Revised 10/19/96

Lists in general are not democracies. Lists are owned by
their creators and with that ownership come supervisory tools which can
modify subscription status. Onerous e-mail addresses can and are deleted
with the automatic and discretionary tools. There is no censorship but
error messages that result because of full mailboxes and other technical
problems may interrupt your subscription. In extreme cases, entire domains
which have several subscribers may lose their subscription status if
management of the ISP (Internet Service Provider) does not respond to
requests for correction of the problems.

Don't confuse the parkinsn list with others ran by companies who have
salaried employees to handle the administration. Barbara, like you and
I are unpaid VOLUNTEERS. Barbara, our list-owner, handles the
administration affairs of parkinsn list. Barb, as we lovingly call her,
describes herself as; "Rather than saying that I am a home-maker, perhaps
we could change that to wife, mother, grandmother (I PROMISE I won't
brag about my grandsons), and, for that matter, I'm a daughter, too...my
mother is 91."

The listserv sends her a message every time a new message is posted to
the list...and your mailbox is overflowing. The listserv continually
reminds her with every bounce, sometimes..20 to 50 times a day. Multiply
that by 10 or 20 subscribers who have full mail boxes....and it could
discourage her from downloading HER mail...:(

When you pickup a newspaper or magazine, do you read every story? Most
people pick and choose their favorite topics. If you're reading a magazine
while waiting to be called in the doctors waiting room, a 15 page article
on Fava Bean recipes might take more time than you have, so you
skip it. Reading your daily parkinsn list mail uses the same principle,
skip and delete it if you are not interested in it. The scope of the
parkinsn list is much broader than you think.

Some prefer chatty anecdotal opinions, rather than the results of the
latest study. Latest studies and abstracts posted to the archives allow
study and research. These are listed in the "Current Parkinson's
Topics..." message posted regularly and available on the Internet at:

http://otpt.ups.edu/listservs/Parkinson_List/ArchiveSearch.html

Revised instructions on searching the Parkinsn archive are posted monthly.

WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF THE PARKINSN LIST, WHO ARE WE?

We have been diagnosed with Parkinson's, Parkinson's Plus, parkinsonian
and other movement disorder diseases that may manifest parkinsonian-like
features and provide services to care-givers, friends and support groups.
We are news organizations, drug companies, and equipment manufacturers
that treat these diseases. We are family physicians, psychiatrists,
psychologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, medical and nursing students,
researchers, care-givers and friends. We live, work and die in 35
countries.

WHO PAYS FOR THIS?

Our host is the University of Toronto who provides the hardware and
software to connect to the Internet. Individual institutions and grants
pay for this connection. Your mail from the listserv is sent by common
carrier which has connections to the major common carriers of the world
which distribute the internet. Every connection point on the internet
pays for this privilege. Your internet provider pays this fee also. If
you use a "freenet" taxes or donations are used to pay this fee. If you
use an Internet Service Provider (ISP) it is included in the subscription
fee you pay them. If your ISP is a long distant phone call away from you,
you pay long distance charges.

On-going contributors to the parkinsn list pay for copying, faxing,
converting written word to electronic word, out of their own pockets,
regardless of their own circumstances, without remuneration. Vested
interests who post here receive remuneration either directly or indirectly
from their sponsors.

HOW CAN I GET THE MOST OUT OF THE PARKINSN LIST?

HARDWARE:

Generally when I see comments that it takes 33 minutes to download mail, I
know that someone is trying to use something other than a 14.4 or 28.8
modem to connect to the internet. If your ISP only has 2400 baud connect
capability and your modem is capable of 14.4 or 28.8, run..don't walk to
another ISP. If you have a 14.4 modem, a 28.8 modem will transfer a mail
packet TWICE as fast. Depending on your circumstances, a slow modem can
cost you more money in connect time and long distance charges.

Bulletin Boards vs ISPs in the U.S.

If you like the security of a bulletin board, where the management can
and does read your mail, Prodigy, Compuserve and AOL are available. If
you like to be limited in what internet resources are at your disposal
and enjoy being over-charged for those that interest you, the top three
are for you.

If you don't want to pay anything, but will settle for e-mail, freenets
in some areas of the country are available. There are limitations on the
size of documents you can receive. Most of the studies available from the
archive exceed those size limitations.

Unlimited local access to the internet using ISP provided software that
runs on your own machine is available for as low as $15 per month in
some areas. The same level of access can cost up to $50 per month in
other areas.

Shop for your best value. Plans that provide 40 hours, prime-time access
a month for $20 or less can be the most cost effective since most have
free hours after midnight to 8 AM and weekends. Since there are only 22
or 23 working days in a month, your primetime access can average as much
as an 1 1/2 hours a day. Ask your ISP the hours of the day that they
consider prime-time.

USING THE LISTSERV SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS TO MAKE YOUR MAIL MANAGEABLE.

If you are a parkinsn subscriber and have a slow modem, there is a mail
subscription option that can make your life more manageable.

The following is a complete discription of these options:

There are currently two mail subscription options, mail and digest.

WHAT IS THE MAIL OPTION?

New subscriber's have their mail option set to mail automatically.
Messages sent to the list are redistributed to the members shortly after
they are posted. Mail arrives at your mailbox around the clock, since we
are a global community and someone is always 'up', posting to the list.
Each message is individual, to be downloaded and deleted or saved by your
mail software. Deleting the messages in your ISPs mailbox when you
download them, frees up space for the next days' messages. Enable that
option in your mail software.

The mail option is set by sending a message to:

[log in to unmask]

In the body of the message put THREE WORDS:

set parkinsn mail

Eventually, you will be notified that your subscription option
has been changed to mail.

WHAT IS THE DIGEST OPTION?

When you have the digest option, selected, the days' mail received at
the listserv is saved until about 3:45 a.m. Toronto, Ontario, Canada time.
This mail is saved as a digest. The digest has a table of subject lines
contained in the digest, followed by those messages. The digest sent by
the listserv may not be the same size as the one that arrives in your
mailbox. Some ISPs have size limitations on digests and truncate or cut
off the part of the digest that exceeds their limitation.

WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF THE DIGEST?

If you subscribe to more than one list, you may want to keep the messages
separated. The digest option allows this by compartmentalizing the daily
messages.

The digest option is set by sending a message to:

[log in to unmask]

In the body of the message put THREE WORDS:

set parkinsn digest

Eventually, you will be notified that your subscription option
has been changed to digest.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY MESSAGE GOT TO PARKINSN?

New subscribers to parkinsn have as part of their subscription settings,
the following two settings: REPRO = NO and ACK = NO

The repro setting determines whether you will receive a copy of your
message that was posted to parkinsn as it is being distributed to
the members. The Ack option allows one posting to parkinsn to receive
an return receipt(acknowledgement) from the listserv when the
distribution occurs rather than a copy of the message.

To set your subscription to receive COPIES of your messages to parkinsn,
send a message to:

[log in to unmask]

In the body of the message put THREE WORDS:

set parkinsn repro

Eventually, you will receive an acknowledgement from the listserv.
With this option set, you will receive a copy of your next message to
parkinsn.

To set your subscription to receive ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS when your messages
to parkinsn are distributed, send a message to:

[log in to unmask]

In the body of the message put THREE WORDS:

set parkinsn ack

Eventually, you will receive an acknowledgement from the listserv.

HOW DO I ELIMINATE WINMAIL.DAT FROM THE MESSAGES I POST?

How Do I Post From MS Exchange?

When posting from MS Exchange, you need to be sure that your messages do
not contain formatting information that looks like junk to most others
on the list and do not contain return-receipt information. That's because
MS Exchange normally sends embedded formatting information with every
message.

The solution is to create a special address book entry for use when
posting to the list, and to_always_ use that entry whenever posting to
or replying to the list.

A) CREATING THE PARKINSN ADDRESS BOOK ENTRY:

   1.Open your address book (Ctrl-Shift-B)
   2.Create a new entry (Alt-F, Alt-E)
   3.Select the entry type (Internet Mail Address) and press ENTER.
   4.For the "Display name," put "PARKINSN".
   5.For the E-mail address, put "[log in to unmask]"
   6.Make sure that the box "Always send messages in Microsoft Rich
     Text Format" is NOT CHECKED.
   7.Press ENTER.

B) WHEN POSTING TO THE LIST:

   1.NEVER simply reply to a message from the list. If you do, you will
     end up posting a message with embedded information junk.
   2.ALWAYS erase the "To" field and enter "PARKINSN" for the "To"
     address.
   3.Enter other "To" addresses, as desired.
   4.Proceed with posting your message normally.


WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL FOR THE PARKINSN LIST?

On democracy, our founder and benefactor has these thoughts; "It is a
democracy in that we have the choice to join or leave; to contribute or
not; to read or not read, etc.  I think of it more as a service that I
give to those of us who deal with pd in one way or another.  I GET far
more than I GIVE.

Less than a month after the list started, a dear friend of mine sent me a
message saying "It sounds as though your idea of initiating a PD network
was a way to meet a lot of needs that hadn't been identified until the
network started.  This could become a self help group with an awful lot
of knowledge and power,and it may lead to some changes in research and
treatment." Whenever the 'housekeeping' part becomes a lot of work, I
read that."

TECHNICAL DETAILS ON POSTING TO THE PARKINSN LIST

SHOULD I ATTACH WORD PROCESSING FILES TO MY POSTS?

The medium for transmission of email on the internet is ASCII which is
basically the letters A through Z, the numbers 1 through 9 and some
symbols. Printer and typeface commands do not compute such as found in
files saved in their native word processing format, when viewed on
'dumb' terminals.

Attached word processing files...look like junk when displayed on the
screen of a 'dumb' terminal. The only way for the recipient who receives
your message to view it is to import it into a word processor that
understands the format the file was created with. Since we have subscribers
who use pcs, macs and main frame networks on unix....this severely limits
the number of folks who can view your work. THE ARCHIVE PROGRAMS THAT
SEARCH THE ARCHIVES CANNOT READ ATTACHED FILES, SO YOUR WORK IS LOST TO
THE RESEARCHER.

Word Perfect, Word, WordPro, AmiPro, and Write all by default save their
work in their own proprietory format....unless you save your work as text
with the Save As function.

WHY DO SOME MESSAGES POSTED TO THE LIST THAT HAVE COLUMNS, APPEAR ALL
JUMBLED UP?

The sender of the jumbled messages created the columns with the Tab key
rather than using spaces to determine the starting point of each column.
There are proportional fonts and fixed fonts. Courier is the font that is
universal across the internet and displays accurately on any type of
platform, since it is a fixed font.

In creating your document use the Courier 12 font and spaces between
columns, and limit your lines to 65 characters.

Scanning/OCR is a great way to save information to transmit electronically,
BUT, what looks good on paper may not look good on the screen if the last
word on the line is pulled down to the next line and the remainder of the
sentence is orphaned a line below that. If you edit your document with a
12 point, fixed font and shorten the lines, it will look better to the
recipient and print better also.

We have several scholarly posts in the archives....that had tremendous
information....until the listserv messed with the line lengths... Do us
all a favor, shorten those lines and use spaces rather than the tab key in
columns.

WHAT IS THE LAST THING TO DO BEFORE POSTING A DOCUMENT TO THE LIST?

You should send any document to yourself first....to check it over and
see if orphans appear anywhere in the document. If the document has some
=20 notations in your copy that comes back, that is probably a type
command for bold or something that wasn't stripped out when your word
processor saved the file to text. You may need to set the text
in your original document to normal to remove these symbols, and save it
again as ascii.(txt)

Send it to yourself again. It's well worth the time.

The NEW address (since 3-27-96) to post to Parkinsn is:

[log in to unmask]


John Cottingham    To search the Parkinsn archive, send search requests
                   to [log in to unmask] with Archive Search as the subject.
LibraryH           Searches of the Subject: line, From: line and Body are
                   possible. Look for "Revised Current Topics...." message
[log in to unmask]    for Articles and Studies available by e-mail.