FAQ

What is a discussion list?

A discussion list is a facility whereby people with a shared interest can discuss/share thoughts about that topic. You will need an Internet account and a valid e-mail address and once subscribed you will receive a copy of every message sent to the discussion list as will every other member of the list. If you wish to join in the discussion simply use the 'reply' function of your mail reader and your message too will go to everyone on the list.To start a new discussion topic choose a descriptive subject line (this is important as not all messages will be read by everyone and your subject line is the only way people will know the topic under discussion) and send the message to emis-list@emisnug.org.uk

How do I subscribe to this e-mail list?

To subscribe to any of the NUG lists, simply fill in the online forms. You can find at: EMIS list GV-PCS list Community list

How do I unsubscribe from the e-mail list?

To unsubscribe from any of the lists use the same form as in the question above. You will need to use the password you chose at the time you subscribed to the list (or the one supplied to you if you did not choose one yourself) to unsubscribe yourself. If you do not remember your password you can request the password to be emailed to you using the above form.

Is there an archive of messages sent to the list?

The online forum (see forum page-hotlink here) can be used as an archive, all messages are retained to their and are searchable. The forum can be found here.

Who can join the list? 

The list is open to anyone who wishes to join. No-one is barred from joining and although the list is set up to discuss EMIS and EMIS related topics you do not need to be an EMIS user to take part. Neither do you need to be a member of the EMIS National User Group. This means the list is a public forum and therefore a sensitive, privileged or patient specific information should not be posted on it.

Useful subject lines

Always use the subject line. It should be brief (as some mail readers will truncate a long line) but does not need to be a complete sentence. It should accurately describe the contents of the message. If a particular subject gets a lot of replies sometimes the actual topic of the message drifts. In this case it is useful to change the subject line in reply although this is not without its problems as sometimes the conversation will then continue in two separate places.For time-critical messages, adding "URGENT" to the subject line is a good idea as this is likely to ensure the mail is read swiftly and not left until a later date. Subject: URGENT: comment needed Some subject lines are best avoided e.g. Subject: information This gave me very little clue as to what the person wanted to know about and may delay the message being read.For the EMIS-list there are certain reservered words as the first word of your subject or message. In order to post to all of the members of this list you can not use the following words: join, sub, subscribe, leave, sub, unsubscribe, status, set, put, dir, get, list, digest, suspend, and resume.

Quoting Documents

If you are referring to previous email, you should explicitly quote that document to provide context.Instead of sending an email that says: Yes   Say: > I'll be at Thursdays meeting > Are you coming too?Yes   The ">" here is a relatively standard convention for quoting someone else's words. There are times however when you must guard against providing too much context. You shouldn't have to wade through masses of extraneous stuff to get to the meat of the message. You should include just enough to provide a context for the message and no more. If large amounts of text are removed there is a loosely help convention of replacing it with to show text has been cut out.

Emphasis

If you want to give something emphasis, you should enclose it in asterisks (or capitalise it). This is the email equivalent of italics in a paper document.Instead of: I said that I was going to go last Thursday. Say: I *said* that I was going to go last Thursday. Or: I said that I was going to to go last *Thursday*.

Attachments

Attachments are not allowed on the discussion lists.

How long has the group existed?

The group has been in existence since 1997. It was initially run by Tim Walter from home on a dial-up Internet account, however the list grew from strength to strength (getting to 577 members) which put considerable strain on this approach and in June 1999 moved to a permanent Internet connection based at the University of Newcastle. It is now hosted on an internet based server.

Is it moderated?

No. There are no plans to moderate the group. That is to say no editing takes place or selection of the messages posted to the list.

Do EMIS listen in?

Several members of EMIS are known to listen into the list but their reply cannot be guaranteed so although you can ask specific questions do not necessarily expect any answers.

Can I record bugs to the list?

Sharing the experience of bugs and ways to work around them is one of the prime reasons for the existence of the list but it is not a forum for bugs to be reported to EMIS. As always any bugs should be reported directly to the help desk.HOWEVER, if your do post to the list EMIS have made it known they do listen in and if you include your site number may pick up on the problem.

TLA's and other email conventions

The original email community were poor typists (Who isn't?), and lazy therefore many acronyms grew up for convenience. Some of the common ones are below:

• AFAIK - As far as I know
• BTW - By the way
• FWIW - For what it's worth
• IIRC - If I recall correctly
• IMO - In my opinion
• IMHO - In my humble opinion
• OTOH - On the other hand
• TIA - Thanks in advance
• LOL - laughing out loud AKA also known as GD&R grinning, ducking and running LD&R laughing, ducking and running
• L8R - Later
• ROFL - Rolling on the floor laughing
• RTFM - Read the F***ing (?friendly) Manual TIC tongue in cheek
• TTFN - Ta ta for Now
• YMMV - Your milage may vary (i.e. you may disagree)

Smileys

Email is a more conversational type of communication than written communication. However, because of the lack of vocal inflection, gestures, email is not as rich a communication method as a face-to-face or telephone conversation. Your correspondent may have difficulty telling if you are serious or kidding, happy or sad, frustrated or euphoric. (Sarcasm is particularly dangerous to use in email.) Thankfully there are some ways round this:A facial gesture can be represented with a "smiley": an ASCII drawing of an facial expression. Some common ones are:

• :-) - A smile
• ;-) - A wink
• :-( - Sadness or disappointment
• :-o - Shock or surprise
• :-x - Speechless

(To understand these symbols, turn your head counter-clockwise and look at them sideways.) While people will have slightly different interpretations of the exact difference between the upper two, my personal opinion is that the upper one means more "I'm happy/smiling" and the lower one means more "I'm kidding".

What is the policy about selling products or services on the list?

The list is not to be used to advertising products to other members of this discussion list. If the answer to a message query involves the recommendation of commercially available software this is acceptable but we would prefer the prices were not discussed and people should not be recommending their own for their company's commercial products. Any further correspondence regarding services or products should be conducted privately, not on the list.