Cob list administrator's note - please read

[Shannon C. Dealy]

In the past, I have always tried to see to it that each person who is
currently subscribed to the list receives all cob email sent to them.
This means that whenever a message is bounced by their service provider
(for whatever reason), I would store their messages until their service
provider fixed the problem, and in some cases even notified the provider
that there was a problem.  Recently, due to the increase in the size of
the list (currently we have 154 members), as well as wide spread changes
made by internet service providers to their mail systems (which they are 
unfortunately not been testing adequately), I have started getting a large
number of bounced messages (sometimes as many as 20 - 30 per day).
Because of this, I have been forced to change my approach.  What does this
mean for you?  Glad you asked :-)

1 - If your internet service provider's mail system is down for more
    than a week, you may be removed from the list (you can resubscribe
    when they get their system back up).  This problem is fairly rare.

2 - If email to you from the list is bounced (meaning that your service
    provider's computers actually accepted the mail for delivery, and then
    returned it to me as undeliverable), then I MAY attempt to resend the
    message one time (if I am not to overloaded), after that it will be
    deleted.  You will continue to be a member of the list, and the next
    email from the list will be sent to you as usual, but if your service
    provider continues to have problems, you will not receive the messages.
    This problem is by far the most common, usually lasts one to two days
    and is either caused by the user having a full mailbox, or a problem
    with your service provider's mail system configuration.
    
3 - If email to you from the list is bounced (as described in item 2) for
    more than one week, you may be removed from the list.

Should you find that you are no longer receiving email from the list, you
can always resubscribe.  If you feel that you have missed some messages,
you can always check the archives ("www.deatech.com/natural.html" provides
links to the archives).

In response to the first question that many of you are going to ask, no
one currently on the list is in danger of being removed at this time.  The
fact that you received this email indicates that I am not currently having
problems sending messages to you.

I hope these measures do not seem to harsh to you, I realize that you
often have no control over these problems (other than by switching service
providers, which, depending on where you live is not always an option).
Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to continue with my old
policies.  I am open to questions, comments, or suggestions if you wish to
respond to this.

Thanks,

Shannon Dealy
dealy at deatech.com