Question:  I prepared my message to the Flyer List, sent it out, and it hasn't appeared.
                              Other people have sent messages since then, and theirs have appeared.
                              Why hasn't mine?

         Answer:     This is a large list (around 300 subscribers), and different people use different
                              computers and software.   So, to avoid people getting unreadable messages
                              (and enormous telephone bills), there are some "rules" we must abide by,
                              and filters to catch messages that break them.

                             The most common reasons for messages being held or rejected are:

                             They are too long    (the limit is 4,000 characters).
                                      If you quote someone else's message in full, and add yours at the top,
                                      there may be several thousand characters below yours.

                             They contain an attachment  (maybe a picture of your favourite aeroplane). 
                                     Unfortunately, some antisocial elements have taken to sending viruses
                                      as attachments to e-mails.   Some folks send enormous attachments that
                                      take others a   l o n g   time to download.   So attachments are "taboo".

                             They contain HTML  (Hypertext Markup Language).  This uses a lot of
                                      bandwidth and causes problems with older browsers.   Turn off the
                                      HTML when posting to the List.

                             They contain a Virus warning    The great majority of "Virus Warnings" on
                                      the Internet (but not all!) are "spoofs".   They get millions of people
                                      to send them to millions of other people,  and clog up the Internet as
                                      well as other peoples' machines.

                    If any of these reasons apply, your message will be "held" by the message filters.
                    Eventually, the List Admins will find your message in the "reject" bin, and
                    if it hasn't gone out, will probably write to explain what the problem was.
                    But we're all volunteers and sometimes don't get to look in the bin for several days.

                    So, correct your message to take out any excessive quoting (look at the end of
                    the message to see how long it goes on for), make sure it isn't in HTML,
                    and it isn't about a virus warning, then send it again.

                    If you don't know how to turn off HTML, write to the Admins at
                     and we'll explain how to do it.


                   Return to front page