A UK based group promoting interest in the application of electronics (including computers) to all aspects of railway modelling

Mailing List
This page updated 25/6/07

Contents

• The Mailing List is available only to subscribing members of the Model Electronic Railway Group.
  
• The Mailing List provides a forum for MERG members to correspond over the Internet on matters relating to the application of electronics (including computers) to all aspects of railway modelling, and other affairs relating to the Group.
  
• Discussion of other related railway and modelling matters is also allowed, but may be curtailed by the List Manager if the discussion gets too far off topic.  See also the etiquette section below.

• The List Owner is the Model Electronic Railway Group who cannot be held liable for the accuracy of any information published on the Mailing List. Any such liability is the responsibility of the member publishing the information.

• List members may choose to receive mail as individual postings, or alternatively as a Digest received once per day comprising all the individual postings during the preceding 24 hour period or they may choose to look at the messages on line through the yahoo groups website. The  website gives list members access to the message archive, to a files area where computer files can be uploaded to make them available to everyone on the list, and to a calender which can be used to provide automatic reminders of coming events. Many of the MERG technical bulletins can be downloaded from the files.

• To prevent the List being ‘spammed’ by unwanted advertising or malicious postings, Joining the List can only be actioned by the List Manager upon request.
• MERG members wishing to Join the List, should use the following form.

• New members on joining the Mailing List receive a welcome message. Full details of the list operation can be found on the Yahoo groups website. It is also possible to subscribe, unsubscribe  and to read and post messages via the site. 
  
• The MERG Mailing List is operated by an automated system that allows members to:
  • post messages to all other list members;
  • configure the way they receive messages;
  • retrieve files from a list archive;
  • unsubscribe from the mailing list.
    
• The List is located at groups.yahoo.com, as a freeservice we have to put up with a limited amount of advertising tagged onto the messages.

• To post a message to the List, prepare your message and e-mail it to:

merg@yahoogroups.com

• Your message will be distributed to all List members including yourself, thus confirming that your message has been received and distributed. Note that you must subscribe before posting, the list is members only.

• Please use a subject heading that clearly summarises the message content. Many users selectively read e-mail on the basis of the subject heading alone, deleting other messages without reading them.
• Messages should attempt to add some value to the group discussion.
• Edit messages to which you are replying to a sensible minimum, just sufficient to preserve the context is the ideal. On the other hand messages that give no indication of the context may be difficult to understand.
• Appending a signature is useful as headers may not include your full name. Please do not use large ASCII art signatures.
• File attachments, such as pictures, should not be sent to the list (and will be deleted automatically) but should be offered for direct e-mail on request or, better, posted to the list files area on the group site where they can be retrieved by those interested. When posting files please include a meaningful description as your file name itself may not mean much to other members.
• Many members have compatibility problems if mail is sent in formats other than plain text. List members are requested to be considerate and to ensure that their mailing software is set to post messages in plain text only. Microsoft Outlook Express is a particular culprit here as it defaults to sending in html format.  To change this open the tools menu, select 'options' then the 'send' tab, under "Sending" remove the tick from 'Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent' (this stops you inadvertently compounding others' mistakes), under "Mail sending format" select 'Plain text' then open 'Plain text settings' and set Autowrap to 70 characters and tick the box to indent quotes.
• If you wish to continue a discussion that has wandered off topic, or is likely to be of interest to one user only, please e-mail them directly rather than through the whole List.
• It should be noted that this list is not censored or moderated, neither MERG, nor Yahoo, not the list manager take any responsibility for the content of messages, that responsibility rests solely with the author.
• Should you get involved in any personal disputes they should be taken off list.
• Note that commercial advertising violates the Yahoo terms of service (they expect to get paid for it!) so those members who operate on topic businesses should avoid excessive pushing of their products. Off topic advertising is not acceptable.
• The list manager reserves the right to moderate or ban at his sole discretion anyone who does not keep to these rules.