There is an archive of all the posts to FFML that exists partially to stop
spam. The recent flood of "I missed 'Transitions' please send it to me"
messages prompted me to write this in order to try to explain a little about
this.
What I'd like to propose is: rather than sending the story to whoever is
asking for it, send them, through private e-mail of course, the information
they need to get the story from the archive. For example, Richard Lawson's
terrific story, 'Transitions' is archive number 29798. That means that all
you have to do to get a copy of it is to send a message to
fanfic-request@fanfic.com with a subject of archive and a body that looks
like this:
get latest/29798
quit
To repeat, the message will look like this:
To: fanfic-request@fanfic.com
From: desparate_for_story@whoknows.com
Subject: archive
get latest/29798
quit
Don't that is DO NOT send the message to fanfic@fanfic.com because it will
show up on the list, nothing will happen, and you will look dumb. The
correct address is fanfic-request@fanfic.com.
In a few minutes the story will come wending its way back to your mail box.
Cool, huh? Of course there is the problem of getting that rather cryptic
archive number. There are two ways to do that. The first is very simple.
In the header of the original message there will be a line that looks like this:
X-Mailing-List: <fanfic@fanfic.com> archive/latest/29798
And out there at the end is the elusive archive number. Of course, if you
never got the message in the first place, you can't get it the easy way.
That leaves the second, harder way. You will have to search the archive.
The facility for doing this is rather primitive in that you can only search
for one word. That means you have to pick the word to search for rather
carefully. BTW, this is also why the FAQ tells us to use the flags like
[spam], [C&C], [FF] and so on in message headers. You could search for all
instances of [FF] and get _all_ the stories that have been posted recently.
At least the ones by authors who have read the FAQ and labeled them
properly. ^_^
To search for Richard Lawson's fine story, here is the word I chose. Again,
this must be send to fanfic-request@fanfic.com.
To: fanfic-request@fanfic.com
From: desparate_for_story@whoknows.com
Subject: archive
egrep Transitions latest/*
quit
Here is what I got back... Sorry it's so long, but remember why I wrote
this message in the first place. Jump down to the next row of asterisks to
resume the explaination.
*******************
Subject: archive retrieval: egrep Transitions latest/*
Precedence: bulk
X-UIDL: 19a913b325515a3130f6e8adebfc6058
egrep Transitions latest/*
BEGIN---------------cut here------------------
latest/29798:11:Subject: [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29798:46:Transitions
latest/29837:12:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29857:10:Subject: RE: [SPOILER?] [C&C][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29861:13:Subject: Re: [SPOILER?] [C&C][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29881:14:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29894:10:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29896:6:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29898:6:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29899:9:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29900:7:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29905:11:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29908:13:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29910:8:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29914:9:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29914:31:If someone would forward Transitions to me I would be very
grateful. The
latest/29915:9:Subject: RE: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29915:14:>If someone would forward Transitions to me I would be very
grateful. The
latest/29916:10:Subject: Received Transitions
latest/29923:13:Subject: Need Transitions
latest/29923:17:Could somebody please send me a copy of Richard Lawson's
"Transitions"?
latest/29928:14:Subject: [Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29929:12:Subject: Transitions - Request
latest/29930:11:Subject: Re: [FFML] Transitions - Request
latest/29936:7:Subject: Re: Need Transitions
latest/29936:15:> Could somebody please send me a copy of Richard Lawson's
"Transitions"?
latest/29938:11:Subject: Re: [FFML] Transitions - Request
latest/29941:13:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29953:5:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29956:17:> > Could somebody please send me a copy of Richard Lawson's
"Transitions"?
latest/29957:11:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29967:16: After reading "Transitions" (thanks Richard) I had an idea
for a sadfic.
latest/29973:6:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29975:14:Subject: Nuku-Nuku Transitions, and my thoughts
latest/29977:21:refuse to read your Transitions story. You have already
proved yourself
latest/29986:13:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29988:10:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF] [Nuku Nuku] [C&C] Transitions
latest/29988:24:Transitions
latest/29990:12:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/29999:12:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/30005:6:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/30009:14:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/30010:11:Subject: Transitions
latest/30012:7:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
latest/30019:10:Subject: Re: [FFML] [FF][Nuku Nuku] Transitions
END-----------------cut here------------------
*********************************
If you look back at the first entry after the "BEGIN------cut here---------"
line you will find a subject line that looks a whole lot like it should be
for a story. And there is the ellusive archive number 29798!!! Plug that
into the "get" message and the story will come back to you. BTW if you look
at the other lines in the retrieval report you'll see a whole lot of c&c
messages that aren't tagged properly with a [C&C]. *sigh* Life would be so
much easier if only..... Oh well. If you were feeling masochistic you
could send a "get message" with all these message numbers and retrieve the
entire thread.
In future, let's do this: When folks ask to have a story sent to them, send
them the archive number instead and let them retrieve the story from the
archive themselves. Spam will decrease, people will learn new skills,
stories will be read my more people, and the gods of technology will smile.
Best,
Bob Barnes
rbarnes@moscow.com
Moscow, Idaho
When opportunity comes, the trick is to CATCH the red hat.