[at-l] For the NEWBEES

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

If you have signed up looking for info on the AT and hiking,
you have come to the right place!  But you will also see messages
and discussions of other things, from the environment to society
to movies and even football sometimes.

Most of these discussions start out in relationship to hiking but
then develop beyond that scope.  When that happens, we
usually label the post "OT" or Off Topic to make them easily
deleted for those that choose.

Also, since some of these issues are flash points in society
in general (especially football <grin>) we try really really hard
to keep the discursion civilized.  We try try to discuss dis-agreements
without being dis-agreeable.

Many of us have been involved with this list for years and are friends
in the real world so it's natural for use to slip off the AT trail from
time to time.  Just delete the OT stuff if you like!

If you feel overwhelmed by the volume of mail, you can go to:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/at-l
and enter your the email address you used to join, in the box labeled
Edit Options and click.  This will bring you to a page containing
Your AT-L Subscription Options
Here you can set it up to get all the posts lumped together into one or
two large packages a day (select 'yes' for Set Digest Mode ) or you can select
to stop the posts from being delivered (select "yes" for Disable mail delivery)
There are other options available as well.  Make your choices and click submit
and you are done.

You may ask, "Why would I want to stop getting the messages?"
Two reasons are most common.  Number one is that you are getting
a lot of messages and the other is if you are going to go hiking, or
away for some other reason.  Setting to Disable Mail Delivery will
stop all the mail while you are busy or away.

The good news is you can still keep up with the messages if you want to
by using either the AT-L forum 
http://forums.backcountry.net/forumdisplay.php?s=7a36958f8aece428c1bb96f953d 
b5ca9&forumid=3
or via the newsgroup viewer if you are familiar with USENET.  As long as
you are a member of the list, you can still ask questions or comment on threads
using your email address or by joining the forum.  You just won't get the
responses in your mail.  You have to return to the Forum or the newsgroup
and look for the "Thread" (Subject line) in question.

Lots of ways to join in on our campfire, thanks to Ryan, our LIST ADMIN <grin>.
One last thing.....DON"T BE SHY!!!!   Ask and answer hiking questions.  We
tend to "stray" more if things get quiet on the hiking front <VBG>.  One 
last thing...

WELCOME NEWBEES!!!!!