nvfslist FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about the Northern Virginia Fortune Seekers Email Mailing List
What is nvfslist?
Members of the Northern Virginia Fortune Seekers use "nvfslist," our mailing list,
- To keep in touch with each other,
- Keep track of when meetings occur,
- Share sweepstakes and contest URLs,
- Share contest answers,
- Give each other encouragement,
- Report wins
- And pass along sweepstakes and contest tips.
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Who can join?
Anyone is welcome to join, but the list is geared toward residents of Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Washington's Maryland suburbs.
- If you are an out-of-state member, this means you could receive some email of absolutely no use to you, such as:
- Notices of upcoming meetings
- Or news of local sweepstakes and contests not open to you.
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How much email will I receive?
List traffic is moderate, with members receiving as many as 40 email a day.
- If that's too much for you, try subscribing to the digest edition.
- As a digest subscriber, you'll receive all the previous day's mail compiled in one big message.
- One disadvantage is that if someone shares answers to a daily trivia contest, you may not receive it until the next day, when it's too late to enter.
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Are there any rules?
We're a pretty fun, informal group. We don't have many rules, but here they are:
- No personal insults or rude remarks.
- No virus alerts.
- There's plenty of information on them elsewhere.
- A lot of them are started by companies trying to scare people into buying their anti-virus software.
- No advertising. No get-rich-quick schemes. No MLM schemes. No chain letters.
- Keep non-sweepstakes email and chitchat down to a minimum.
- Don't use the list to recruit referrals or votes for contests you are running in.
- Please don't post contest answers or other information that you've gotten from other lists or other sources not available free to the general public without permission from the original sender.
- If you do get permission, credit the source and/or the original sender.
- As an example, you can say, "I got this from a friend of mine who posted it on alt.consumers.sweepstakes."
- Please don't post nvfslist mail or digests to any other list without permission from all the original senders.
- It seems like such a minor thing, but you have no idea what problems you can create -- what bad feelings you can touch off and what chain events you can set off. Just because someone shares something with nvfslist, that doesn't mean they wanted to share it with the world.
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What happens if I break a rule?
If you break a rule one of three things will happen depending on the severity of the situation:
- You will be immediately banned from the list with or without warning.
- Your posting privileges will be suspended with or without warning.
- You'll still receive list mail, but any further messages you send will be rejected.
- You will receive a polite email from the list moderator asking you to stop sending inappropriate email.
- If you do not, your posting privileges will be suspended or you will be banned from the list.
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How do I join?
If you agree to comply with these rules, join us! We run the list through the Egroups free email list service, and you can sign up by clicking here:
Subscribe to nvfslist
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How can I read the archives?
You can view our archives here:
View nvfslist Archives
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How can I switch from single messages to the digest version?
It's a lot easier than it looks.
- Send the list moderator an email requesting to be put on digest.
- Or do it yourself at the Egroups site.
- Go to the Egroups site.
- Fill in your email address, password and click on "Sign In."
- If you've forgotten your password:
- To the right of "nvfslist," click on the box that says "Individual Emails" and change it to "Daily Digest."
- That's it. It may take an hour or so for the switchover to take place.
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How can I stop nvfslist mail temporarily while on vacation?
It's easy.
- Send the list moderator an email requesting a temporary hold on your mail.
- Or do it yourself at the Egroups site.
- Fill in your email address, password and click on "Sign In."
- If you've forgotten your password:
- To the right of "nvfslist", click on the box that says "Individuals Emails" or "Daily Digest" and change it to "No Mail / Web Only."
- That's it. It may take an hour or so for the hold to become effective.
To turn your mail back on,
- Go through the whole process again, but this time change the box that says "No Mail / Web Only" to say "Individual Emails" or "Daily Digest."
- Or send the list moderator an email requesting that the hold be taken off your mail.
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How do I get off the list?
It's a lot easier than it looks.
- Send the list moderator an email requesting to be taken off the list.
- Or do it yourself at the Egroups site.
- Go to the Egroups site.
- Fill in your email address, password and click on "Sign In."
- If you've forgotten your password:
- To the right of "nvfslist," click on the box that says "Individual Emails" or "Daily Digest" and change it to "Unsubscribe."
- That's it. It may take an hour or so for the change to take place.
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Is there a way to subscribe, unsubscribe, switch to digest or switch back to single messages by email?
Yes. Send a blank email to:
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I've forgotten my Egroups password. What do I do now?
- Ask Egroups to send you a "reauthorization code," which will allow you to create a new password. Your reauthorization code should arrive by email in a few minutes.
- Sorry, but this is one area where the list moderator won't be able to help you. He or she has no way to find out your password.
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Why are the messages I send to nvfslist being rejected?
- If you're not a member of the list, your email to the list will always be rejected.
- If you are a member, make sure you are sending your message from the same email address you signed up with.
- If you signed up as "sweeper@winner.com," but you send a message from another account you have, say, "winner@yahoo.com" or "mywork@emailaddress.com," Egroups won't recognize who you are and will reject your message.
You can arrange things so that you can write messages from any or all of your email addresses, however.
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Can I send mail to nvfslist from more than one email account?
Yes. Here's how.
- The simplest thing to do would be to send the list moderator an email containing all of the email accounts you want to write from.
- If you want each email address to receive nvfslist mail, tell the moderator.
- If you DO NOT want to receive nvfslist mail at each address, tell the moderator to add your additional email addresses as "No Mail" addresses.
- You may get duplicate copies of the nvfslist "Welcome" message at each "No Mail" address, but that should be it. If you continue to get mail, notify the moderator.
- Or I suppose you could go the Egroups site, register each email address and set each to "No Mail," but that sounds like a pain to me.
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Someone posted a contest answer, but not the location of the contest itself. How do I find it?
Check this list. It might be here. Some contests are so well known among experienced sweepers that they may assume you've already bookmarked them. Or maybe they forgot. ... It's no big deal.
- The prizes for the following contests usually are pretty small, but they can be nice.
- If it isn't here, send a polite email to the sender or to the list asking for the URL.
- Be polite and ask nicely _ don't demand or criticize. Remember, list members are giving you answers out of generosity. They're not obligated to tell you anything.
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I've just figured out the correct answer to a daily trivia contest. I want to share, but it's nearly midnight, and there are only a few minutes left for others to enter. Should I bother to send it to nvfslist?
- Sure, why not? Somebody might see it in time to enter,
- But please include the correct day or date, so it's clear to everyone that they need to hurry.
- And thanks for making the extra effort to get it out.
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Hey! Somebody just sent a contest answer, but I only have a few minutes left to enter before the contest ends!
Then you'd better hurry, hadn't you?!
- Please don't complain or send an irate note pointing out the time the answer was sent.
- The sender probably was making a heroic, last-minute effort to get the answer to you.
- You should be thanking the sender, not complaining.
- If you miss the deadline, so what? Tomorrow's another day.
- Remember, list members are giving you answers out of generosity. They're not obligated to tell you anything, and they certainly don't have to tell you anything by any particular time of day.
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I've read this FAQ, but I still have a question.
Ask the list moderator at nvfslist-owner@egroups.com.
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