was created in 1994 by Anthony
Baxter and originally housed at Monash University in Australia (some may recall the
address, [email protected]).
FTE moved to Smoe.org in October of 1999, where it was co-run by John Stewart
and Jenni Knoff. Lisa C. ("Lizza") took over for Jenni in August of 2000 and
Dixon L. took over for John in June of 2003. Lizza and Dixon are the current FTE
Co-Admins.
The
number of daily posts on FTE varies and depends greatly on what is going on at
the present time. For example, traffic is high when Sarah has a new release or
is touring and it's not uncommon to see around 100 messages per day. Conversely,
the amount of list mail goes down when Sarah is on hiatus. But always be
prepared to handle a lot of mail.
What topics
are discussed on FTE?
FTE is an un-moderated
list and almost anything and everything seems to be discussed.
It is a gathering of Sarah's fans—individuals with a common
interest—free to discuss topics of similar interest.
What is a Fumbler?
Members of FTE are called, Fumblers!
What is a Fumble
Rumble?
A Fumble Rumble is a real-life gathering of
Fumblers that is usually planned for Sarah concerts and/or Lilith Fair. Fumble
Rumbles have also been known to pop up for no reason other than the simple fact
that there hasn't been one for a while.
How do I subscribe
from FTE?
To subscribe, you must first decide on which
version you prefer: the loose mail version, where each post by a
listmember arrives in your inbox as an individual email; or the digest version,
where several posts are bundled together in one large email (ideal
for anyone with limited time and email access).
To subscribe to FTE:
send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: subscribe
To subscribe to the
digest version of FTE: send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: subscribe
After you subscribe to FTE,
you'll receive a confirmation email asking you to reply to it. This is to validate that it was actually you who signed yourself
up to FTE. This is to prevent other people from signing you up to
a mailing list that you do not want to be on. Just follow the instructions in the confirmation email and
you'll be on your way!
How do I unsubscribe
from FTE?
To unsubscribe from FTE:
send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: unsubscribe
To unsubscribe from the
digest version of FTE: send an email to [email protected]
with these words for the body of your email: unsubscribe
Details for unsubscribing (aka unsubbing)
from the
list are also attached to the bottom of each post that's sent to
the list.
Please do not send your
subscribe or unsubscribe email to the entire list ([email protected]).
Send it to the above addresses. If you have any questions about
subscribing or unsubscribing, please email the listowner(s) for help or refer back to this page.
How do I send
a message to the list?
To send a message—or post—to the entire
list so all members can read it, simply send your email to [email protected].
Even if you're on the digest version of the list, this is the address you must
use to send your posts.
I'm subscribed, but I'm not
receiving list mail
There could be several reasons why you're not
receiving any list mail. The first could be that that the server is down due to
maintenance, technical problems, etc. The listowner(s) will attempt to contact
the list regarding any scheduled down time.
The second reason could be that
you have been unsubbed from FTE. Why would this happen? If you're using an ISP
or web-based email service that has
a mail quota and you have
hit your limit, then every message from FTE that is sent to you is "bounced" back to the
listowner(s) because it was undeliverable. You may have been manually unsubscribed
from the list for continuous mail bounces.
The next step is to check whether you're subscribed to FTE. To do this, send an email to [email protected] with the words,
who fumbling-towards-ecstasy,
for the body of your email; or, who fumbling-towards-ecstasy-digest,
if you're on the digest version. If you don't see your name/email
address anywhere on the list, then you've been unsubbed from the
list. Simply re-subscribe to the list using the instructions
above and all will be well.
If you're going to be away for
an extended period of time, it's good practice to
unsubscribe from the list while you're gone and then re-subscribe
once you're back. This prevents the potential problem of your mail "bouncing" back to the listowners while
you're away.
What are the rules
or etiquette for FTE?
First off, there are some rules
from Smoe themselves
that we need to abide by. These rules are as follows:
- NO
HTML. HTML is not supported and is stripped out of all
messages.
Don't apply formatting to the text in your email, such as bold, italics or colors,
because the formatting won't be seen.
- NO ATTACHMENTS or BINARIES.
Attachments are not supported and are stripped out of all messages. If you
would like to share a file with other listmembers,
send it to them via private email or upload it to a website and
then send the URL to the list.
If you repeatedly violate either
one of these rules, you will be unsubbed from FTE.
These are recommended guidelines for FTE:
- Label your posts
according to content.
While this isn't a set rule, it is considered good etiquette to use an
appropriate label in the Subject of your message. Some labels for FTE include:
ASC - Actual Sarah Content - For posts with
Sarah-related content.
BST - Bull Shit Thread - This is for any
topic that has nothing at all to do with Sarah or her
music.
NSC - No Sarah Content - If you're not
sure if your post is BST, but it has nothing to do with
Sarah.
OAC - Other Artist Content - If your post
is about an artist other than Sarah. This would
include album reviews, concert reviews, etc.
POL - Political - For posts that deal with politics.
TECH - Technology/Technical - For posts that deal with technology
or technical matters, e.g. questions and problems about computers, email,
the Internet, your audio system, etc.
SPOILER - If you're posting material that
might spoil another person's enjoyment. A good example of
this one is when Grammy time rolls around. Keep in mind
that while everyone gets the same list mail, not everyone
lives in the same time zone as you. So if you post
something that spoils the outcome of an event, thinking
the event is already over, the event might not have even
begun for someone else yet because they're in a
different time zone. (Did you follow all
of that?)
NP - Now Playing - Fumblers
are notorious for their love of music. Oftentimes you'll
see NP at the end of a post, followed by the name of a
song or CD, etc. It's just a way of sharing the music
you're really into at that particular time.
- It's usually a good idea
after joining any Internet mailing list to sit back
for a few days (or longer) and read posts. This will give you an idea of how the
list works and what kinds of things people post about. While we've all been "newbies" at one time
or another, no one takes too kindly to a newbie barging
onto a list and demanding this or that, or asking
questions, etc., that can be answered had they merely
taken the time to do a little research on the subject.
- Try to remember that
although FTE is an open list, there are some topics which
no one will totally see eye to eye on. During these
situations it's easy to misconstrue what another person
is saying. When replying to what seems to be a
particularly provocative post, it's usually best to
consider your reply before posting. It's very easy to
escalate a simple exchange of differing viewpoints into
something that resembles WWIII. Topics that tend to bring
about these types of responses usually include religion,
sexuality, sexism, abortion, nationalism and gun control. Just be aware that these topics
are volatile and have been known to
start a few good "flame wars" on FTE.
- Keep what's said in private
email, private. It is universally considered bad manners
to repost private mail to the general public without
first asking the original author's permission and will
generally result in some kind of backlash.
- Forwarded posts -
Right now there's no set rule for forwarding mail to FTE.
If you do decide to post forwarded mail, be aware that
some people don't like forwarded mail, especially if it's
long and you keep all of the headers on it. Label
the post according to the subject matter of the forwarded
material so people can choose whether to read it or not.
- Chain letters
-
If they've been posted to a lot of people beforehand, or
if they detail good or bad luck if you don't pass the
message along, they are not welcome on FTE.
- Following the whole
forwarded posts/chain letter deal is the subject of
bandwidth. If you're sending a forwarded post, or
replying to a post that's been sent to many people
beforehand, try to trim the irrelevant stuff from your
post before you send it. Not everyone has free Internet
access and some people have to actually pay per minute
for their access time. Therefore, it may be costing
people money to download their email. So please be
thoughtful of your fellow listmembers when you send
things like this. Same thing goes when you're just
replying to a post. Only quote what is necessary from the
original author's post and get rid of anything else.
Leaving in a bunch of useless stuff, or quoting
excessively from the original author's post, only takes
up other's time and space.
There are some other basic guidelines for writing your
posts that will make your life and the lives of other's
much easier too. What follows is just basic Internet etiquette. For more on basic Internet etiquette, please
see the following link: Netiquette Guidelines
- It makes reading much
easier if you use paragraphs to break up your text.
Reading solid text for page after page can become very
tedious. Also, if you have a spell check program, use it.
That's what it's there for.
- Not everyone can read or
see your email if you put it in HTML format. (All of this was mentioned earlier in the
rules of Smoe, but it bears repeating.) While it
looks pretty and exciting to you, to some people it ends
up just looking like a bunch of gobbledygook and it
will take longer to download for some. We all want to be
exciting and different, but it seems as if email isn't
quite the place yet.
- Same thing goes with attachments, which
are not allowed on the list. But even when sending an attachment via
private mail, be sure the recipient wants the attachment and is aware of
what it is. If you have something you want to share, ask
people to email you and then privately email it to them.
How do I contact the listowner?
The FTE listowner(s) may be contacted at the
following email address: [email protected]
or (type the text in the images into your email
program):
Lizza - 
Dixon - 
Feel free
to contact the listowner(s) if you have any questions,
problems or concerns.
Special thanks go to John
Stewart and Jenni Knoff, previous listowners of FTE; Anthony Baxter, for all his dedication
and hard work with the FTE list over the years; and to Jeff Wasilko and the
fine folks at
Smoe who provide FTE a well-kept home.
Last updated 12-Jul-2004
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