Morris Dancing Discussion List : MDDL

Welcome!

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The Morris Dancing Discussion List (MDDL) is an unmoderated listserv-based discussion group devoted to discussions, debates, and rants on all things Morris, including: Cotswold, Border, Garland, Northwest, etc.; Sword Dancing, both Long Sword and Short Sword (Rapper); Mumming, Mumming plays and other ritual drama; Molly Dancing, Abbots Bromley, Plough Dancing; winter festivals such as Wassailing, Caroling and Twelfth Night; May Day celebrations, including May Poles and other rural festivities; and anything else we can think of that might be even the slightest bit Morris related. Beer and pubs are discussed fairly often for some reason, as are singing, tune trading, the merits of various musical instruments... (you get the idea).

The listowners are: Jim Morgan (Bloomington Quarry Morris) / morganjj@gmail.com and Tom Keays (Binghamton Morris Men) / Contact Tom

How to Subscribe

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Subscription commands are invoked by sending email to:
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with either of the following in the text block of
the message:

subscribe morris Your-Name (Your-Team-Name)
unsubscribe morris

Subscribing

To participate in the MORRIS list, you first have to subscribe to it. Do NOT do this by sending email to MORRIS@ILISTSERV.UPUI.EDU.

Instead, use the LISTSERV "subscription agent".
This is done by sending email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying something like: subscribe morris Your-Name (Your-Team-Name)

For example: subscribe morris Cecil Blunt (Sharp Stick Morris)

Once you have done this, the LISTSERV will email you a confirmation code that you MUST reply to before you will be able to send and receive mail to and from the MORRIS list.

Unsubscribing

To unsubscribe from the list, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying unsubscribe morris

This will remove your name from the list and will require that you subscribe again before you can receive morris mail again.

Sending Mail

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To send mail to all the other subscribers on the MDDL list, address it to MORRIS@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU (not LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU, ok?).

It is considered good form to include a Subject: line since most mail programs display that information if it is available. In addition, if you receive your mail in digest format, the index of the day's email is created from the Subject: line. If possible, make your subjects meaningful; "MORRIS Digest - May 12 to May 13" is not terribly helpful.

Flame wars are fairly infrequent on the MDDL, although some of the discussions shed considerably more heat than light. Be considerate. Remember, somewhere, someday, you may be dancing across someone you flamed and s/he may have a long memory and a longer stick. Personal attacks on the list are straight out and will be dealt with promptly: once warned, twice removed.

Queries for List Information

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The LISTSERV software allows you to see who is subscribed to the MORRIS list and also to check your own settings (i.e., are you set to receive mail, digests, nomail, etc.)

List information can be obtained by sending email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with any of the following in the text block of the message:

query morris
review morris
set morris conceal | noconceal

You can issue multiple commands in a single email as long as they each appear on separate lines.

If your mailing program appends a signature file onto your email, you might want to get into the habit of including an: end command at the end of your message (before the signature though) so the listserv program will ignor it. This is also true for the "subscribe", "unsubscribe", and various "set morris" commands described in previous sections.

Query

The "query" or "q" command may be used at anytime to check your various mail settings, including all the possible permutations of the mail, mime, repro, and ack commands.

Invoke it in the usual manner by sending email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying: q morris

Results will be emailed back to you.

Reviewing Mail Settings

The "rev" or REVIEW command provides directory information for the MDDL, listing names and email addresses of all non-concealed subscribers. Only current subscribers are privy to this information -- i.e., only current subscribers receive the directory listings. Non-subscribers will not be able to access it until they actually subscribe.

Invoke it in the usual manner by sending email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying rev morris

Results will be emailed back to you.

Changing Directory Settings

This command affects the function of the rev morris command. There are two possible settings: conceal, noconceal.

Conceal

To conceal your name as a current subscriber of the MDDL. Your name and email address will be suppressed when any current MDDL subscriber issues a rev morris command to see who is subscribed to the list.

To suppress your directory listing, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris conceal

NoConceal

This is the default condition. Your name and email address will be displayed when the rev morris command is issued.

Only MDDL subscribers can get this directory information with the rev command.

To display your directory listing, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris noconceal

Listserv Mail Settings

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Mail setting commands are invoked by sending email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with any of the following in the text block of the message:

set morris nomail | mail | digest
set morris subj | nosubj
set morris mime | nomime
set morris repro | norepro
set morris ack | noack

Confirmation of your current settings will be emailed to you each time you issue one of these commands.

In addition, note that your own settings may be checked at anytime by issuing a query morris command.

Changing Mail Settings

Sometimes you may want to change how often you receive MORRIS email. There are three possible settings: nomail, mail, or digest.

NoMail

Use the nomail command when you want to temporarily shut off your MORRIS email. This is easier than unsubscribing and later resubscribing.

As always, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris nomail

To turn your mail back on, use the mail or digest commands.

Mail

This is the default setting when you first subscribe to the MORRIS list. Use it to turn your mail back on after issuing a nomail command or to turn off a digest command.

Send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris mail

Once you use the mail command, you should begin receiving individual MORRIS email in "real-time".

Digest

If you find the number of email messages from MORRIS is greater than you are comfortable with, consider the digest option rather than unsubscribing. Once invoked, you will receive all the previous day's messages in a single indexed email message.

Send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris digest

To turn off the digest, use the mail command.

Subject Setting

Some mail programs (such as Gmail) allow you to filter your email messages based on content in the header of the messages, such as "To: MORRIS@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU". Many, however, have no filtering functionality. The subj command allows you to identify, by a prefix in the subject field, that a message originates with the MORRIS listserv. The nosubj command turns it off.

Subj

This command will change your subscription options so that every message you get from the MORRIS listserv has a subject starting with [MDDL].

Send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris subj

Nosubj

This is the default setting. It will turn off the [MDDL] prefix in the subject lines.

Send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris nosubj

Changing Mime Settings

MIME is an extension of usual mail handling that allows you to "attach" specially formatted objects to a piece of email. Common examples include attaching word processing documents, graphics, sounds, etc. It is pretty useless for listservs since many listserv users don't have mail programs that understand MIME.

With one exception: digests. If you have set digest on, the mime command may be for you. Read on. There are two possible settings: mime, nomime.

Mime

The mime command is really only useful when used in conjunction with the digest command. It assumes that you have a mail program capable of reading mime-formatted digests. If you don't know, don't use it.

As always, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris mime

A mime formatted digest acts very much like a folder of individual messages -- i.e., the digest is just a wrapper containing the previous day's messages. The first message in the "folder" contains the table of contents for that day's digest; the second message contains the first email in the digest; the third message the second email; and so on to the end of the digest.

The advantage is that you only have to read those emails that look interesting. (My mime mail handler lets me see the subject of the messages in each "folder". I can't promise that yours will do the same; you'll have to work that out on your own. Sorry!) Furthermore, you can reply directly to the email in that "folder"; sender and subject information is preserved unlike a nomime digest. Another advantage is that in some mail programs you can sort the messages by sender, subject or date.

The disadvantage is that you may have to close each message before going on to the next (again, milage may vary) and I've not been able to figure out to print the whole digest. But, then again, I seldom need to do this.

NoMime

To turn mime off again, issue a nomime command in the usual way:

set morris nomime

Changing Mail Reproduction Settings

No, mail reproduction is not a sexual curiousity. [Just checking to see if anyone had read this far.]

It simply means that if it is set on, any message you send to the MDDL, will be rebroadcasted back you. If it is set off, your own messages to the MDDL will not be rebroadcasted back to you. By default it is off. There are two possible settings: repro, norepro.

Repro

Use the repro command when you want a "complementary copy" of each message you send to the MDDL, sent to yourself as well. This command is useful if your mail program doesn't automatically save your sent messages.

The usual procedures apply, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris repro

NoRepro

Use the norepro command to turn off "complementary copies" of messages you send to the MDDL. This is the default condition since most mail programs automatically save your sent messages.

Send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris norepro

Changing Mail Acknowledgement Settings

The LISTSERV can be set to email you acknowledgement of the success it had in broadcasting your postings to the MDDL. There are two possible settings: ack, noack.

Ack

Use the ack command when you want to receive acknowledgement of the successful broadcast of each message you send to the MDDL. This command might be helpful to your peace of mind if you have have repro set off, but (IMHO) it falls in the category of mostly useless. By default it is set off.

The usual procedures apply, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris ack

NoAck

Use the noack command when don't need to receive acknowledgement of each message you send to the MDDL. By default it is set off.

The usual procedures apply, send email to: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with a line of text saying set morris noack

Using the Listserv Web Form

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Actually, it may be slightly easier to subscribe using regular email but there is a form on the listserv website that will allow you to sign up and change your settings. The first step is to register your email and assign a password.

First, go to the listserv homepage get a new LISTSERV password. You only have to do this once (or do it a second time in the event you have forgotten the old one). Submitting this form requires that you are actually able to read the email account you are trying to set up using the listserv form. Your new password isn't registered until you reply to the confirmation email.

Subscribing or Changing Your Listserv Settings

Once you are registered, go to the "subscriber's corner" to change your settings for the listserv.

Listserv Online Archives

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Archives for the Morris Dancing Discussion Listserv began on April 10, 1995, coinciding with the date that the MDDL was set up at IUPUI.EDU - Indiana University / Purdue University at Indianapolis. (For history buffs, MDDL lived from October 1988 to April 10, 1995 at Syracuse University, but no archives were maintained at that site.)

https://listserv.iupui.edu/archives/morris.html

The archive software includes a facility for searching the entire archive, and if you prefer to browse through the monthly files, it allows you to sort the month by author, subject or date. The archive has detailed help in using the search engine.