BAY DRUM FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

(Last updated 05/17/02 )

Greetings,

Welcome to BAY DRUM.... Our purpose here is for discussions and collaborations concerning issues that face the San Francisco Bay Area African American community.

Hopefully by using this forum as a means of intelligent discussion we will be able to address some of the problems that we face as a people. It is my main hope that this exchange will help make us aware of the problems that exist in our daily struggle for independence and growth. I hope that this group will also serve as a source of "information and inspiration". Feel free to post any articles, stories, poems, ideas etc. that you might feel that will be of interest to the group. In other words share knowledge for knowledge is indeed power............

You the user will set the direction of the discussions. I only have one request of the group and that is to remember that we meet here in the spirit of unity and peace. Please remember to give respect to all opinions offered and also to expect respect in return...

It is strongly recommended that all potential Bay Drum members check their employers or institutions policy concerning reception of outside mail in order to comply with those policies.

Please send request (add me, delete me, mail problems etc.) to the following address bay-drum-admin@tomato.com. 

Topics covered:

What is Bay Drum?

Bay Drum is an e-mail network (maillist) of S.F. Bay Area African-Americans on the Internet.

What is the purpose?

Its primary goal is sharing and disseminating information of interest to the African-American Internet community in the Bay Area of Northern California.

Why did I receive a copy of the Bay Drum FAQ?

You will receive a copy of the Bay Drum FAQ for one of the following reasons: The FAQ will also be sent to everyone on the maillist if the FAQ has been updated with new information. Check the FAQ index for the subjects that have the (NEW) or (UPDATED) prefix.

How may people subscribe to Bay Drum?

Over 1500

How Does Bay Drum work?

At the central site is a list of the electronic mail addresses of all Bay Drum members including your own. When you send a message to the Bay Drum address (Bay-Drum@tomato.com) it goes to the central site where the membership list resides and then your message gets copied and sent to each member on the list. The distribution of messages to the membership list is automated.

What are some Drum rules?

Bay Drum pretty much operates on an honor system. That means that we trust that all Bay Drum members abide by implicit rules of common courtesy, respect and politeness to other Bay Drum members. However, there are a few explicit rules that must be remembered.

Rule 1:

You must not engage in any activity, directly or indirectly, that may put another Bay Drum member at any kind of risk because of their participation or membership on the Bay Drum.

Rule 2:

You must not provide, directly or indirectly, articles posted to Bay Drum to a third party if doing so will put any Bay Drum member at risk. A third party is defined as a person, or persons, or an entity, or entities that is, or are not on the Bay Drum membership list.

Rule 3:

If you provide Bay Drum article(s) to any non-Bay Drum member, it must be in accordance with Rule 1, Rule 2, and the non-Bay Drum member must be a person or persons that you have known personally. In addition, you must make the non-Bay Drum member receiving the article(s) aware of Rules 1, 2, 3. No further distribution of Bay Drum article(s) by a non- Bay Drum member is permitted. A Bay Drum member retains paramount distribution rights to articles he or she posts on Bay Drum.

What type of messages are NOT allowed on Bay Drum?

Certain types of messages are inappropriate on Bay Drum. These include: Also do not post "computer/e-mail virus" messages to Bay Drum. Forward these messages to the administrator for validation. The vast majority of these messages are hoaxes and chain letters.

"Test" messages are also not allowed on Bay Drum. Contact the administrator if you have a concern regarding the transmission of messages sent to Bay Drum.

If I own or represent a business, can I advertise my business on the Bay Drum website and maillist?

Bay Drum provides the CIP (Community Information Pages) which is a web based listing of African American business in the Bay Area and beyond.  You can be listed in the CIP for FREE.  (click here for more information).

Bay Drum also also provides a maillist which is used for the interactive transfer of e-mail messages between Bay Drum members.  Business owners and business owner representatives can post ads/commercials to the maillist as long as the number of unsolicited ads/commercial do not exceed two (2) per month.  Any Bay Drum member violating this policy risks their membership to Bay Drum.  Business owners and  business owner representatives may respond to genuine requests about their business or service and these responses will not be counted as "unsolicited ads/commercials".

If I promote parties or events, can I advertise these events on the Bay Drum website and maillist?

Bay Drum provides the Events Calendar which is a web based listing of African American events in the Bay Area and beyond.  Send event submission to the Bay Drum Administrator at least 2 week in advance of the event.

Bay Drum also also provides a maillist which is used for the interactive transfer of e-mail messages between Bay Drum members.  Promoters (which includes marketing organizations) can post repeat announcements to the maillist as long as the number of unsolicited repeat announcements do not exceed two (2) per week .  Any Bay Drum member violating this policy risks their membership to Bay Drum.  Promoters may respond to genuine requests about an event and these responses will not be counted as "unsolicited repeat announcements".

Is there a subscription fee?

NO!

How many e-mail messages does Bay Drum generate in one day?

Usually 10 to 40 messages per day are generated on Bay Drum. But that limit could be exceeded if major issues or hot topics are being discussed.

What is the Bay Drum Digest?

The Bay Drum Digest is a separate maillist for those who prefer to receive no more than 4 Bay Drum e-mail messages per day. The Bay Drum Digest is generated at 7:30, 11:30, 3:30 and 6:30 every weekday (though you may receive it up to .5 to 1.5 hours later due to the amount of time required to deliver it to each member). One digest message contains multiple Bay Drum messages. Contact the administrator if you want to receive the digest.

How can I contact the administrator?

If you have any requests, questions or comments for the Bay Drum administrator you should send your message to the following address: Most requests will be handled within 10 working days.

How do I subscribe or unsubscribe?

DO NOT send subscribe or unsubscribe requests to the main Bay Drum list!! Use the administrators addresses for such requests. Request MUST include the following:

How do I post information to the Bay Drum Community?

To send a message to the Bay Drum alias you must compose your message and place the following address in the "TO:" field: This will cause your message to be distributed to everyone on the Bay Drum alias list.

If you wish to reply (or respond) to a message that was posted on Bay Drum make sure that the above address is in the "TO:" field. If you simply reply to the message, your reply will be address ONLY to the original sender, NOT to the Bay Drum alias.

Do I have to be a Bay Drum subscriber to post?

Yes. Bay Drum is a private maillist and only Bay Drum subscribers can post to the maillist. Messages sent to the maillist from non-subscribers are redirected to the administrator. The purpose of this is to prevent SPAM and other unsolicited e-mail being sent to Bay Drum subscribers via the Bay Drum maillist.

I was subscribed to Bay Drum but I have not received anything for the last 4-5 days?

This typically happens when your electronic mail system rejects (or "bounces") Bay Drum mail sent to your e-mail address.  This typically happens when your mailbox exceeds its storage quota.   If mail sent to your address bounces for more than 2-3 days, your e-mail address will be removed from the Bay Drum maillist and you will have to request to be re-added.

I am subscribed to Bay Drum but it appears that I don't get all the messages.

This could happen for a variety of reasons:

I can receive Bay Drum message but I don't see any of my messages when I attempt to post?

This typically happen when your e-mail service provider changes your outbound e-mail address. This happens in most cases where your company, educational institution, organization or ISP changes their e-mail software or changes the way their customers/employees are represented (For example your outbound e-mail address may change from JRobinson@homerun.dodger.com to Jackie_Robinson@dodger.com). In the majority of cases your old e-mail address still works if someone wants to send a message to you. Since Bay Drum is a private maillist it checks your outbound e-mail address to verify that you are a member. If your new e-mail address has not been registered you will appear as a non-subscriber and your message will not be posted to Bay Drum.

Note to Microsoft Network (MSN) subscribers: Because of technical issues between MSN and the Bay Drum service, MSN subscribers can receive Bay Drum messages but cannot post to Bay Drum.  As an alternative MSN subscribers who wish to post to Bay Drum should obtain a web based e-mail account (Yahoo, hotmail, Netscape, etc.) and register this account along with you MSN account.  All of your future postings should be done from your web based e-mail account and not from your MSN account.

Under what circumstances will the administrator request to have a discussion taken "offline"?

Bay Drum is a forum for discussion and the sharing of information. In some rare situations the administrator will request that a discussion be taken "offline". Basically this means that those involved in the discussion should correspond among themselves and discontinue including the Bay Drum e-mail address in the "To:" or "Cc:" fields of their messages.

Discussions could be requested to be taken offline for some of the following reasons:

What is the Community Information Pages (CIP)?

The CIP is a directory of small businesses and services owned by African-Americans, Churches, Organizations and Publications in the Bay Area of Northern California. The CIP can be accessed via the Bay Drum World Wide Web Home page.

If you have an entry to add, or delete, from this CIP, please send an e-mail message to the following address:

What is the Bay Drum Classifieds?

The Bay Drum Classifieds is a free service for the posting of classified advertisements.  The Bay Drum Classifieds can be accessed via the Bay Drum World Wide Web Home page.

Does Bay Drum have a World Wide Web Home Page?

Bay Drum as a World Wide Web Home Page and it is located at http://baydrum.com/. The Bay Drum Home page contains the CIP, a Bay Area Events Listing, Career Information, Inspirational messages,  Classified listings, and Community Service Announcements  and links to other World Wide Web information sources .
Contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Best regards,
Fred J. Love Jr.
Bay Drum Admin. ( Bay-Drum-Admin@tomato.com)
 
 

For any questions, comments, requests or complaints contact the administrator by sending a message to bay-drum-admin@tomato.com 

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