Direct Mail Lists
These lists send mail directly to your e-mail account. Most are available
either with each message sent as a separate piece of mail, or in digest
format, where all messages for a day are bundled together in one large
message and received daily. Some (the lists that have listserv in their
subscription address, are also available as indexes - once a day, you
receive a message that lists the authors, topics and size of all the
messages for that day. You return the list, indicating those messages you
want to receive, and receive only those messages by return e-mail.
Mail submissions to any of these lists may also go to the same
username at quaker.org (e.g. QUAKER-L@QUAKER.ORG).
Quaker-L
A general purpose mailing list for discussion of Quaker life, spirituality,
belief, and practice. This list is moderated. A group of moderators reviews
all messages intended for the list before forwarding them to the list. This
practice is intended to ensure an atmosphere of courtesy and respectful
sharing of ideas.
Quaker-P
Quaker P split off as a discussion list oriented specifically to peace and
social concerns issues. Originally, this discussion occurred on Quaker-L,
but some correspondents found the combined traffic too much to bear in their
mailboxes. A fairly substantial number of subscribers participate in both
Quaker-L and Quaker-P, but those who prefer a specific focus can choose to
take only one list.
Quaker-Spectrum
A new list, established this spring by some past members of Quaker-L who
desired an unmoderated forum that is separate from Quaker-U. Some robust
discussion happening here - combining spiritual and peace/social concerns
focuses, as well as a fair amount of discussion of Quaker politics (meaning
internal to the Society).
Quaker-Kids
A new list, just established, to be a forum for youth aged 5 to 12 who are
Quakers, attenders, or involved in some way with Friends to hold discussion
and exchanges. Adult facilitators are present, but are asked to hold their
role to facilitation, and work on avoiding behaviors that would dominate the
list!
Friends-Church
Friends-Church "was created for Friends to discuss current events,
trends, new ministries, job openings, etc. in an evangelical forum.
Participation in the list implies that the subscriber acknowledges
the following: 1) The Bible is the inspired written word of God. 2)
Jesus is God the Son. 3) It is only by the blood of Jesus Christ
that we can be reconciled to God." (NOTE: The list administrator
means by participation the posting of messages to the list. Those
who don't feel they can acknowledge the 3 points are welcome to
"lurk" on the list, and thus gain insight on Friends with an
evangelical outlook.)
To subscribe, send the message
SUBSCRIBE FRIENDS-CHURCH
to: hub@xc.org
News And Discussion Groups
News and discussion groups ( usually called usenet groups or conferences -
depending on where they are located) do not come to your e-mail box.
Instead, you read them with a utility/program. Some of the most common are
called NN, TRN, RN, and Netnews.
USENET groups are located on the internet. AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy and
IGC/APC now all have Usenet group access so that subscribers to those
services can participate in these groups.
CONFERENCES are located only on the proprietary systems that sponsor them,
like AOL, Compuserve, IGC/APC.
Usenet Groups and Conferences
- soc.religion.quaker
- A general purpose Quaker discussion group, no subscription required for
posting. Very active, usually running 25 -30 messages/day.
- bit.listserv.quaker-p
- This newsgroup mirrors the mailing list Quaker-P, so the focus is on peace
and social concerns. Anyone can read bit.listserv.quaker-p. To post,
however, you must be subscribed to the Quaker-P mailing list. So why have
the newsgroup?
- It allows for broader distribution of Friends' peace and social
concerns - and greater exposure to interested persons who might not
otherwise have that exposure.
- For some Friends, it allows participation in the group without
cluttering the mailbox, since the subscription can be set not to
receive mail, yet still to allow posting in the newsgroup.
Conferences
Quaker conferences are available on America OnLine and on IGC/APC (the
sponsors of Peacenet, ConflictNet, LaborNet, and now Penn House - still in
formation). In order to participate in these conferences, users of these
services should consult their membership information and internal listings
of conferences. Quaker conferences are similar to Usenet groups - but are
restricted to users of a particular service.
Real Time Discussions
One very nice feature of conferences on some of the proprietary
systems is the ability to have real-time discussions in a
common area. In these, people all sign on at the same time, and
chat with each other through the keyboard - usually focusing on
some topic of common interest or concern. Some systems have used this
to great effect to feature a speaker who then responds to
questions/discussion. AOL is particularly noted for these real time
discussions - though I do not know if they have held any focusing on
Friends' concerns. Penn House apparently plans to sponsor on-line
discussions of this sort as they get up and running.
The facility to hold these discussions is theoretically possible on the
internet itself - but carriers vary widely in what utilities they have for
the discussions - so technically there are some formidable barriers to
overcome and large scale chatting has so far not caught on among Friends.
There are, however, two Friends in Great Britain working on this project
now, in order to sponsor a virtual Meeting for Worship.
WEB Pages
WEB pages are part of what is called the World Wide Web, or WWW. Web
pages are sites, established by individuals or groups, that store
information - in text or graphic form- that is of interest to that
individual or group - and may be of interest to others.
The first general purpose Quaker Web page has been established
by Russ Nelson. Its address,
using any Web Browser - such as MOSAIC, Netscape - or for non-graphics
- LYNX - is: http://www.quaker.org
The page has links to a number of other sites with Quaker
resources. link is highlighted text. Using the browser, you
click on the highlighted text with your mouse - or hit enter in
non-graphics programs - and you are transported to that site
and its resources. Imagine the web as literally a spider web, with
many centers - each center ties to others. Transportation is fast and
intuitive.
The system can be confusing - and there are literally hundreds of thousands
of resources and site documents on the web. There are, however, several
searching utilities that help you connect to those sites, and locate the
information you are looking for.
Several monthly meetings and especially peace and social concerns groups
have started to establish Web pages - there has been a real explosion of
activity in this area - and the www.quaker.org site is a good place to check
in and get started.
FTP Site: File Transfer Protocol Site
File Transfer Protocol sites are sites that hold documents that users
of the internet can retrieve and then print out. The central FTP site
for Quaker resources is maintained by George Amoss at Clark.net (a
private provider). Users can both directly gain access to the FTP
site by using an FTP utility to reach: ftp.clark.net:pub/quaker. George
encourages both the submissions of new materials, and use of the files
as resources.
There is also a link to this site through the www.quaker.org web site. This
link makes it easier to download documents for some users.
PLEASE NOTE:
I have miserably under-represented here the incredible work of several dozen
key F(f)riends in maintaining Quaker resources on the Internet. I have
failed, in most instances, to mention specific names, both because I am sure
I would do a very incomplete job of reflecting those who should be given
credit - and because I am just running late in preparing this listing.
Please forgive this oversight on my part.
Sylvie McGee
sylvie@eskimo.com
sylvie@sylvie.seanet.com
seattle wa