Listserv & USENET Policies

This CS 1704 ListServ is activated at the beginning of the term, 'CS1704_<CRN#>@listserv.vt.edu'. An initial message will be sent to all students once the listserv is active.

The listserv will be used by the instructor(s) for announcements. Students may NOT post messages to the listserv. Students should use the CS 1704 Web Discussion Board or Chat Room for peer communication.

Students whose email address generates a listserv error for non-delivery will be automatically deleted from the listserv. Delivery errors are typically generated for one of several reasons:

Students who have forwarded their Va Tech email to another email server. If the server is not reliable and available 24 hours a day students will be automatically deleted.
Students who have not activated the Va Tech PIDs.
Students who have forwarded their VT email to a non-existant server or to other people.

If you wish to be removed from this list send a message to "listserv@listserv.vt.edu " with no subject, no message signature and no attachments. In the body of the message place ONLY the one following line:

SIGNOFF CS1704_<CRN#> (replace the <CRN#> with the current term/section CRN number.

If you have problems removing yourself with the above command, send the same execpt execpt in the body place the command: "UNSUBSCRIBE CS1704_<CRN#>" instead of the signoff command.

If you request removal be aware that you may miss important course announcements and information. (Not all announcements made to the listserv will also be posted to the course Web site announcements page.) Students removed from the listserv bear the responsibility of keeping up with all course information.

If you need to be added to the listserv after it has been activated send a message to the GTA, with no subject, no message signature and no attachments. In the body of the message place ONLY the one following line:

add CS1704_<CRN#> <YOUR-PID>@vt.edu first name last name

Replace the text "<YOUR-PID>" with your own PID, followed by your first and last name.

Filtering Listserv Email Messages

You may wish to 'filter' the email messages from the CS 1704 listserv. By filtering the messages, you can instruct your email client program to automatically store the messages in a mailbox or folder separate from your default 'in'/received mailbox or folder. This will prevent the listserv messages from cluttering up your regular email.

Information on how to filter messages, (i.e., configuring Eudora to automatically transfer messages to a specfic mailbox), is described in detail in the Eudora manuals. The EudoraLite manuals in PDF format can be downloaded free from the Eudora Web site.

The brief description below describes how to filter messages for the listserv in Eudora.

Step 1: Select the Mailbox menu and the New... option. In the dialog box enter a name for your CS 1704 listserv mailbox, (e.g., "CS 1704 Listserv").

Step 2: Select the Filters option from the Tools menu.

Using the Filters dialog window, do the following.

In the Match section of the dialog window, check the Incoming and Outgoing checkboxes. Select the "To:" option from the first "Header:" popup menu. Immediately below the "Header:" popup menu, make sure the "contains" options is selected and in the corresponding text entry box type "CS1704_<CRN#>@listserv.vt.edu" In the following conjunction popup menu, select the "or" option. Then in the second "Header:" popup menu, select the "From:" option. Complete the following popup menu and text entry box the same as above, (i.e., "contains", "CS1704_<CRN#>@listserv.vt.edu").

In the Action section of the Filters dialog window, select the "Transfer To" option from the first popup menu. This will cause a button to appear to the right. Click on the button and select the mailbox that you created in step 1 above. Close the Filters dialog window and save the changes to your filters.

This will automatically transfer all messages from the CS 1704 listserv to the created mailbox. In order to read and respond to messages from the listerv you will need to open the mailbox, (select it from the mailbox menu) and work with messages in it in the same manner as your inbox.

Filtering in other email client programs is similar to the method described above. Students using a email client other than Eudora will need to consult their program's manuals or online help to determine the exact filtering setup procedure.