Hi listers, Many of you probably belong to other RootsWeb email discussion lists, whose list names begin with letters lower in the alphabet than TSL, so you probably have become aware of RootsWeb lists "migrating" to new list software, called mailman. To date, the migration schedule indicates that TheShipsList should be migrating on Monday September 11th, probably in the late afternoon US Mountain Daylight time zone, GMT -0600 (which will make it the morning of September 12th in eg. Australia and New Zealand) http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/migrate_sched.html It is my understanding that for most listers, the changes will be fairly transparent, however there are a few things to note, of which AOL users especially, should be aware. -- Quite a few list members, myself included, subscribe in both List Mode (L) and Digest Mode (D). The mailman software does not allow for any ONE email address to be subscribed to both modes, so the default should be to List Mode only (apparently there have been some cases where the reverse was true) . . . this can be corrected to whichever you wish. Also, should you still wish to subscribe to both list and digest Modes, then an alternative is to use another address, such as gmail or hotmail, for example. -- The current default for Digest is MIME, which depending on your personal email software and settings, views in different ways. The default for mailman will be inline Plain Text, so when you receive the first Digest after migration and would prefer to receive subsequent Digests in MIME, write to my admin address TheShipsList-admin@rootsweb.com to request the change. I believe my admin address will be included in the Digest too. -- One of the changes which will affect AOL list members is the list posting address. Mailman software will still happily accept the current address TheShipsList-L@rootsweb.com as well as the new address, without the " -L" TheShipsList@rootsweb.com, but as the new address will be reflected in the email, I am posting an additional AOL info message. Once all lists have been migrated and the dust settles, list members will have access to pages where they can manage their subscriptions themselves, including a "no mail" option, which hasn't been available with the current software. This is NOT available yet, but will be a boon for anyone going on holiday or a business trip, as they can stop delivery in ther absence and just turn it on again on their return. As with the current software, mailman will NOT accept HTML email or even inline text attachments, so just remember that before you "send" mail to all RootsWeb lists. If you do send such mail you will be automatically advised that your email is "pending" delivery to the list and you have the opportunity to delete it and start again. I've been literally reading thousands of emails by other listowners, to try to learn as much as I can before migration, but as with all things, I think I will probably just have to learn by experience. Sue -- TheShipsList Website http://www.theshipslist.com/