1. What are the Mailing Lists?
2. Which lists are available?
3. Can anyone join the lists?
4. How do I subscribe?
5. How can I unsubscribe?
6. Are digest versions of the list available?
7. Which of my e-mail addresses should I use to subscribe? Does it matter?
8. How do I respond to a post from the List?
9. What are my membership settings and how can I change them?
10. How do I change my E-mail address?
11. Can I read list mail on the web?
12. Can I send a photo, videoclip or other attached file to the list?
13. Can I use the words 'subscribe' and 'unsubscribe' in my posts?
14. Who's paying for these lists?
15. How can I find out find out who is on my list or get more help with List commands?
16. Important notes about list policy
17. Disclaimer

iParenting's Mailing Lists are unmoderated discussion forums for expectant, new and new-again parents. We have a variety of topics as well as the Monthly Mailing lists, for those who are due or who have had a baby in a certain month and year. The discussions are not intended as, nor do they constitute medical or other advice. Readers are warned not to take any action with regard to medical treatment or otherwise based on the information found on the lists without consulting the advice of a physician. Again: the messages posted to the iParenting Mailing Lists should NOT be used as a substitute for medical care by your doctor! If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified healthcare provider.

2. Which lists are available?

For a complete listing of all our lists, click here.

If you would like to suggest a topic that is not contained in our lists, please E-mail feedback@iparenting.com and we will create that list for you!

3. Can anyone join the lists?

Everyone is welcome on our list. While we encourage lively discussion (even if the discussion veers off-topic), if there are any problems with a person flaming or being cruel to any other list member, that person will be unsubscribed. We think of our Lists as a sort of cyber-family environment – you are there to support each other. Traditionally "sensitive" subjects include circumcision, religion and politics.

Messages posted to the lists are received by all list members, whether or not those members are known to you. Please keep this in mind when posting to the list, especially in regard to sensitive or personal data. (In any event, electronic mail is not always a private form of communication – better to consider all e-mail messages as "postcards" rather than sealed letters – that is, potentially viewable during transport.)

4. How do I subscribe?

To subscribe via our web interface, just click here.

Alternately, you can subscribe by following these instructions:

E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

subscribe listname (you can get the list names here)

OR

add listname (you can get the list names here)

OR

join listname (you can get the list names here)

You can also send a blank E-mail to join-listname@lists.iparenting.com where you substitute in the listname. Remember, the E-mail address suffix is "lists.iparenting.com" not "iparenting.com." This is the biggest mistake made when trying to subscribe. Sending a message to "iparenting.com" will *not* subscribe you.

We will remove you from the list if we get several bounced messages due to a full mailbox, autoreply "I'm out of the office" messages or if your mail comes back as "user unknown" or similar, but it makes our job much easier if you would handle this yourself. If you subscribe from a work address, please unsubscribe or change your member settings before leaving on vacation or on maternity leave.

5. How can I unsubscribe?

To unsubscribe via our web interface, just click here.

Alternately, you can subscribe by following these instructions:

E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

unsubscribe listname (you can get the list names here)

OR

leave listname (you can get the list names here)

You can also send a blank E-mail to leave-listname@lists.iparenting.com where you substitute in the listname. At the bottom of each and every post is a personalized address to which you can send an E-mail to unsubscribe from the list. This E-mail can come from any address, even one not subscribed to the list. But don't worry, the only person who received this E-mail addres is you. It is just an added measure to make administration of this list easier.

Remember, the E-mail address suffix is "lists.iparenting.com" not "iparenting.com." This is the biggest mistake made when trying to unsubscribe. Sending a message to "iparenting.com" will *not* unsubscribe you.

If you would like to unsubscribe from each and every list to which you have subscribed on this server, E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

purge

You can also do this by sending a blank E-mail to purge@lists.iparenting.com but this must come from the E-mail address which is subscribed to the lists.

6. Are digest versions of the list available?

Please note that the Lists can be high volume (upwards of 100 messages a day in many cases), so you may prefer to sign up for the Digest list, which consolidates a group of messages in one e-mail before sending them to you, or an Index list, which only sends you the subject lines of the E-mails which you can then read via the web. You may switch to or from the Digest list at any time. To do so, please see Changing Your Membership Settings.

You must subscribe with the address from which you will be posting. The server will only allow list members to post messages to the lists, and the program decides which people are members by comparing the e-mail address on their outgoing message to the list of subscribers. If the two addresses do not match EXACTLY, the message will be bounced. Too many bounced messages result in a member being subscribed

Some companies and universities add a machine or service name to outgoing messages (such as yourname@mail.msn.com or yourname@pop.msn.com), or assign a numeric e-mail address. This should not be a problem if you have subscribed via e-mail from your account (not through the auto-subscribe feature on this site) or were very careful to use your complete e-mail address when you subscribed.

To check your member settings, please see the Member Settings section.

8. How do I respond to a post from the List?

To send a message to your list, simply send an e-mail to listname@lists.iparenting.com where you substitute the appropriate listname for "listname."

Before replying, please decide whether or not it would be appropriate for this reply post to be seen by every one of the people on the list or if it should be sent privately to one person.

If your response would be of benefit to more than one or two members of the list, send your message to the list, but if it is a personal message, please do not send it to everyone. (This is especially a problem around delivery time – a few thousand "congratulations!!!" posts to the whole list is a lot to wade through.) Likewise, do not send "me too" one-liner posts to the list: either think of something else to say or mention it in a message when you reply to other posts.

Please "quote" the message to which you are responding in your new (outgoing) message – but ONLY the pertinent parts. The pertinent parts would be the original sender's name and the sentence or two to which your new post applies. You do not need to repeat the whole "conversation," but you should give people a clue as to what you're talking about.

DIGEST MEMBERS: You MUST change the subject line with replying to a digest; all posts with "listname DIGEST" in the Subject: line will be rejected by the server (you will receive a rejection letter when this happens).

9. What are my membership settings and how can I change them?

Membership settings are the properties of your membership to the iParenting lists. They include which lists you belong to, what format you receive your mail and what your password is, among other things.

To find out a complete list of all the lists to which you belong, E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

which

You must E-mail Lyris from the address which is subscribed to the lists.

To determine your personal membership settings for a particular list, E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

query listname

where you substitute the appropriate list name.

There are many different ways you can receive your E-mail:

• Mail: Receive mail as it is contributed.
• Digest: Receive daily digest with all of the messages of the day.
• Index: Receive daily index of the subject lines of the messages of the day. This is useful if you are going to read mail via the web.
• Nomail: Receive no mail, but remain a member of the list. This is useful if you are going on vacation or maternity leave.

To receive a digest format of the list (one daily E-mail with all of the messages from the day), E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

set listname digest

where you substitute the appropriate list name.

NOTE: You MUST change the subject line with replying to a digest; all posts with "listname DIGEST" in the Subject: line will be rejected by the server (you will receive a rejection letter when this happens).

To receive a daily index of the subject lines of the messages from the day (useful if you are going to read mail via the web -- see below), E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

set listname index

where you substitute the appropriate list name.

If you would like to temporarily suspend mail coming to your address (for example, if you are going on vacation and don't want to fill up your box), E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

set listname nomail

where you substitute the appropriate list name.

To recieve messages as they are posted, E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

set listname mail

where you substitute the appropriate list name.

NOTE: this is the default setting and this option need only be used if you want to change from digest, index or nomail back to receiving posts as they are posted.

10. How do I change my E-mail address?

Send an E-mail to lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following in the body of the message:

set listname E-mail=new_E-mail_address

where you substitute the appropriate list name and "new_E-mail_address" with your new E-mail address. The text after the E-mail= cannot have any spaces in it.

NOTE: This E-mail must come from your old E-mail address, otherwise the server will reject the request. So, change your E-mail address before your old E-mail is discontinued.

11. Can I read list mail on the web?

There is a web interface associated with your list that will allow you to read and post messages to the list from anywhere, so long as you have internet access. In order to do this, however, you must have a password. To set your password, send an E-mail to lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following in the body of the E-mail:

set listname pw=password

where you substitute the appropriate list name and you replace the word "password" with your desired password.

If you would like to change your password, E-mail lyris@lists.iparenting.com with the following information in the body of the E-mail:

set listname oldpw=oldpassword pw=newpassword

where you substitute the appropriate list name and replace "oldpassword" with your old password and "newpassword" with your desired password.

Once you have done this, you can access the web interfact by going to the following url:

http://lists.iparenting.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=listname

where you substitute the appropriate list name.

From this address you can read messages, post messages, change your settings or unsubscribe. List archives are also accessable from this page. For security reasons, you MUST be a member of the list and have a password in order to access this service.

12. Can I send an attachment (photo, video clip, etc.) to the list?

No – attachments and long files of ANY TYPE are strictly prohibited. Many people cannot read or view these files, and they take up a lot of space. Any file over a certain size will simply not go through the system. If you have a great photo or long file you think others would like to see, ask members to E-mail you privately to let you know they'd like it sent to them personally, or post it to a website and post the URL instead. Also, please set your mailer so that it does not send automatic attachments.

13. Can I use the words 'subscribe' and 'unsubscribe' in my posts?

No. To avoid the individual lists receiving erroneous 'subscribe' and 'unsubscribe' messages (among other commands intended for the list owner), the server will automatically pull all messages with commands in the body of the message. (This is not the correct way to subscribe or unsubscribe, and will result in a delayed response or no response at all. Similarly, your post may never make it to the list.) If you would like to ask if so-and-so is still subscribed to the list, please use asterisks in place of one of the letters of the offending word – such as "subscr*be".

14. Who's paying for these lists?

These lists are brought to you free of charge by iParenting.com – the premiere internet community for parents and parents-to-be – created to provide parents and parents-to-be with information, resources and inspiration during this unique time.

As well as participating in the Lists, we hope you will be a part of our community and visit the rest of our websites.

15. How can I find out find out who is on my list or get more help with List commands?

In order to combat spammers, we have disabled the "who" command, which made the e-mail addresses of all subscribers available to anyone. Each list should decide on a listmom. Once that is done, that person should E-mail webmaster@iparenting.com to register. Once that is completed, the listmom can receive a copy of the membership list at any time. Further instructions will be given at time of registration.

If you want to know more information about the list server, please E-mail webmaster@iparenting.com.

16. Important notes about list policy

These are privately-owned publicly accessible, unmoderated, community lists, and we expect list members to abide by common standards of decency and to refrain from explicit profanity, vulgarity, personal attacks and/or other inappropriate behavior. Things getting strange? Have a look at this humor piece: Lifecycle of a List.

The server administrators and/or list owners reserve the right to deny or revoke access to this or any other mailing list carried on these servers for any reason at the discretion of the list owners, including, but not limited to, gross violations of the above code of etiquette, reasons of privacy, security, and/or operation of any services offered at this site.

Only list members may post on the lists. No commercial or personal advertisements, solicitations, requests for interview subjects, chain letters, get-rick-quick schemes or virus warnings (most all of which are false or way out of date) may be posted to the list without express permission of iParenting, LLC. We agressively pursue spammers and advertisements are NOT ALLOWED. To legitimately advertise on iParenting, contact us at advertising@iparenting.com.

Messages posted on the lists may not be forwarded, quoted, copied or distributed without the express written permission of the author of the post.

For a complete list of community guidelines, click here.

17. Disclaimer

Statements and opinions expressed on the iParenting mailing lists are not necessarily those of iParenting, LLC. and should not be considered facts. iParenting, LLC offers these mailing lists and the information contained therein without warranty, express or implied, and accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of the material presented therein or any errors or omissions.