Chem 334 - Fall 1998 - Organic Chemistry I
Portland State University - Dr. Carl C. Wamser


The Class Discussion List

What's our Class Discussion List?

An e-mail discussion list (or list server) distributes e-mail to everyone on the list. Everyone in the class should sign up and will be a member of the list. (see below for sign-up instructions)

The discussion list will be called CH334-L for all three terms this year (Chem 334, 335 & 336).


What's the benefit?

Think of the Discussion List as open office hours, always available to drop off questions or comments to me or to your fellow students.

I also use it to post announcements like unexpected changes in the schedule, and you may use it to post requests like checking out whether anyone is interested in setting up a study group for a particular time or place.

Finally, the list will be used to distribute at least one of the quizzes.


How do I sign up?

1) Log on to your usual location for sending and receiving e-mail.

The ListServer computer will automatically extract your e-mail address from wherever you send the "subscribe" message. Therefore, this should NOT be from a web page on a campus computer (where you might be reading this now), but could be from a campus computer logged in to your odin or other e-mail account or from your home e-mail account - wherever you plan to send and receive your e-mails on a regular basis.

2) Send an e-mail to the ListServer at the following e-mail address:

majordomo@lists.pdx.edu

3) Leave the subject field blank. In the message field there should be only one line:

subscribe CH334-L your real name

For example, when I signed on, I wrote:

subscribe CH334-L Carl C. Wamser

Every class seems to get several people signed up with the name "Carl C. Wamser" or even more interesting, "your real name". Please remember to use your real name in the message at the spot for "your real name".

4) You should receive an e-mail message back very soon asking you to confirm that you do wish to be added; it's also the computer's way of checking that it really got your e-mail address right.

5) Use the "reply" function to send back this message, simply saying OK in the message field.

6) Finally, you will get another message confirming that you have been added to the list, along with a summary of instructions for proper use of the list.

7) When you have something to send to the list the address is different:

to post to the List: CH334-L@lists.pdx.edu

To keep this straight, remember that "majordomo" is the name of the computer in charge and "CH334-L" is the name of our discussion list. Once you sign on, you shouldn't need to e-mail to "majordomo" again.


Should I send e-mail to Dr. Wamser or to the Discussion List?

to e-mail to Dr. Wamser: WamserC@pdx.edu

to post to the List:
CH334-L@lists.pdx.edu

If your message is private or could only be of interest to you, send an e-mail to me.

If your message could be of interest to another member of the class, I strongly encourage you to post it to the list. If it is a question for me, I will answer it on the list, and everyone will have the benefit of your message, and my answer. I encourage you to imagine that nearly anything of interest to you as a student in this class probably is of interest to someone else in the class.

Depending on the traffic on the discussion list and the nature of the messages, I may not respond to all messages that appear there. I encourage other class members to contribute answers, even if I was the one asked the question.