[Last updated on: Wed Jul 30  1:07:50 2003]

Welcome to the Support System mailing list! Please keep this message for 
future reference, as it contains information on subscription and posting 
procedures, as well as the list's guidelines. After reading the following, 
please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

I first started this list in December 1996 as a forum to discuss the life 
and music of Liz Phair and related topics. The list was originally named 
6'1", and I ran it manually until September 1998, when smoe.org graciously 
allowed me to host it on their server. Although the list started with a 
small group of subscribers, we are currently about 600 members strong.

While the list is unmoderated, I hope that all subscribers will observe and 
respect the following guidelines, as they help make the list more enjoyable 
for everyone.

   1. Do not send any binaries to the list. If you have a file you would
      like to share with everyone, let me know and I can post it on the web
      so any interested parties can check it out. The listserve is set up
      not to accept any attachments.

   2. Please keep your subject lines relevant to the content of your posts.

   3. Please do not send any encoded or HTML-style mail to the list. Make
      sure your mailer's preferences are set to "plain text" for any
      messages you're sending to the list.

   4. Please keep quoting to a minimum when responding to posts. Only
      quote the relevant parts you are responding to, rather than the
      entire message. Edit out any parts that are unnecessary, so people
      will not have to scroll through them. Also, please do quote enough
      to give everyone an idea of what it is you are replying to.

   5. Flames are not encouraged and have no place on the list. Feel free
      to disagree with or offer constructive criticism about anything
      that has been posted, but do keep it friendly. Debate and discourse
      are cool; personal attacks are not. The authors of any flames will
      be asked to take the matter to private e-mail to keep it from being
      disruptive to the list.

   6. Off-topic posts are permitted within reason, but please use your
      discretion. Discussion of other bands and artists is usually fine,
      but there are probably more suitable forums for discussion of
      subjects like politics and religion, unless they somehow relate to
      Liz or her work. During the periods where Liz has not toured or
      released new music, the list has continued to thrive because of
      our off-topic discussions; they also provide a way for members to
      get to know one another and discover new music. However, when Liz
      is actively recording or touring, the discussions should be more
      focused on her.

To subscribe to Support System, send a message to <majordomo@smoe.org> with 
"subscribe support-system" in the body of the message. You will then 
receive a confirmation e-mail that you must reply to in order to activate 
your membership.

A digest format is also available for those who may feel overwhelmed by the 
volume of mail generated by the real-time version of the list. Instead of 
receiving each message individually as it is sent to the list, digest 
subscribers receive a single e-mail message daily that compiles all of that 
day's posts. To switch to the digest version of the list, send an e-mail to 
<majordomo@smoe.org> with the following two lines in the body of the message:

   unsubscribe support-system
   subscribe support-system-digest

If you ever need to unsubscribe from the list completely, send an e-mail to 
<majordomo@smoe.org> with "unsubscribe support-system" or "unsubscribe 
support-system-digest" in the body of the message, depending on which 
format of the list you are a member of.

If you ever find that you've involuntarily stopped receiving the list, it 
may be because the list's posts or digests were bouncing back from your 
e-mail address. It is possible that your mailbox was full and unable to 
receive new messages or there was a problem with your mail server. I'll 
usually let things slide for a few days, but after that I'll unsubscribe 
the address that is bouncing the messages, because it creates a lot of 
additional mail in my inbox. Once your e-mail problems have been resolved, 
please feel free to resubscribe to the list following the regular procedures.

If you know you will be unable to check your e-mail for an extended period 
of time, please unsubscribe from the list beforehand. You can always check 
for any messages you've missed by visiting the list's archives at 
[http://www.smoe.org/lists/support-system/].

Now that you are a member, please feel free to send a message to the list 
to introduce yourself -- we'd love to hear from you! You can tell us who 
you are, how you discovered Liz's music, your favorite albums and songs, or 
whatever else you'd like to share.

The mailing list does have a Web site, which is located at 
[http://home.cogeco.ca/~phairist/]. A basic discography, lyrics, news and 
tour dates can be found there, as well as links to a number of other Liz 
Phair sites with more information.

If you have any questions, comments, or require any assistance, you can 
send me a message at <phairist@cogeco.ca> and I will do whatever I can to 
help you.

Jason Long
Support System list maintainer