LAST EDIT: 17-December-1997 Welcome to the Orioles' fans mailing list! What follows is a list of Frequently Asked Questions, Not-So FAQ, general policies, and a brief description of this group. Also included is information on the listserv commands for the group; you might want to keep these for future reference. Enjoy! 1)*** What is orioles? orioles is a listserv-based mailing list that relays mail to about 200 Oriole fans all around the world. Literally. While at least half of the group membership lives within the Delmarva penninsula, we have a substantial following spread out as far west as the Far East, and as far east as Israel. orioles is more properly known as orioles@listserv.unc.edu, but the long form of the address is a bit cumbersome for this document. This list began with four Orioles fans (Russ Shackelford, Ken Winkler, Ed Williams, and Greg Wilson) back in late 1990, and has grown considerably in size since. It was formalized as oriole-fans back in 1991, and the old mail exploder was hosted by three different machines through February, 1995. In March 1995, the list was moved to listserv software at UNC. 2)*** Is orioles associated with the Orioles? No. We're just a group of O's fans who share a common interest. It is not related to any US Mail Orioles' fan lists, or the Orioles organization. 3)*** How do I sign up/drop off? Send mail to listserv@unc.edu with an empty subject line and containing as the only line subscribe orioles Cal Ripken where you substitute your name for Cal's. This adds you to the list and puts you (by default) in digest mode. Before moving to the listserv, first and last names were not part of the subscriber file; as a result many old subscribers are currently listed with the name "First Last" as a temporary measure. Send mail to orioles@pobox.com if you want this changed. Other commands you can send to this address include: unsubscribe orioles This cancels your subscription completely set orioles mail ack This takes you out of digest mode and into conversational mode set orioles mail digest This takes you out of conversational mode and into digest mode set orioles mail postpone This puts you into postpone mode; you will receive no messages until you ask for either digest or conversational mode again (request ack or digest) set orioles mail noack This puts you in conversational mode, but you will not get copies of your own messages. set orioles This shows the options you currently have set orioles conceal yes Conceals your identity from anyone who asks for a subscriber list. set orioles conceal no Lets your name be listed on the subscriber list (this is the default). help Requests a help file on the given command. Just "help" returns a list of commands. info orioles Returns a copy of this file If you have questions or problems, you can send mail to Dave Scocca, the list maintainer, at the address orioles@pobox.com. *Please* remember to explicitly POSTPONE or UNSUBSCRIBE from this list if you are changing jobs, leaving school for the summer, etc. and may no longer have access to your account. Every May, mail starts bouncing for a dozen or so addresses. Multiply a dozen "bounce" messages by 20+ posts, and you can visualize what the administrator's mailbox looks like at the end of the school year! 4)*** Why do the addresses attached to orioles mail messages not match the ones given above? When you get a reply from the listserv software, it says it is from "listserv@listserv.oit.unc.edu". The reply address attached to list messages is "orioles@listserv.oit.unc.edu". The name with the extra '.oit' is the real name of the machine that runs the listserv software. The addresses given earlier are aliases, so that UNC can move this service to another machine without requiring everyone to learn new addresses. For a while (October 1995 through July 1996) the real name of the machine was, quite coincidentally, "ripken.oit.unc.edu". Now they've gone boring on us. Oh, well. 5)*** What is CONVERSATIONAL? DIGEST? CONVERSATIONAL mode lets mail propagate to an orioles reader immediately after it reaches the listserv. For people who want to see mail as soon as it arrives, CONVERSATIONAL is a handy means by which to do so. CONVERSATIONAL is also known as ACK (if you want copies of your own messages) or NOACK (if you don't). DIGEST mode collects a day's accumulation of mail and, at 5:30 AM (more or less) sends it out to the subscribers who have chosen this option. If more than 1000 lines accumulate in a day, additional digests will be sent. This is a good mode for people who (a) don't want to sort thru 20-30 separate orioles message in their mailbox, or (b) are on sites which are sensitive to daytime network traffic. 6)*** Is there an ftp site, mail archive, or web site associated with this list? ftp site, not at this point; mail archive, no. This FAQ is available at This site also has links to some other Orioles resources on the web. 7)*** How is this list maintained? This list is maintained automatically by LISTPROC software running at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. If you have list maintenance problems or questions, either send a help message to , or . Please do not send subscribe or unsubscribe requests to the address, since this will forward these requests to hundreds of people who can't do anything to help you. 8)*** I posted a message to orioles a half hour ago and I still haven't seen it come back to me. What's wrong? If you're in DIGEST mode, you won't see it until the digest is sent out at 5:30 the next morning. In CONVERSATIONAL mode, it can take some time for a message to work its way out to the entire list. This is especially true at peak usage times (afternoons, in particular). If something is malfunctioning on the listserv machine, it could take longer. If you are patient, your message should eventually get through. If you are in CONVERSATIONAL mode and prefer NOT to get copies of your own messages, send the message "set orioles mail noack" to the listserv address. To reverse this, send the message "set orioles mail ack". 9)*** I've stopped getting messages. What happened? If I start getting bounces from your account, I will set the subscription into POSTPONE mode. If you suspect this has happened, send the command "set orioles" to the listserv address to see your current settings. You can reset yourself to DIGEST or ACK mode using the commands mentioned earlier. 10)*** How much traffic does this list generate? During the season, we've seen as many as 60+ messages cross thru orioles in a day. On the other hand, in the off season or during a protracted slump, things may drop to five or six messages per day. 11)*** How can I get score updates on games in progress? If you have web access, you can see game updates (and lots more) at ESPN's SportsZone, which is at http://sportszone.espnet.com. While some parts of SportsZone have become a paid service, the scoreboard was still free during the AL playoffs. There used to be a service called oriole-score which used loyal listeners, finger commands, and mail messages to provide game updates for weekday day games. I've been unable to find a place to set this up at UNC, and SportsZone seems to have filled a lot of the need (and is available for games on weekends and at night as well). 12)*** What are all those strange abbreviations and stats? I'd love to know some of those too. Some common usage notes: SLG: Slugging pct: (total bases) / (at bats) OBP: On-base percentage: (hits + walks + HBP) / (plate appearances) OPS: OBP Plus SLG 250/270/275: In this form, numbers represent AVG / OBP / SLG WHIP: Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched "Clay's DTs": These are numbers which have been statistically adjusted to remove park and league effects. See DA: Defensive average. Percentage of balls hit into a player's zone that become outs. ZR: Zone rating. Also a measure of defense. EQA: Another predictor of major league performance from minor league stats. 13)*** Is orioles moderated? No. There are some general guidelines which would make life for everyone much easier which are detailed below; however, there is no moderator per se. If you send something to orioles, and the mail reaches listserv.unc.edu, that message *will* be posted. 14)*** What can I post to orioles? Questions about the Orioles as a team, or a specific player; answers to same; opinions of the team, individual players, or the manager; stats (but please, try not to lift copyrighted material directly!); musing about past Orioles; speculation about possible trades, etc. Offers to buy/sell tickets for O's games are OK -- as stated earlier, more than half the people on the list live close enough to see the O's play. Remember, though, that this list has a membership which spans *well* beyond the Baltimore area. If someone asks how the O's have been doing the past few days, it isn't necessarily because they're unwilling to read a newspaper! :-) 15)*** What shouldn't I post to orioles? Some general guidelines on things to avoid are given below: TOPICS UNRELATED TO BASEBALL: Yes, we get them occasionally -- posts completely unrelated to baseball, or sports in general. Please avoid it. This includes real _or_ fake warnings about computer viruses. TEST MESSAGES: Need I say more? VIRUS WARNINGS: They're all false. In addition, folks who really want to know about this stuff can go to any one of a number of authoritative web sites. If I see a virus warning on the list, the sender's future postings will be redirected to the bit bucket. LIVE GAME UPDATES: In the heat of a pennant race, many people seem to want to post inning by inning highlights of day games as they progress. This was tolerable while the list was small. In 1993, however, one could easily find scores of mail messages from half a dozen people reporting a game's progress. Not good. GAME SUMMARIES: This sometimes reaches a level almost as bad as live game updates were. I am considering asking for volunteers to put summaries in their finger .plans, if the level of people posting updates continues to escalate. DEGENERATIVE ARGUMENTS: It's almost inevitable that some arguments will occur along the lines: A) is worthless and should be traded. B) How can you say that? has ... A) Yeah, but has which are really lame. He should be traded, or better still, dumped. B) What kind of stats are those? Those stats are junk! A) Oh yeah? Well, you're just a cretin who wouldn't know a useful stat if it lit a stick of dynamite in your ear! B) Sez you, moron! A) Brainless twit!... B) Elitist statmonger!... Please, PLEASE, if you find yourself going more than one round on an argument with someone, take it to direct E-mail with them! We've lost quite a few readers who felt they just didn't need to see dozens of messages from people slamming each other. If a line of your message begins "> >:>>", don't send it to the list. INFINITELY REPEATED QUOTES: And if you're taking part in an extended discussion, PLEASE don't keep quoting dozens of lines from the message you're responding to. Edit effectively, and avoid testing everyone's bandwidth and patience. REPLIES TO SURVEYS: It is inevitable that someone will post some type of survey question along the lines of, "Who do you think is this year's O's MVP?" "Who was your favorite Oriole?" "What pitcher do you think will have the most wins? lowest ERA? etc." The survey itself isn't a problem. 100+ answers to a survey, all posted to orioles, could become a nightmare! I suggest that people who post surveys ask that list members respond directly to them by a certain date, at which point they will summarize the results to the list. I also ask people who respond to surveys to remember to do so directly to the poster, even if he/she forgets to put a note to that effect in their post. That will hopefully forestall the day when this list has membership in the hundreds and an innocent survey request generates scores of replies. CHAIN LETTERS: The University of North Carolina has very firm policies regarding the propagation of chain mail. If a chain letter goes out to this list, I am implicitly involved in violating a UNC policy. Such things could eventually force me to give up maintaining this list, in which case orioles will need a new home. If a chain letter is posted to this list, I will not hesitate to forward a copy to both the site administrator and domain administrator associated with the sender's host. Sorry if this sounds heavy handed, but chain letters can be a major net.problem. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: Articles: don't post them without the author's permission. Please. Stats: This is a tricky issue. *Definitely*, posting stats from ClariNet is a no-no. Stats from the paper seem to be another matter as far as Usenet is concerned. If stats are taken verbatim from a copyrighted source, do try to allow some lag time in posting. Make sure to attribute the source. It would also help if you could add something to lend an original contribution to the stats as given. (E.g.: compute OPS. *No one* provides OPS in a newspaper! :-) ) If in doubt, consult the source of the data before posting. In '93, Scott Seifert maintained a collection of rather diverse stats culled from various sources. You needn't be *quite* so elaborate, but Scott *did* incrementally build up quite a wealth of data over the season. COMMERCIAL MESSAGES: This is not an appropriate forum for the commercial sale of Orioles merchandise, tour packages, switch plate covers, or what have you. This is the policy both of the list and of the University of North Carolina, whose computers are contributing to this endeavor. UNATTRIBUTED MAIL/USENET FEEDS/ETC.: If you didn't write it, please don't relay it. FLAMES ABOUT PEOPLE WHO VIOLATE THE ABOVE: (Yes, I've been guilty of this, too.) If you feel the need to advise someone that their posts aren't quite in line with the spirit of orioles, try direct E-mail first. Your message will arrive sooner than via orioles and fewer people will have to read it. 16)*** Whew! Isn't that a bit much? Yeah, but somehow it needed to be said. :-/ 17)*** How rigidly will these guidelines be enforced? If you violate them, then the heavens will fall, seas will spill from their beds, mountains will crumble.... Seriously? This is an ummoderated list, and as long as I manage it, it will stay unmoderated. If you send mail to orioles, it *will* go through. There is one possible exception: if junk mail from outside sources or subscription requests become a problem the list may become "closed". This means that subscribers will notice no difference, but people who are not subscribed to the list will be unable to send mail out on orioles. The guidelines above are given to help emphasize the reminder that (a) your posts will be read by over 300 readers, and (b) there *are* things which one can post which would jeopardize this list's existence at UNC. 15)*** I'm an administrator of a site directly connected to the Internet, I don't have anyone who can pressure me out of this position or off the network, and I'm quite willing to take over maintaining this list. May I? Boy, I wish that was a FAQ! :-) UNC has pretty good support for the listserv and Internet use, and the automation makes list management not too difficult. But if you have a site you administer, and really want to take this over, just drop me a line. After all, orioles properly belongs to Orioles fans at large. If anyone has a better system on which to host this list, I'm quite willing to let it move. ***** Submissions to: orioles@listserv.unc.edu Problems to: orioles@pobox.com Commands to: listserv@unc.edu subscribe orioles Cal Ripken subscribe (use your own name) unsubscribe orioles unsubscribe set orioles mail ack conversational mode set orioles mail digest digest mode set orioles show current options info orioles request this file Page with list information: http://pobox.com/~orioles/Orioles/