Subject: Welcome to AZTLAN WELCOME! This is your AZTLAN Introduction Please read all of it whether you are a new subscriber or one who has been with us for a time. There are some new guidelines and a few new features. Messages address: aztlan@listserv.louisville.edu Commands address: listserv@listserv.louisville.edu anonymous ftp address: ftp.louisville.edu /pub/it/listfiles/aztlan AZTLAN is open to all persons interested in Pre-Columbian cultures, whether amateurs or professionals. You are encouraged to participate in all discussion areas of your interest, in a manner consistent with your level of knowledge in each area. If you run into difficulties: 1. Consult a local network whiz. 2. Contact the list owner, Jim Cocks (jacock01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu) A local contact is usually preferable because each site has a unique combination of hardware and software. ******************** AZTLAN RESOURCES You can immediately get some collections of information which you may find very interesting and valuable. Simply send any one of the follow- ing message (commands are written in capital letters for ease of read- ing, you can type them any way you want) to the Commands address noted above (not to the Messages address). You can also retrieve these files from the anonymous ftp server listed above. GET AZTLAN WELCOME (This message) GET AZTLAN TOPICS (A list of the valid topics.) GET AZTLAN FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions.) GET AZTLAN CALENDAR (A list of meetings for the year.) GET AZTLAN JOURNALS (How to subscribe to them) GET AZTLAN WWWPAGES (A list of World Wide Web addresses for PreColumbianites) You can also anonymous ftp this file from: ftp.louisville.edu /pub/it/listfiles/aztlan/aztlan.wwwpages Currently this file is a little over 11K. Here are 5 very good sites to get started with: http://spirit.lib.uconn.edu/archaeology.html http://copan.bioz.unibas.ch/meso.html http://www.cc.ukans.edu/~hoopes/aztlan/ or its European mirror site: http://www.tlm.upna.es/Aztlan/aztlan.html http://www.halfmoon.org http://www.netaxs.com/~bampolsk/maya.html At any time, to find out which of these or other files are available, simply send the email command: INDEX AZTLAN to the Commands address given above. ******************** You can immediately decide which Topic areas you are interested in, where you wish to receive messages from other members, and which Topic areas you do no wish to receive. When you first subscribe, you receive every thing. You can change this decision at any time. For this purpose, please see the commands near the end of this message of the type SET AZTLAN TOPICS. You are encouraged to participate. Good ideas may come equally from amateur and professionals, and from people also in fields where they are not specialists. Be considerate of others in all ways. Please think always of the interests of the READERS as primary, more important than the interests of the authors of messages. Aztlan is here to open doors to interested people of all kinds to learn and exchange ideas and factual information. It is not for totally wild speculation or soapbox oratory or those with axes to grind. With such wide range of interests and areas of special knowledge under one roof, we must constantly balance interests to get the best results for everyone. ******************** THE AREAS OF AZTLAN: There is one area for discussions ("CHAT") on all subjects. For this area, the only rules are that participants must be gracious and polite to each other at all times (no insults or "flame wars") and must not deluge Aztlan with irrelevant materials. All Pre-Columbian subjects are appropriate in this area. Posting messages to this area requires no special kind of title for the messages. There are other areas for discussions of particular "Topics" (see the list below). For these areas, there are a few additional rules. Messages must be relevant to the particular topic. The quality of information and analysis in messages posted to particular Topics should in general be higher than is expected in the "CHAT" area. Try very hard to avoid unnecessary messages, to keep the "noise" level down, so the really good messages with lots of facts and good analysis will not get lost in an enormous volume of less well-considered words. Basic analytical thinking abilities are assumed in these "Topic" areas. You can learn how professionals reason in each Topic by listening in. Get to know other members of Aztlan by corresponding privately with them, what is called "off-list". Sending messages to these areas requires that you title your message in special ways (see below). ******************** QUESTIONS: You can ask questions whenever you want to. You can ask them of any individual whose message you read by sending the question to that individual alone. Using the "Reply" button in your email program will normally send a message back only to the single author. If you want to ask a question to all the people subscribed to a particular topic area, then a little more care is appropriate, to be gracious to others Even professionals specializing in one field may not understand the forms of evidence or reasoning used in a different field, so all of us can ask Questions. As the first sentence of your Question message, you should in most cases put the following (unless the Question is part of a larger discussion in which many members are already participating and clearly interested): "Please respond only to the author of this question, not to the Topic as a whole." Also, put a "Q" as the beginning of your message title (but AFTER the topic label, the colon, and the space), and a question mark at the end. For example, to ask a question to the MA (Mayan) topic, your would begin your message: MA: Q and your title might be for example MA: Q Date of earliest contacts in Yucatan? When you do this, readers of messages instantly know what kind of a message this is. Even when the sender of an original message did not specifically request an individual reply, an individual reply is often more approp- riate than a reply to the Aztlan list. It is sometimes appropriate to post a SUMMARY of the responses received to a question. When it is, getting several responses to a single question group in a single summary is more organized, efficient, and useful to receivers than receiving each response separately on the list. ******************** ANNOUNCEMENTS, RESOURCES, AND WORLD WIDE WEB PAGES There are many events such as lectures and meetings, and many resources on the WWW and elsewhere, which are of interest to some Aztlan members. When there are substantial such announcements, updates of new web pages or articles in archives, the information where they are available should be posted to the appropriate Topic area (see below) where their content is most appropriate. If the announcement contains multiple items relative to different topic areas, it should probably be divided into two or more announcements, each sent selectively to its most appropriate Topic. Very minor updates should probably not be announced in this way, because they are better handled by the new feature described next: AZTLAN RESOURCES There is a new feature on AZTLAN. It gives our subscribers and others access to the most up-to-date information of several kinds. One of the benefits is that information on minor changes in these resources need not be posted to Aztlan itself, because it is always very easily available to those inquiring. Another benefit is that information on organizations and journals will always be available, publicizing them. The instructions for getting these resources were given near the begin- ning of this Welcome message. Anyone with an information resource they would like listed here should contact the list owner Jim Cocks. Aztlan will provide some information directly, but for many kinds of information it is more efficient to refer subscribers to the World Wide Web, since web pages may be updated frequently at no effort to us. ******************** PREPARATION IN PRIVATE OFF-LIST Many discussions are best prepared between a few individuals off-list, before the refined results are sent as a message to all the subscribers to a particular Topic area. You can often begin such preparations by sending a message to the Topic area saying something like: "Anyone interested in the following please get in touch with the author at the author's email address", then giving your email address, and stating the project you want to converse about. ******************** CHOOSE MESSAGE TITLES CAREFULLY; AVOID DUPLICATION; BE BRIEF There are some simple but very important rules for this. Do not quote back entire messages. Your message title, if you choose it very carefully, should usually by itself be enough for readers to know the connection or your message to a previous discussion. Also, by being careful to choose your title, you will signal readers how you may be shifting the discussion to a new focus, on what was before merely a tangent. (Do not simply "reply" with an automatic title when your message is no longer on the same topic.) When you must quote from a preceding message to make the connection obvious, quote only the smal- lest portion which will do that. Be careful of discussions which go off on tangents which should be shifted from a Topic area to the general "chat" area, or which should no longer be on the Aztlan list at all, but should continue only in private. Message authors (who know the content of their own messages) are strongly encouraged to clearly label their messages. It is much easier for them to do so then for the receivers to guess what a message is about. If you send a message with errors, do NOT send the same message again unless it is exceedingly short (a few lines only). Rather, send only small corrected sections. If you send a message to the wrong Topic, you normally should not send it again to a different topic, as you will be sending unwanted duplicates to those who are subscribed to both topics. Accept that you made a mistake. Keep your messages as short as possible for their content, to conserve demands on attention (the electronic equivalent of sorting through piles of incoming junk mail, whether commercial or non-profit, to find the things we really want). ******************** ACCEPT HELP FROM OTHERS, and GIVE HELP when you can We encourage all members to help each other, both to be more effective and to be more gracious on Aztlan. It is up to all of us to encourage this; it is not the job of the list owner. Make suggestions to other members privately, so as not to embarrass them unnecessarily. An easy way is simply to point them to the relevant part of this Welcome message. Any member who privately suggests that you could be following better one of these or similar guidelines is doing you a big favor. THANK them, because it will enable you to be more courteous to others. Another kind of help can be given to anyone new to a field, helping them to ask questions or make statements which will be more likely to get favorable attention from specialists in that field. Be as generous with your help as you can. It builds a stronger community for all of us. Be tolerant of newcomers. We were all new to this once. ******************** "FLAMES" This term refers to attacks and more generally to language which is less tactful than the same persons would use in personal face-to-face conversation. This is always to be avoided, since the original message may have been misunderstood and the reply almost certainly will be. We are all in this together, doing the best we can. None of us have absolutely certain knowledge about anything. Remember: there is a real person on the other end, and in addition to being careful with their feelings, it is a downer for the rest of the audience to have to listen to angry words. You are responsible for what you write. It is extremely easy to save any message an to forward it electronically to another list tomorrow or in 10 years. CROSS-POSTING Before posting a message from one list to another, the permission of the originator of the message is of course required. Until you have actually obtained such permission, do not cross-post. ******************** TOPIC AREAS in AZTLAN The current Topic areas are the following, with their two-letter abbreviations which you will use in posting messages to them. Some suggestions, based on experience, are included on where to send messages which do not perfectly fit the one-word name of the Topic. The short name of the Topic may be merely the most obvious or well-known example of its culture area. But what each Topic area covers is in the long run determined by the participants themselves, so these suggestions can easily become out of date. Use common sense, or observe what others are doing and try to maintain consistency with them. Below the list is are instructions how to post to a particular topic. Culture areas: AZ: Aztec (including other Postclassic Central Mexico) MA: Maya OA: Oaxaca (Zapotec, Mixtec, etc.) ME: Mesoamerican (ME can cover other Mesoamerican cultures without their own separate Topics: the Olmec, the PreClassic, Teotihuacan, southern borderlands of Greater Nicoya, and northern Mexico to Pueblo SWest of the USA. ME can also cover subjects which affect all or a very substantial portion of the Mesoamerican culture area. ME is definitely NOT a bag for "everything else".) AN: Andean cultures (Chavin, Chimu, Inka, Moche, Paracas, etc.) (These are its focus, but including also the so-called "Intermediate Area" of the Chibchan peoples, from Venezuela and Columbia to Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua). Amazonia can go here, or in AR or PO if they fit better. NO: North America, including the Moundbuilders, the Southeast, the Northwest Coast, the Great Plains, and can also include interactions of the Pueblo Southwest of the USA with Northern or Central Mexico (an alternative to ME). Fields of study: AR: Archaeology, field work, sites, travel to sites AS: Astronomy, calendrics EP: Epigraphy, glyphs, linguistics IC: Iconography, art PO: Population (DNA studies, Epidemiology, Sociology) Others: OT: Other. This is the "CHAT" area, with only minimal rules (see above). Any message which does not have one of the eleven Topic labels noted above will go to this Area. ALL: This Topic is for use only by the List Owner for necessary administrative matters, or with his advance approval for a tiny number of messages which are obviously of interest to all subscribers. Do not send to this topic, and do not reply to this topic, unless you have that approval, as you would be sending messages to some of our members who do not wish to receive them. SENDING MESSAGES TO A PARTICULAR TOPIC AREA To send messages to a particular Topic area, title your messages beginning with one of the two-letter abbreviations shown above, followed immediately by a colon and a space, then the rest of your title. (You can use either uppercase or lowercase or mixed, so AZ or Az or az.) Thus Me: Lightning Serpents Re: Me: Lightning Serpents (if the message is a reply to the preceding title) Under very rare circumstances, a message may be relevant to two different culture areas, or to one culture area and one Field of Study. So message titles like the following are possible. Me,No: Lightning Serpents (if the message discusses connections between the two areas) Ma, Ic: Iconographic changes after the Pre-Classic But even when you think your message is relevant to two Topics, you should still often use ONLY ONE Topic in your message title. Someone interested in both Mayan matters and Iconographic subjects will normally be subscribed to both, so either one alone (whichever you think you message is most focused on) will work. Respect other READERS' choices, more than your own. The address to send messages for distribution to Aztlan members is: aztlan@listserv.louisville.edu NOTE: **************************************************************** This host reserves the right, after fair warning, to restrict the access of anyone whose postings are disruptive, ungermane or illegal. **************************************************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commands affecting the topics you are subscribed to (send to the LISTSERV address: listserv@listserv.louisville.edu not to the AZTLAN message address): When you first subscribe to AZTLAN, you are automatically subscribed to all topics (regard these as separate magazines) and receive all messages. You may want to set your subscription to only receive a few topics. Or you may want to receive nearly all topics, but just omit a few. Here are the two ways to do these things most easily. If you want to receive only a few topics (nothing else), then you simply specify those topics by a list of their abbreviations with spaces between them. Just list the ones you do want. (Do NOT use minus or plus signs -,+. Each command of this type completely cancels the results of any earlier topic choices you made. SET AZTLAN TOPICS: AN SET AZTLAN TOPICS: OA SET AZTLAN TOPICS: ME AZ MA OA SET AZTLAN TOPICS: EP IC and so on. At any time, you can also specify small changes to the set of topics you subscribe to. To do this, you use a minus sign "-" just before the abbreviation of the Topic you wish to stop receiving, and a plus sign "+" just before the abbreviation of the Topics you wish to start receiving. Each command of this type leaves your earlier topic choices unchanged, except the particular item you specify to change. Examples: SET AZTLAN TOPICS: -OT SET AZTLAN TOPICS: -PO +NO SET AZTLAN TOPICS: -OT -NO +AN Do not try to mix the two types of commands. Either use plus and minus sign with each Topic abbreviation (the second type), or do not use any plus or minus signs at all (the first type). QUERY AZTLAN (finds out what magazines (topics) you are subscribed to) GET AZTLAN TOPICS (obtains the current list of possible magazines (topics)) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commands requesting information or turning your mail on and off GET AZTLAN WELCOME (This message) INDEX AZTLAN (Gets a current list of other files and logs you can order. On how to order these, see the beginning of this Welcome.) REVIEW AZTLAN (Gets a list of all current subscribers with their email addresses). SET AZTLAN INDEX Receive a daily list of titles of ALL posted messages, even from Topic are as to which you do not subscribe. There is an "order" form at the bottom of what you receive, so you can ask the Listserv to send you just the messages that you select. SET AZTLAN DIGEST Using this command, all your messages from AZTLAN come as a single mail file once a day rather than as individual messages. SET AZTLAN NOMAIL (Temporarily suspend message receipt) SET AZTLAN MAIL (Resume receiving messages after temporary suspension) SUBSCRIBE AZTLAN first-name last-name (Subscribe) UNSUBSCRIBE AZTLAN (Permanently unsubscribe) Send your commands to the commands address, not the list address, leaving Subject: line blank. Put the commands in the body of your message. Ex. Send to: listserv@listserv.louisville.edu Subject: (leave this blank) (commands go here) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Aztlan list owner is Jim Cocks His email address is jacock01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu