
Node: Policy, Previous: (INFO;SYSMSG)Top, Up: (INFO;SYSMSG)Top, Next: (INFO;SYSMSG)Sending

(The above lines make this file accessible through :INFO.  Please leave
them alone.)

These guidelines about where to send which system-wide messages are the
consensus of opinion of AI and LCS staff, based on years of experience of
what kinds of messages people send.  Since these staff people are the
official MIT users of the computers the messages are sent on, everyone who
sends a system-wide message -- this means YOU -- should follow the
guidelines.

System-wide messages fall into two categories: System Messages (sysmsgs)
and Bulletin Board messages (BBoard).  Sysmsgs can be split into further
categories according to which computers should receive them.

The sysmsg addresses are for messages of general interest only.  These
include official Lab announcments, listings of Lab seminars, machine
maintenance schedules, announcements about the Dover, questions of GENERAL
interest to computer scientists, and similar things.

All other messages intended for system-wide distribution, including
requests for information, job offers, housing searches, political
pronouncements, and other material of that nature, should go to the BBoard.
Messages relating to "personal profit", such as messages offering household
goods for sale, are frowned upon by the DCA (they run the ARPANET), but if
you can't restrain yourself from sending such a message, it should also go
to the BBoard.

Good relations among users of the Labs' computers rely in part on people
not being inundated with junk mail; system messages which go to
inappropriate addresses are junk mail.  Please think before you send your
system-wide messages, and use consideration and discretion in addressing
them.

What follows is a list of addresses with descriptions of which machines
they direct messages to.  Send your message to the correct address at any
ITS, e.g. *MAC@ML, to make it go where you want it to.  Send to the address
at only ONE ITS (which one doesn't matter -- *MIT@MC = *MIT@AI, and so
forth), or people will see many duplicates of your message, which can only
make them angry at you.

    *MAC	The right address for reaching all AI and LCS members who
		use computers.  Use this, not *ITS or *TENS, for things
		like Lab seminar info.  This list now includes all four
		ITSs, OZ, XX, HT-VAX, and the RTS VAX; as the
		Labs acquire more machines that can receive mail, they will
		be added to *MAC.

    *MIT	Everywhere at MIT that can hear -- all of *MAC, plus CIPG,
		DSPG, EE, Multics, also an address at CMU so that lonely
		former MIT people out there can see what's going on.  (As
		more mail-server machines are added to the ChaosNet, they
		will join this list.)  Use this address for messages of
		general interest to the MIT community, like Dover info
		(which even Multics can use).

    BBOARD	These are the same address; use either.  Unless your
    *BBOARD	message is important to most of the people gathered in one
		of the above or below addresses (see the beginning of this
		file for specifications of "important"), send it here.
		This list includes all the *MIT sites, but users can choose
		whether to read these messages.

Unless your message relates to a particular machine or kind of machine (or
program on same), you probably want to use one of the above lists.  The
rest, which follow, are more special-purpose; send sysmsgs to them only
when your message clearly should go to only their constituent machines.

    *		On any ITS, becomes a sysmsg on just that machine.

    *AI, *MC	Becomes a sysmsg on just that particular ITS.  Use these or
    *ML, *DM	* (above) for a sysmsg affecting only one ITS, like disk
		maintenance.

    *ITS	Goes only to the four ITSs, listed above.  Use if your
		message relates only to ITSs, for instance a new ITS
		version; otherwise you probably want *MAC or *MIT.

    *VX		Goes just to the RTS VAX.

    *HT         Goes just to HTVAX.

    *XX		These are the same address.
    Forum@XX	They go just to XX, the LCS Twenex.

    *EE		These are the same address.
    Forum@EE	They go just to the EECS Dept. Twenex.

    *OZ		These are the same address.  They go just to OZ, the AI Lab
    System@OZ	Twenex, and are for important (see above) msgs only.

    Forum@OZ	For BBoard msgs to OZ.

    *TENS	The most unlikely address.  This goes to the four ITSs, XX,
		OZ, and EE, but NOT the Vaxen or the RTS 11.  Unless your
		message relates only to PDP-10s and DEC-20s, you probably
		want *MAC or *MIT.
