Hi folks,

A belated HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is a long overdue posting I've been meaning to send for a long time.
However, time and circumstance hasn't enabled me to, and I'm really sorry for
the silence.  However, I must say a big "THANK YOU" to the many people who have
through their various efforts (publicly and behind the scenes) have ensured
that Gambia-L continues to grow and prosper.  Besides, to paraphrase an
anecdote I read somewhere about an unusually quiet town, why talk if you can't
improve on the silence?

I would like to take this opportunity to discuss a few administrative issues
about Gambia-L.  First, please use list's Web interface at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html to subscribe or
unsubscribe.  Select the option "Join or leave the list" to either request a
subscription, or unsubscribe from the list.  To make matters even easier for
you, I'd suggest you add the link
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?SUBED1=gambia-l&A=1 to your bookmarks
(if you use Netscape) or favorites (if you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer).

Even though some subscribers insist on sending subscription requests to the
list, the practice is not foolish, because such requests will go unanswered.
The reason for this is simple.  All Gambia-L postings are archived and there is
no point in people sending in requests that are of no concern to any of the
other Gambia-L subscribers.  Besides, we share our server at St. Johns with a
many other lists (http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/index.html, and so it
is our responsibility to ensure that we do not abuse the hospitality by filling
up the disk space with un-necessary postings.

May I also point out the St. Johns Univ. have upgraded to Listserv 1.8d, thus
enabling them to provide a much more user-friendly interface to the list
archives.  A visit to the Gambia-L archives at the above address will show the
new features of Listserv, and I encourage all of you to check it out to make
yourself familiar with the system.

Click on a particular month (e.g. Feb. 2000) to see postings for that month.
You can access all available commands by clicking on the icons on top of the
page of listings for that month's postings.  For those who are not very
familiar with these things, I would like to inform you that if you place your
cursor over an icon (without clicking your mouse), you will see a description
of the icon's function in a box just below the bar, and also in your browsers
status window (at the bottom of the page).

A number of people have complained about, (and even unsubscribed from the list
because of), the fact that Gambia-L generates a lot of postings everyday.  This
high volume of postings can be discouraging to many who have slow connections,
small disk storage spaces, and/or simply don't have time to download all the
traffic that comes from Gambia-L.

A partial solution to the problem (for some people) of the heavy traffic on the
list is to change your subscription to a digest mode.  A digest of the list is
nothing but a collection of all daily postings on the list sent out as one
file.  Thus, when you change your subscription to a digest mode, you will get
only one e-mail a day from Gambia-L.  The list server collects all postings
sent to the list until thea given daythe option to changeon one particular
topic

You can change your subscription option from a regular to digest delivery (and
vice versa) by going to the "Join or leave the list" page I referenced above.
Please note that you can click on the various options available to get help on
how what the choices mean.  For example, if you click on "Subscription type",
you will get a detailed description of the difference between the DIGEST and
REGULAR delivery options, as well as the different types of digests.

Another issue I would like to discuss concerns the size of postings, and
attachments.  Please note that not all subscribers are capable of handling
attachments.  For this reason, I suggest you send a Web address of a document
or resource you would like to inform us about, rather than attaching it.  This
not only reduces the use of storage space on our server, it will also save you
the trouble of worrying about copyright infringements and such issues.
Furthermore, when sending a Web address, please send the full address, as in
http://www.sambang.com/afele.html  The reason for such a format is that
subscribers with HTML-enabled browsers can click on the link, and be
immediately transferred to the site.  On the other and, those with browsers
that are not HTML-enable can always type the address in the browser and access
the site.

Still along the lines of saving on storage space, I would like to remind us all
that you don't need to quote an entire posting for people to know what you are
replying to.  Please make sure that you remove most, if not all of the posting
you are replying to before sending your reply to the list.  It is enough to
include the headers (From, To, Date, Subject, etc.) of a posting, along with
the first few lines of the body (the message itself) in your reply to the list.
 Better yet, you can refer to the posting you are replying to by means of a
link to the Gambia-L archives.  A simple way of picking up these links is to
open the archive of the posting on Gambia-L, and then copy it's link (displayed
in your browser's top window) into your reply to the posting.  For exampe, to
copy the link to a recent posting by Omar Drammeh, I'd open it, and copy the
link to it:
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0002&L=gambia-l&F=&S=&P=17972  If
all else fails, just refer to the posting by the name of the author, and date.

Etiquette, or lack of it, is an issue that we discuss once in a while.  The
Internet is a powerful tool, with numerous uses, but it can also be abused.
This is especially so given that as we type our messages to the list, all we
see is a computer screen, and so it can be really tough to see the other
person, or persons that will be the recipients of what we send.  Be that as it
may, I will implore all of us to continue to excercise caution and restraint in
our postings.  To be sure, we will once in a while get upset with people, but
that should not prevent us from being responsible enough to work out our
differences, and move on.

Two classic examples of the kind of thing I'm talking about are the recent
exchanges between Charlotte Vaillant
(http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0001&L=gambia-l&P=56678), and
Sidi Sanneh
(http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0001&L=gambia-l&P=58010) about a
job offer from the EIU.  The exchange attracted just 5 postings, and ended in a
classy posting from Mr. Sanneh:
(http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0001&L=gambia-l&P=59618).
Despite all the bitterness and rancour, a recent posting from Ebou Colly also
brought out the best from the likes of Sulayman Bajo
(http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0002&L=gambia-l&F=&S=&P=2884).
I'm not saying that we won't find ourselves exchanging harsh words again, but
I'm sure we can use the above, and many other examples to show us how best to
handle these situations.

I would like to end this with a brief reference to the article in the "The
Independent" newspaper, expressing concern about bad language that was being
used on Gambia-L. I totally agreed with their concern, and would have written
to say so, in addition to expressing my thoughts on related issues.  However, a
number of Gambia-L subscribers have written to express their views on the
article, and the "The Independent" editors have also followed-up by
acknowledging their concerns.  At this point, I have nothing to add to the
debate, and would like to thank everybody for the maturity they brought to it.

I guess that's about all for now.  But before I would wrap this up, I would
like to thank all of you for sharing and exchanging information, and helping
each other out.  I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the Gambia-L
volunteer managers, past (Latjor Ndow, Adbou Touray, Malanding Jaiteh) and
present (Momodou Camara, Sarian Loum, Dr. Amadou Janneh, and Anthony Loum) for
their behind-the-scenes support in running this list.

I wish you all a HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR, and all the best in your
endeavors.

Sincerely,

Katim
[log in to unmask]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------