Guidelines on Content:
You are welcome to post messages on any aspect of ski touring and ski mountaineering. Suitable topics include:

• messages concerning official club business, such as up-coming tours (places available, etc.), meetings, circulars, and so on
• requests for ski partners for a tour you are planning
• questions about touring locations, equipment, etc.
• answers to questions – although you should normally reply directly to the person who posted the message, and ask them to summarize the responses they receive to the list in a single message – see below.
• reports about tours you have undertaken
• equipment wanted or for sale (private sales only)

If you are relatively new to the list, and you are posting a question (e.g., asking advice about equipment), then you should check the archive of previous postings before submitting your message. Perhaps this question has been asked (and answered) recently! – in which case you could contact the sender privately for more information. Instructions for accessing the archives are given further down this FAQ.
    If your message is not about ski touring or ski mountaineering, it probably should not go on the list! There are plenty of other lists devoted to outdoor issues. Please do not forward virus warnings, or any other kind of mass mailing to the list – for more on this, see the information in this FAQ about viruses.
    Please do not post any commercial messages, including messages about topics in which you have a semi-commercial interest. Possible examples include tours you are guiding (as a commercial guide), leftover expedition fundraising merchandise you want to sell, and messages promoting books you have written or films you have produced. If you're in any doubt, email the list manager first. If the topic seems commercial, but of interest to the majority of list members, the list manager will forward it to the list him/herself. A potential grey area is guides wishing to promote tours that are part of the ESC tour programme -- please send such messages to the Touring Secretary (toursec@eagleskiclub.org.uk), who will forward them to the list.
    If you are asking a question (for example about which skis might be best for a given type of tour), it is good practice to invite people to reply to you directly, and offer to post a summary of the replies you receive back to the list. This keeps the number of messages appearing on the list down, but also allows everyone interested in your question to see the replies. If these people are interested in following up the discussion with you they can do so off the list. While this advice does limit the 'interactive' nature of the list somewhat, previous rambling discussions on the list have resulted in complaints from members who were not interested, and has caused some members to leave.
    Don't post anything offensive or defamatory. If you're posting a response to a previous message, take the time to read it through one more time before pressing the 'send' button. Consider the advice in the previous paragraph.
    Some people are in the habit of forwarding messages (e.g., jokes, virus warnings) to everyone in their address book. If you do this, then please ensure that the Eaglenet is not in your address book!

If you are new to the internet, it's definitely worth reading about 'netiquette' (i.e., internet etiquette) before posting to any mailing list. Sites that contain netiquette guides include:
http: //www.albion.com/netiquette
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/netiquette.html

A list of other sites is at:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Etiquette/

Guidelines on Format:
Post only plain text messages
Some email programs (e.g., Outlook) have options to put formatting (e.g., bold type, colours, different fonts) in the message. You should turn these options off when composing messages for the list. (This option is sometimes called 'HTML formatting', as opposed to 'plain text' – the latter option is the one you want.) Why? Some email programs cannot read the formatting commands – instead of looking fancy, it comes out as garbage!

Do not send attachments
There are three reasons for this. Firstly, some email programs cannot read attachments – they just come out as a stream of gobbledygook. Secondly, many people access the Eaglenet via a phone line, and will not want to spend ages downloading an attachment they may not be interested in. Thirdly, attachments may contain viruses. For the above reasons, the list only accepts plain text messages – messages containing formatting code or attachments are bounced back to the sender.
    As an alternative to sending attachments, you can upload files or photos to the Eaglenet web site, and then send an email to the list telling people about them (see Hints and Tips, below).

Use an informative subject line
Messages with subjects such as 'Help!', 'Snow', etc., are unlikely to be taken seriously, and may be deleted without being read by the more busy list members. Examples of informative subject lines include 'Wanted: Partners for tour in Cairngorms, 17–19 Jan', 'Altimeter advice wanted', 'Minutes of AGM, 5 Nov', 'For sale: Fisher 99 nordic skis'.

Let's begin by defining a few terms:

Eaglenet email address
When you signed up for Eaglenet, you gave your email address. This is the address to which messages are sent. We'll call this your 'Eaglenet email address'. For example, the email address of a (fictitious) Eaglenet member is john.telemarker@hotmail.com

Eaglenet email password
This is the password you use to access your email. John's password with Hotmail is 'crank9turns'

Yahoo ID
To access the web site, you need a 'Yahoo ID'. This is an account with the internet company Yahoo, who host Eaglenet. Among other things, a Yahoo ID gives you a Yahoo email account, and some people may choose to use this as their Eaglenet email address. John Telemarker chooses not to – he wants his Eaglenet emails sent to john.telemarker@hotmail.com. Nevertheless, to access Eaglenet on the web, he needs a Yahoo ID, so he signs up under the ID johntelemarker. (The sign-up process is described below.)

Yahoo password
For security, John decides not to use his Hotmail password when signing up for a Yahoo ID. Instead, he chooses 'hope1this1works'

Alternate email address
When you sign up for a Yahoo ID, you are asked for an 'alternate email address'. This address is used, for example, to send password information if you forget your password. You can enter any email here, but John decides to use his hotmail address: john.telemarker@hotmail.com

Verifying an email address
This is the term Yahoo use for the process of checking that an email address you give is a real address -- a way of checking that you are a genuine person and not intent on using the group for inappropriate reasons. You have to go through the verification process as part of linking your YahooID to your Eaglenet email address.

Getting a Yahoo ID
These instructions assume that you don't already have a Yahoo ID. If you do, skip to the next section.

In your web browser, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Eaglenet

About 1/3 of the way down your screen, there should be a line that says 'Welcome, Guest' (above the word 'Eaglenet'). On the right hand-side of that line, it says 'Register' and 'Sign in'. Click on the word 'Register'.

You will now have a form to fill in. Give the required information, and press the button at the bottom to submit the form. You will need to come up with a password for your Yahoo ID – this is your Yahoo password. (In our example, above, John Telemarker chooses the Yahoo ID johntelemarker, and the password 'hope1this1works'.) You are also asked for an alternate email address (see definitions, above).

Once your ID information has been accepted, and your new account set up, you'll be able to click on a button that says something like 'Continue to My Yahoo!'

You now need to link your new Yahoo ID with your Eaglenet email address – see next section.

Linking your Yahoo ID to your Eaglenet email address
These instructions assume that you have a Yahoo ID already. If not, see the above section. We also assume that you are already a member of Eaglenet, and so have an Eaglenet email address. (If you're using your Yahoo ID as your Eaglenet email address, then you can almost certainly skip this section, as the link should be made automatically.)

In your web browser, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Eaglenet

About 1/3 of the way down your screen, there should be a line that says 'Welcome', and then your YahooID (e.g., 'Welcome, johntelemarker'). If not, click on 'Sign in', and give your YahooID and password.

Now, below the Welcome message, it should say 'Already a member?' and a link that says 'Find your membership'. Click on this link.

You are now taken to a page called 'Checking for subscriptions'. Here, you have to enter and 'verify' your Eaglenet email address. If your alternate email address and your Eaglenet email address are the same (as they are for John Telemarker), then you just have to 'verify' this address. Make sure that your Eaglenet email address is entered, and then click on the 'verify' link beside the address.

You are then sent an email message by Yahoo. Check your email (the account for your Eaglenet email address) and it should contain a message from Yahoo. In that message is a link that you click on to take you to an 'Email verification' web page where you have to re-enter your Yahoo!ID and password.

That's it, your're done! You can now sign in using the instructions below.

Accessing the Eaglenet web site once you have a Yahoo ID and have linked it to your Eaglenet email address
These instructions assume that you have a Yahoo ID and have linked it to your Eaglenet email address (see above). Then, all you need to do is go to the web site; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Eaglenet

About 1/3 of the way down, it will say 'Welcome'. If it says 'Welcome, Guest' then you need to sign in – click on words 'sign-in' on the right hand side, and enter your Yahoo ID and Yahoo password. (In our example, this is 'johntelemarker' and 'hope1this1works'.) You can tick a box to tell Yahoo to automatically sign you in next time, although you should do this only if you are the only person that uses your computer (otherwise other people will have access to your Yahoo account).

Summary:

• Eaglenet cannot be used to spread viruses, because it has been set to forward only plain text messages. However, some recent viruses can fake the 'From' part of a message so that they appear to come from the Eaglenet. As a general rule, if a message appears to come from Eaglenet and it contains an attachment, then it is certainly not a genuine message and should be deleted without being read.

• It is possible for people to forward hoax virus warnings to the list. A hoax virus warning is a message warning you about a virus threat that is not real, and usually encoraging you to take inappropriate action, such as deleting a system file or forwarding the message to everyone you know. Please don't forward any virus warnings (or indeed any non-skiing related messages) to the list. See the guidelines for posting for more information.

• Make sure you are protected against viruses. If you don't know about how to do this, go to sites like http://www.bestcomputerguy.com/avoid_virus.htm to learn more.

The long version:

A computer virus is a program that invades your computer system, hides there, and makes copies of (replicates) itself. Viruses may have other unwanted side-effects such as corrupting your data, opening internet connections that let people look inside your computer, sending unwanted emails, etc. Viruses spread when you launch an infected application or start up your computer from a disk that has infected system files.

Nowadays, the most common method of getting a virus is by executing an attachment received via email. The Eaglenet list is configured so that it cannot transmit viruses because it can only transmit plain text messages. Although you cannot get a virus from Eaglenet, there are several ways you can get a message that appears to come from the Eaglenet containing a virus. For example, some viruses fake the 'From' part of the message, so a virus could appear to come from the Eaglenet. Other viruses copy part or all of the text of messages, so you may receive a message that comes from someone (maybe a ski buddy) and contains the text of an Eaglenet message. It is easy to recognize whether a message that seems to come from Eaglent is genuine, by the following rule: if it contains an attachment then it is a fake, and probably contains a virus

There are several simple steps that all Eaglenet members can take to protect themselves against getting and spreading viruses (although even the best protected system is not 100% watertight). These steps are outlined in articles such as http://www.bestcomputerguy.com/avoid_virus.htm (other similar articles can be found by typing 'avoid computer virus' into a search engine – e.g., http://www.google.co.uk).

I (the list manager) would add one thing to the advice in the above article – avoid using Microsoft Internet Explorer! Many viruses seem to target that software, and there are plenty of other email programs out there (email me if you're stuck for alternatives).

The one kind of 'virus' that the Eaglent can propagate is a so-called 'hoax virus'. A hoax virus is a message warning you about a virus threat that is not real, and usually encoraging you to take inappropriate action, such as deleting a system file or forwarding the message to everyone you know. It's called a virus because it has a similar effect to a real virus – it wastes lots of people's time and may damage computers of people who fall for the hoax. Hoax viruses may appear on Eaglenet if naive users forward them to the list. Please, never forward a virus warning, real or not, to the list.

If you receive a virus warning, you may want to check its veracity by looking on a recognized anti-virus site (e.g., www.f-secure.com) and/or a recognized anti-hoax site (e.g., http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/). If you confirm that a warning is real, you may want to forward it to your friends – but please don't forward it to the list. Virus warnings are off-topic and so are not welcome. There are plenty of virus warning email list interested people can subscribe to (e.g., F-Secure's Radar service, see www.f-secure.com). If you are in doubt, please contact the list manager.

Daily digest
Go to the Eaglenet web site (see previous question – 'How can I get access to Eaglenet on the world-wide web?'). On the left hand side, under 'Membership', click on 'Edit my membership'. Under 'Message delivery', choose 'Daily digest'.

Web-only membership
Go to the Eaglenet web site (see previous question – 'How can I get access to Eaglenet on the world-wide web?'). On the left hand side, under 'Membership', click on 'Edit my membership'. Under 'Message delivery', choose 'No email (Don't send me email, I'll read the messages at the Web site)'.