iDance e-mail
list - introduction
How - To
- Listserver Info Page - sign up there
- Experienced Listserver User page
Island Dance list
What?, and a wee bit of Why & How?
This web site
is an information node or collection site -- for
Country/Contry & Folk dance -- for Vancouver Island &
neighbouring islands
There is an associated Island Dance e-mail listserver. It is a shared effort community mailing list
Why a mailing list? What is it for?
For dancers & musicians to get the word about events, help out with dances, discuss; For organisers to . . . organise!; For callers, musicians, to book gigs, etc. In other words, connections, communication, introductions, passing of information related to country and/or folk dance. All about going dancing!
E-mail, not dead yet
If you use "social media" (e.g. FaceBook), fine. Not everyone does, or can. While functional, they are not ubiquitous, nor universal. E-mail is. Remember the people you'd like to have fun with? Whether dancing with at your social Country dance or enjoying the performance of your Folk dance, they likely still have access to e-mail, effectively the first (electronic, textual) "social media"
As much as anything, this is about use of one communication tool to assist with forming connections amongst enthusiasts of different and related dance forms, their music, and interests
On Topic!
Please feel free to post. The list owner (JDE) wishes you to post about dance & dance music. It may be an announcement, a trip report, ride request, offerings, questions about how to get to a dance camp, a new dance you've found, a new web page you've found, etc. Anyone with knowledge may reply, the beauty of using a list
This means that much dance related activity on the Islands is On Topic. Please keep it reasonably regional for events, many folks will wish to see a somewhat focused mention of Country or Folk dance (and it's music) than much else. That said if you plan to travel to a distant dance camp and are offering a seat or looking for co-riders feel free to send that message
Off Topic
Jokes (about other than about dance) are Off Topic. As are chain letters, motivational posts, virus warnings from your best friend,political, religious or economic, ecology/natural environment posts (unless there's a dance!) are all OT. Putting OT in the subject line won't excuse this, just don't send it
Dance stuff? You bet, why we're all here
Post folk related music-only events on Island Folk, hosted by VFMS (est. 1999)
What is a listserver?
It uses e-mail to get the word around. To allow people to announce,
discuss, otherwise communicate and so on. A listserver is usually given
over to message
traffic of a single group or purpose, though this may sometimes be very
narrow in focus or sometimes broader
Isn't this old fashioned?
No. While e-mail was indeed the one of the first interpersonal uses of the nascent Internet (and it's precursors) it is still the most universal means of electronic, textual communication. It is ubiquitous and uses technical standards that are larger than any single "social media" service. It functions outside of any "walled garden" ecosystem. It is a form of one-to-one or one-to-many social media
At it's simplest, imagine a fax machine that has a memory dialer. One may place a page to be faxed on it, select a Group of memories for it to dial and deliver the fax. It will then call each number and deliver the fax. With an e-mail listserver one does much the same thing, send an e-mail to the Input (or Posting) Address, it spits the message out to all the subscribed folks. That input address may only be used by those subscribed
How do I sign up?
One may visit the Detailed Help or Experienced list user page on this site for more guidance and information (at least one visit is recommended) or one may visit the list info page to sign-up
If in doubt
simply write to the Webmaster
and ask them
to add you. If you've put your name on a paper list at a dance you'll
either be added or receive an invitation message shortly
Our Sponsor (VTN aka VIFA)
The computer services supporting the operation of this list are
provided to the community by the Victoria Telecommunities
Network (AKA Victoria Freenet Association). Please consider supporting
them with a membership/e-mail account (only $25/yr) or the business of
hosting your web site http://victoria.tc.ca/
(a site, all up, 12 mo. & registered domain name ~
$112. They also offer a wireless broadband service)
