Recently, a lot of people have been getting unsubbed, due to list
irregularities. Hopefully this will stop when White Wolf upgrades the
system, but in the meantime, we just have to bear with it.
The FFML archive is a quick, efficient way to check on posts that you
may have missed. The following explains how to use it:
WHAT IS THE FFML ARCHIVE?
The FFML archive stores all recent messages that have been posted to
FFML. By issuing the proper commands (see "HOW DO I USE IT?" below), you
can get any post(s) E-mailed back to you by the automated server. You
can even search through posts to find ones that contain a particular
word.
Please note that someone who mentions the "FFML archive" might actually
be talking about something other than what I mean here. See "ARE THERE
OTHER PLACES WHERE FFML POSTS ARE ARCHIVED?" below.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Each post that is received by fanfic@fanfic.com is assigned an archive
number before it is sent out to all the subscribers. The numbering is
sequential and restarts after 99999. These numbers are found in the
message headers that you receive from FFML, in a line that looks like
X-Mailing-List: <fanfic@fanfic.com> archive/latest/90210
The above line would be found in the post numbered 90210. To retrieve a
particular post, all you need is its number. Sometimes the numbers of
posts can be gotten from other posts, like Mark Doherty's synopses list.
If you don't know the number of the post you're looking for, there are
ways to find out what it is (see "HOW DO I FIND THE PARTICULAR POST I
WANT?" below).
WHO CAN USE THE ARCHIVE?
As I understand it, you need to be an FFML subscriber to use the
archive. Apart from this, there are no requirements other than the
ability to send and receive E-mail.
HOW DO I USE IT?
All commands should be E-mailed to fanfic-request@fanfic.com (the same
address you use to subscribe and unsubscribe) with the word archive as
the subject. Multiple commands can be used in the same message. If you
use a sig, either turn it off for this post, or end your message with
the command quit so that the system does not try to interpret your sig
as additional archive commands.
The GET command sends you a particular post. It is used as follows:
get latest/90210
Substitute for the example 90210 the number of whatever post you want to
get. Assuming that fanfic.com is up and you are subbed, you will quickly
receive the requested post via E-mail.
Note that the latest/ is always needed and should not be changed. The
"latest" directory is the only one there is since the latest posts are
the only ones stored here.
HOW DO I GET A LISTING OF POSTS?
The command
ls latest
will give you a list of posts. However, this ONLY lists archive numbers,
sizes, and dates posted, so unless what you are looking for is unusually
large or small, or you just want to know how far back the archive goes,
this isn't all that useful. It is more effective to search using the
find command (see below).
Note that this command will only list the first 512 posts out of
2000-3000. Setting maxfiles 0 is supposed to override this, but it
doesn't seem to work.
HOW DO I FIND THE PARTICULAR POST I WANT?
The find command lets you do this. It is used as follows:
find word latest/*
This will give you a listing of all posts containing the specified word,
with a line quoted to show you how the word is used. The latest/* tells
it to search the entire archive; the search can be narrowed down by
changing this (see below).
For example, if you were looking for lemons, you might try
find lemon latest/*
This would list incidences of the word "lemon" (as well as "lemony",
etc.) Some of these will be in actual lemon fics, while many more will
probably be in spam posts talking about lemon fics, or even citrus
fruit.
Note that case doesn't matter, so searching for spam would find
incidences of Spam as well as SPAM.
The search will cut off after 512 matches. If this happens, you may want
to narrow it down (see below), or pick a less common word to search for.
HOW CAN I NARROW DOWN THE SEARCH?
You can narrow down the search to a given thousand or a given hundred
posts:
find word latest/90*
would search the thousand posts from 90000-90999
find word latest/902*
would search the hundred posts 90200-90299.
HOW DO I GET A LIST OF SUBJECT HEADERS?
This is one of the most useful tricks you can do with the archive. You
can use the find command (see "HOW DO I FIND THE PARTICULAR POST I
WANT?" above) to search for the word subject:. e.g.
find subject: latest/902*
Since EVERY post has a subject: header, this will give you a listing of
the subject: headers for ALL posts in the range specified. You MUST do
this a hundred posts at a time, or it will cut off after the first 512.
Looking at the numbers of the posts that you have will give you an idea
of what ranges you need to look in for the ones you want to get.
Note that there may be extraneous matches to this search; e.g.
"You're talking about my favorite subject: babes!" Ataru said.
These should just be ignored.
One could also search for from: in a certain range to download a list of
post authors; this is useful when you know who wrote the post you're
looking for.
I'VE BEEN UNSUBBED; HOW DO I USE THE ARCHIVE TO CATCH UP?
First resub. Then look at the headers of the last message you received
before you were unsubbed and the first one you got after resubbing. The
numbers in between these are the ones you have missed. You can use
multiple get commands (see "HOW DO I USE IT?" above) to have all of
these posts sent to you (send a separate get for every number in
between). Alternatively, you can list the subject headers in the ranges
that you are missing (see above) and then get whichever ones you choose.
CAN I GET BACK CHAPTERS OF A FIC USING THE ARCHIVE?
Probably. Search for a word that you know appears in the fic, or do a
subject header search. Note that fics usually have subject lines that do
not start with Re: . Often some of the back chapters will be too old to
still be in the archive; but if you find even one, it will contain the
author's E-mail address which you can use to request the other chapters.
HOW CAN I USE THE ARCHIVE IN LIEU OF SENDING A TEST MESSAGE?
Sending any valid command to the archive will tell you whether
fanfic.com is up without incurring the wrath of hundreds of other
subscribers (not to mention the mods). A help command works just fine
for this.
WHY DOESN'T THE ARCHIVE WORK FOR *ME*?!
If you are getting no response at all, you may be unsubbed, or
fanfic.com may be down, or your own E-mail server may be down. If you
are getting a response that's not the one you want, it's most likely
because you're not doing it properly. Check over this document and look
back at the message you sent out to make sure you sent the proper
commands. If you can't figure it out, E-mail me <kleppe@execpc.com> and
I'll try to help.
HOW FAR BACK DOES THE ARCHIVE GO?
Currently the latest 2000-3000 posts are stored, which corresponds to
about the last month and a half's posts.
ARE THERE OTHER PLACES WHERE FFML POSTS ARE ARCHIVED?
Yes.
There is a web-based archive at the FFML home page,
http://illusion.snu.ac.kr/~wacko/ffml/ . Unfortunately, this site only
stores a few days' postings at a time, and each day's posts are lumped
together into a single file requiring the user to manually search
through the whole thing to find what is wanted.
The larger FFML archive that held the old posts from the early days of
the list is currently offline until someone can supply enough web server
space to host it.
There is also an archive remailer on FFML that stores fanfics. Consult
the FFML FAQ for info on this.